A recent article from Xfep.com, called 46 Things To Do Before Launching a Blog Network, got me thinking a bit about the costs, advantages and disadvantages of starting a blog network. And I’ve realized that it would be way more time involved then I have available right now. Not to mention the money.
But how about the next best thing? A network that would bring bloggers together, would cost almost nothing to maintain, everyone would keep the money that they earn, and they would still have the benefits of being in a network, the support of the others.
What I’m thinking here is an equal partnership blog network, based on quality content and aggressive promotion. Everyone would own his domain name, would pay for his own hosting, promote his own blog. Practically, business as usual, with these exceptions:
- they would all display the network logo on the blog
- they would each promote in a speed linking post in the weekend the best posts from around the network
- they would support each other in their promotion efforts
- they would be part of a private forum, members only, where they could exchange tips and ideas, helping each other to improve monetization, SEO, and other aspects
- they would link in the sidebar to the other blogs of the network
- they would all vote on those that want to join the network
Nobody would own the network, it would just be an admin to take care of the forum and put the new applications to vote. No cutting from your profits. The only benefit to everyone would be helping each other grow.
Requirements that I’m thinking of right now:
- minimum 50 subscribers
- quality content, not just rewritten news. You can’t ask the others to support you grow if you just rewrite stuff or if you don’t put any effort into promotion yourself.
- no adult/gambling/pills/real estate/credit cards blogs
I’m thinking of a minimum of 50 subscribers to make sure the blogs that join are in it for the long run. There are plenty of blogs out there that are abandoned after just 2-3 months, and those that join need to be prepared to put the time that a blog needs in order to grow.
Anyone interested in joining such a network? Please reply in the comments with your thoughts on this and any questions you might have. I’m thinking of starting one if there are people interested.
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Sumesh responded on 12 Oct 2007 at 6:42 pm #
I am interested.
I blog at Techzilo.com, and has been around for 6 months. I was initially posting news stuff, but switched to unique content 4 months ago.
But just two things:
a)Interlinking is a bad idea, since Google doesn’t like that. It would affect the SEO of all blogs.
b)Voting for new members(#5) should be private, that is it should be visible only to you and the voter.
Alexandru responded on 12 Oct 2007 at 9:14 pm #
Sumesh, that’s true. I’ve just seen other blog networks with similar blogrolls, so I’m not sure if it would indeed affect SEO or it would just not be very effective. I guess it depends on the size of the network and to how many blogs you link to. I doubt Google would put a penalty because a group of 10 friends link to each other in their blogroll.
Problogger had for a very long time a link in the blogroll to all the blogs in the network, and it didn’t seem to affect him. It probably is just less helpful as far as SEO is concerned.
As for the voting, yeah, the voting thread would be deleted after its finished. I’m not even sure if it should be just a majority or an unanimous decision. That’s to be discussed among the initial members.
J.D. responded on 13 Oct 2007 at 1:17 am #
I’d be interested in trying something like that out, but I can’t think of any network that would have me.
I’m not sure if People You’ll See In Hell would be considered a news re-write site, though. A lot of the information I put up is readily available in the news, although some of it isn’t.