What makes blog networks so special?
What makes blog networks so special?
Yeah I know, for me, the owner of a small network (I think) to be asking something like this is absurd, but bear with me for a minute here.
I’m seeing tons of networks popping up, only a few of which have anything notable in their portfolios.
Maybe I should have asked this question instead: What makes any of your blogs worth noting? or: Would any one or more of your blogs be able to survive and thrive outside your network?
XYZ blog network just launched 17 more blogs, for a total of 66. “We now have 90 blogs in the network.”
Tell me something. How many destinations do you have? How many Anchor Sites do you have.
Separate any one of your blogs from it’s symbiotic relationship with the network and tell me, honestly, will it live?
How the heck and who the heck is giving all those blogs the exposure and voice they need to ‘be all they can be’?
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March 8th, 2006 at 12:42 pm
Paul, it seems like you and I are on on the same wave-length these days… the announcement of each new blog network just makes me yawn.
I mean, a blog is either good or bad, but tying it to a network certainly doesn’t make it any better in the eyes of the reader.
At least that’s my take
But who am I?
March 8th, 2006 at 2:52 pm
Yeah, I know what you mean Cary.
Networks DO have a lot of advantages or I wouldn’t be in the game. The problem I see from the newbie networks is there’s very little done to increase readership outside of funneling in warm traffic from within the network itself.
Very few blogs are promoted as standalone communities or destination sites.
Like, if there’s 100 sites in a blog network and each site averages 500 page views per day, that’s 50,000 pageviews accross the network. That’s a respectable number. But unless that network is in a single vertical market it’s pulling a general audience, which is ok for brand advertisers but the potential for niche advertisers is virtually non-existant.
500 pageviews is peanuts in the grand scheme of things. For that blog to be successful in attracting attention from advertisers or other “powers that be” it needs the bigger numbers.
You can go granular with adsense and affiliate links but you’re still limited.
I mean, lets make the long tail fatter, not longer and thinner.
(No disrespect to anyone, no matter your traffic numbers. Just discussing…)
March 9th, 2006 at 11:49 pm
Yep, I’d rather have 10 blogs that have a strong individual identity and 50,000 views each. I don’t get some of these huge networks that’ll make a blog about anything. You see them make some huge deal about a “launches” of things like a blog about tube socks that gets updated once a week.