Today we’d like to introduce you to Ciera Reeves.
Hi Ciera, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I have always been a writer since I was young. When I was in the 2nd grade of elementary school, I won my first writing award as a regional Celebrated Writer for my grade. Throughout my teenage years, I spent a lot of time writing original stories with characters I had created.
However, for some reason, I never considered writing as a career choice. When I was in college, I changed my major several times, but eventually settled into English. It clicked that English made the most sense for me, as I was already actively writing online for an international music blog that I co-founded with a friend as a hobby in 2009.
Eventually, in 2013 the blog was noticed by a popular Asian media streaming site that is no longer with us called Dramafever, and I was asked to write articles for them. This is where I began to have some experience writing for larger media outlets. I started working full-time in marketing agencies producing content for businesses with eCommerce stores while writing for other K-pop and Korean entertainment websites as a hobby. Eventually, I made the leap to dedicate time to creating my own entertainment publication centering around K-pop music, so that I could write about any K-pop artists I wanted without being concerned with the metrics that very well-known artists give.
Fast forward a couple of years later, my publication KpopWise.com has garnered attention from music industry people, fans, and entertainment companies and we’ve worked on some wonderful collaborations. We have an international staff who produce great quality content such as editorials, news, concert coverage, and artist interviews. I am proud of how much the outlet has grown and the opportunities we have gotten as well as the opportunities my staff has gotten because of their work with KpopWise.
I hope to continue growing the platform as much as possible and to continue promoting artists who would otherwise get less attention from the international K-pop fandom.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
Since I started KpopWise by myself, it wasn’t easy taking the leap to create the platform, design it, maintain it, and be consistent in creating content. Sure it is easy enough to purchase domain space and start writing, however, if you want to see any growth, consistency is key. You have to be a self-starter and have the drive to keep producing good-quality content that people want to see or find useful on a regular basis. I had to figure out how to balance my work and personal life while also factoring in this platform. That’s just the beginning though, there are plenty of other challenges such as; Language barriers. The majority of our content is about South Korean artists, I personally do not speak fluent Korean, and we don’t always have staff who can translate, so I put extra work into translating news articles and communicating with K-pop artists’ agencies as a non-fluent person.
Another challenge is social media growth and engagement, right now it is okay, but I want to keep growing bigger. I would like our social media channels to reflect the stats that our website receives because I believe that would help expose more people to more artists, that we feature on our website. Finally, another challenge that I am currently facing is the desire to earn enough revenue from the brand to pay staff a salary. KpopWise is run by an array of talented volunteer staff, Although they get cool opportunities and experience on their resume, I would love to be able to provide monetary compensation for their work as well.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Founded in 2020 KpopWise was started with the idea to cover K-pop artists who aren’t covered as much as other artists on more prominent outlets. noticed there are many good K-pop artists who never get the same spotlight as artists from large entertainment companies. So, I wanted to provide an inclusive outlet for them as well. KpopWise also provides a place for aspiring journalists to write about K-pop music. Many of our journalists have gone on to find placement in large and well-known publications with the work they’ve done with KpopWise.
From 2021 until now, we have covered over 30 K-pop concerts and events with our reviews and photography and have interviewed over 50 artists.
Please check out KpopWise for news, editorials, and interviews about Asian entertainment, concert photography, giveaways, and more! If you are a singer, songwriter, dancer, producer, filmmaker, K-pop store owner, and beyond feel free to contact us about collaboration opportunities.
What was your favorite childhood memory?
I mentioned before about being a “Celebrated Writer” as a kid. One of my favorite childhood memories is writing a story about my childhood pet which was a cockatiel bird in the 2nd grade. The story won an award and there was a ceremony that my parents attended.
Pricing:
- Website Ad Space – $ 100 per month
Contact Info:
- Website: http://kpopwise.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/kpopwise_official
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/kpopwise/
- Twitter: twitter.com/kpopwise
- Youtube: youtube.com/@kpopwise
Image Credits
Photos by Joannie Betancourt, Sam Lee, Aly Lee and Ciera Reeves for KpopWise
