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Posts with tag: blognetworks | Return to BloggersBlog.com Homepage
Calacanis Forecasts Blog Network Doom
Jason Calacanis, the CEO of Weblogs, Inc., has a post with his predictions for 2006. One of his forecasts has 60% of the blog networks folding by the end of the year.
30 of the 50 blog networks will fizzle out and/or die. Only one or two (other than Gawker) will break 20M pages a month. The blog network space is just way too crowded, and if you can't go big at this point you're gonna have a real hard time doing a *real* network (say 20 blogs or more). Now, you'll do just fine if you stay focused on a narrow niche that you can own.
Calacanis doesn't say which 50 networks he is referring to but most of the existing independent blog networks just recently launched and will probably give it at least a year. It may be 2007 before there is much consolidation. What is more likely is that more networks will launch. A lot of newspapers are also launching blog networks and several already have 20+ blogs. As we mentioned earlier the AJC is approaching 50 blogs in its network. In 2006 we will see just how big newspaper blog networks will get. Will the average newspaper blog network size be 25? 50? 100? Will every newspaper have a network with as many blogs as Gawker Media or Weblogs, Inc.? How many will the New York Times and MSNBC.com have? These are the questions that will be answered next year. A list of independent and MSM blog networks can be found here.
Posted on December 23, 2005
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BlogMedia Relaunches BlogNetworkList.com
BlogMedia, Inc. has relaunched the BlogNetworkList.com website. The website says "It's our goal to be the most comprehensive source of metrics and analysis for the blog network world" and they appear to be well on their way
to achieving this goal. The new website includes analysis of over fifty blog networks and the blogs in them with data from Technorati, Yahoo, Google and eventually Alexa. The Technorati data for some of the blogs is not pulling in at present. They may need to manually input some default numbers for times when there are problems with the various APIs. Since they like crunching numbers at BlogMedia they could also include Bloglines subscribers since that information is public. Overall, it is a very interesting collection of data that will keep bloggers and blog network owners busy perusing it from time to time.
Note: We also provide a list of blog network links that is primarily an alphabetical link list -- there is no analysis of traffic data like on BlogNetworkList.com. Unlike BlogNetworkList.com we have also included the growing number of MSM blog networks. Technically speaking, Weblogs, Inc., which is owned by AOL, is listed on BlogNetworkList.com -- and this is where the gray area between blog networks and the mainstream media begins.
Posted on December 6, 2005
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Blog Network Pros and Cons for Bloggers
There are lots of bloggers looking into the possibility of joining blog
networks these days so here are a few pros and cons about joinging blog networks for bloggers to consider.
Possible Pros:
Income potential: Salaried, fixed freelance payment or based on a
percentage of ad revenues. A salaried or freelance blogging job is
likely to pay more than one based on a percentage of ad revenues.
Increase in traffic from the network should result in a higher readership
for the blogger.
Tech support for improving blog design, graphics and programming.
The blogger might be able to use the traffic from the blog network blog to increase traffic to one of their own personal blogs.
Easy for the blogger to find guest bloggers from within the network to cover for them if they are sick, vacationing, etc.
Possibility for the blogger to become well-known which could lead to other
income possibilities such as a book deal (there have been a few of
these) or other blogging jobs.
Possible Cons:
Blogger may lose electronic, print, film rights, etc (depending on the terms).
Blogger may not have ownership of the blog or the blog domain name.
Advertising and revenue opportunities are controlled by the blog network.
Blogger has to follow the rules of the network.
Blogger might be stuck writing about the same subject matter
for a lengthy amount of time (blogger burnout).
There could be situations where a blog network has a blog that
is doing very well so the blog network decides to branch out and launch
another blog on the same subject. Or they hire additional bloggers for
this particular blog. In both cases this might be good for the blog network
but it could be bad for the individual blogger because his or her revenues
might be diminished (depending on the payment terms) as they are spread around
multiple bloggers.
The individual blog or the whole network could be sold.
The blog publisher could fold leaving the blogger blogless.
Blog networks are structured in many different ways so all of these
pros and cons don't necessarily apply to every single blog network.
More posts about joining blog networks can be found here,
here, here, here and here.
Posted on November 12, 2005
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1st Rule: You Do Not Blog About Blog Networks
Martin Neumann recently shuttered his Blog Network Watch blog after just a week. He says he quit the blog because he thought he might want to join or start a blog network himself.
"You can read the reasons over there but basically I've come to the
conclusion that (maybe) I'd rather be a part of a network than writing
about one - and damn it, you can't do justice by doing both. I don't
want to be in a position of conflict-of-interest, and that's exactly
what I'd be in if one day I were to join a network and continue writing
about them all. So it's best to pull the pin right now.
No matter what anyone says, individuals who continue to write about
blog networks (usually with that bloggers critical eye) and also own
or be a part of one have a serious conflict-of-interest, even if their
intentions are A Okay. Sometimes, right or wrong, it's the perception
that matters over the reality."
So, if you own a blog network, blog for a blog network or even if you are just thinking about joining a blog network remember Martin's "1st Rule of Blog Networks."
1st Rule: You DO NOT blog about Blog Networks
Of course, many blog network owners and bloggers that blog for blog networks break Martin's "rule" and frequently blog about and link to other blog networks. Is this a conflict of interest? Would it even be possible to blog away ignoring and never linking to any of the other blog networks? ProBlogger.net has a post on this very topic with a growing number of comments from other bloggers.
Updated: 10-12-05
Posted on October 11, 2005
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Blog Networks, Web Rings and Weblogs Inc.'s Blog Count
Some bloggers are trying to do a price per blog analysis based on
the Weblogs, Inc. sale to AOL. But that doesn't really work too well
because several Weblogs, Inc. blogs, like Engadget, have very high
traffic. Kedrosky.com also
points out
that one "anomalous purchase does not make a market."
Another blog
measures the dollar amount per inbound link but inbound links from
other blogs are not necessarily an accurate measure of web traffic.
One blog has
downsized the number of blogs at Weblogs, Inc.
Several bloggers here, here and
here are discussing this blog post
that downsized the number of actual Weblogs, Inc. blogs from 85
to 31. The Weblogs, Inc.
Xbox 2 blog is used as an example of a
Weblogs, Inc. blog that is no longer updated. Despite some
inactive blogs most of the Weblogs, Inc. blogs that are active have
very heavy traffic -- such as
Engadget, Blogging Baby
and Joystiq.
Blog networks
remind Lisa at Sharp Corners of web rings.
Well, to me, niche blog networks are just a variation on the old "web-rings" many of us used to join as personal bloggers. Remember
those? You found a web-ring filled with like minded people, dropped
a little code into your site and, with any luck, readers of other
blogs would come find you that way. The web-ring soon became the
ubiquitous "blogroll."
That's an interesting comparison. The company known for webrings,
called Starseed, Inc., was acquired by GeoCities in 1998 and GeoCities was
later acquired by Yahoo. Now it appears that WebRing is
no longer part of Yahoo. It
can now be found at
webrings.com, which looks very active.
Marco, who was
underwhelmed by the Weblogs, Inc. sale, isn't very enthused
by blog networks either -- except for the network at 9rules.com.
There's more pretentious networks that can't seem to impress me at all.
In fact I don't even understand why someone would want to write for
certain types of blog networks, especially the ones that want to 'own'
your content and / or want part of the cash your stories generate.
What's the point? Why not start your own blog?
I guess the only network I like is 9rules, largely because they don't
limit bloggers that are in the network in any way, don't try to 'own'
their content and don't try to snatch a share of their AdSense revenues.
Well, the name of Marco's blog is The Net is Dead so one should expect
some negativity. Broken Kode
isn't very excited about the new blog networks either.
If you can't get enough blog network coverage there are
some new blogs covering blog networks daily:
Blog Network News
Blog Network Watch
Blog Network Blog
It looks like Blog Network News' list of blog networks was
truncated at the letter D. And the Blog Network Blog could use an update.
And don't forget Blogebrity
which was covering blog networks before these new sites existed.
List of Blog Network Links:
We have compiled a list of
blog network links that includes both independent and
mainstream media blog networks. This list shows that newspapers and
news outlets are quickly launching blogs so their content will appear in
blog search engines along with the rest of the blogosphere.
Posted on October 10, 2005
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Oodles of Blog Networks
Several blog networks have launched over the past few weeks and there
are many others, like Federated Media Publishing, in planning stages. Some of the recent blog network announcements or launches include
B5 Media, Fine Fools,
Instablogs and Webby Media. The term blog network is being used to define many different type of networks including loose affiliations of bloggers connected by links; collaborative or group blogs like the Huffington Post; individuals that own multiple blogs; blog channels like Duct Tape Marketing and blog networks that are being organized by independent publishers hoping to make a profit. There are also the countless mainstream media blog networks launching on nearly every newspaper and television news website.
The new blog networks will probably attract lots of bloggers
initially that want to join. Some of the potential problems facing
the profit-focused blog networks down the road will be issues like blogger
burnout, blogger turnover and generating enough revenues to keep bloggers
happy. It will be interesting to see -- with so many blog networks
launching -- if some bloggers will blog for more than one network as a
way to drive traffic back to their own personal blog.
Blogebrity has coverage of some of these blog network launches here, here, here and here. HomeOfficeVoice has a post about whether blog networks are right for you that has lots of comments. And Mike Rundle at
9rules offers an explanation of blog networks. More discussion of blog networks can be found on the blog search engines here, here,
here and here.
Posted on September 30, 2005
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