What is the purpose of this team? / What do you do for VP?
The Bloggers make all kinds of blogs, you can find them on the [BloggerTeam] account and in members personal blogs on their profile.

Blogs can be about almost anything, though they should be at least 200 words long and they obviously have to follow VP rules. The team is divided into two groups, a group with writers and a group with layouters. I’m a layouter so I don’t write blogs, though I think that we have a lot of writers with different interests and together they write blogs about literally anything and everything.

With the blogs being so diverse, you’re always learning something new. From history to myths to important nowadays subjects to monuments and places to sports to art to fun facts, anything really. I think this is really interesting, because if you aren’t really interested in this week’s blog, you might find a subject you’re really into the next.

Before the month starts everyone usually picked a week in which they want to work on a blog. This way a writer and layouter are paired up. This is for the blogs on the BloggerTeam account, ideally we make one blog a week on here. However sometimes that doesn’t work out, like right now we are just a few people short to really make that work. So hopefully after the applications and bootcamp those spots will be filled up again!

The writer sends the text of the blog by Thursday to the layouter so they can make a layout. As a layouter you have to consider that you have to spend a few hours in the weekend of your chosen week, working on a layout. You can’t really work ahead because the size of the layout is going to depend on the amount of text, because we don’t have HTML to code text boxes. Though in my experience there is always enough time to finish the layout. As a writer you may have a bit more room to start early.

Anything else you can share about what goes on behind the scenes that maybe isn't too obvious?
So we make blogs on the BloggerTeam account, but there’s more. The writers are divided into two groups and one month group A makes a blog for the BloggerTeam and group B makes a blog on their personal account. The next month the roles are reversed. Layouters always help with the blogs on the BloggerTeam account and sometimes with personal blogs as well, but their focus is on the BloggerTeam account.

If you’re not really keeping tabs on the team, it may be a little confusing to keep track of who is a layouter and who is a writer, but even so it may be worth your time to check one of the bloggers personal blogs as well. You might find some good stuff there.

What are the requirements for a member of this team?
As a writer you usually make a blog once a month and as a layouter you make a layout once a month. Apart from that we don’t have any other requirements like age or something. Even if you’ve never blogged before and you want to start, you can just apply when there are applications.

How much work and time do each member have to put into this team?
How much time blogging costs is really up to you I guess, as a writer it really depends on how quick and how much research you do and how much time you take for writing. For layouters it’s going to cost you more time the more text you have to work with. Overall it’s my experience that it’s usually just a few hours work, though I kind of always assume the writers work longer on blogs because research can be really time consuming. I never really asked how much time everyone spends on blogs though, so it’s just me assuming.

What should you know / prepare for if you aspire to become a member of this team?
Since we don’t have any requirements, you could just apply and see how it works out. After applying we have a bootcamp, we select the best applicants and let them work together to make a blog. This way we can see how people work together and how they are as a person. The best way to prepare is probably to practice your writing if you want to be a writer or your editing skills if you want to be a layouter.