Where Are They Now?

The first annual Blogging While Brown (BWB) Conference was held in 2008 at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta. It was the first international conference for, by, and about bloggers of color. Two years later BWB has grown to become the premier blogging conference dedicated to collaboration, education, and innovation among bloggers of color and is set to host its largest conference to date in Washington, DC.

As we look forward to BWB 2010 we will take a look back at some the past conference attendees and presenters in a featured titled, “Where Are They Now.”

This week BWB focuses the lens on blogger, entrepreneur, photographer, and graphic designer Angel Laws.

Angel is the 25 year old creator and editor of the award-winning blog Concrete Loop. She started this blog in 2005, because she could no longer stand the absence of popular culture blogs aimed at the Black demographic. The blog has seen tremendous success since its launch, and today receives more than 500,000 visitors a day.

At BWB 2009, in Chicago, Angel lead a panel titled, Bloggerpreneurs. This panel demonstrated how bloggers could monetize their blogs to increase capital.

“Concrete Loop focuses predominately on black entertainment with attention to detail and a graphic design flare,” says Angel. Her personal motto is, “Quality not Quantity" and she applies that successfully to her blogging.

Apart from blogging at Concrete Loop, Angel keeps a personal blog scrapbook at Angel on Fire, which she updates regularly with anything and everything close to her heart.

In Angel’s opinion, the BWB conference is a valuable and important event because, “It's a great place to meet other people in your profession.” According to Angel, blogging can be a very isolating experience. However, attending BWB makes it possible to meet other bloggers and that is terrific opportunity. Angel believes that learning new things, getting advice and networking with fellow bloggers makes attending the BWB well worth it.

From a personal perspective, Angel admits that she learned some new and highly beneficial organizational techniques while attending BWB. She also learned that there are many different ways to achieve blogging success.

Angel predicts that the state of the Black blogosphere, which is already quite developed and high in quality, will only get better in the years to come.

Angel is currently busy trying to make Concrete Loop even more successful, mainly by working on branding and employing more staff. She is also refocusing and revamping her personal blog, Angel on Fire. Being the creator of one of the leading Black entertainment blogs on the Internet Angel certainly knows the formula for success and there is no doubt that she will only get better with time.

You can follow Concrete Loop on Twitter at @ConcreteLoop.

By Aminah Hanan and Vanja Kovacic