Friday
Innocent Lie
Don't let the title of this blog fool you...yes it's about arthritis and having a knee replacement, but it is also full of lot's of good stories and ideas....There is a feature called Friday 5's where Cathy picks 5 blogs and comments on them...and an interesting idea about gathering bloggers, giving them a story title, and letting each blogger write a story about that title and comparing notes...lots of good stuff here...Keep the blog rolling by all means Cathy....don't get discouraged about the loss of the arthritis to write about...the ideas you've come up with so far are fantastic!!!
Where's Les
The staff at WTIT radio decided to do a smart thing in February of 2006 and that was to start a blog promoting their radio station. This 40 year project shows no signs of slowing down and is a cool idea. You get to the blog via the above website and I suggest looking at both...good stuff!
Pretentious narcissistic misanthrope vents....
Ok...my question is this...Why haven't you been marketing this character to the BBC. What a fantastic and witty blog. If not a Television show then a book. I think this blog would be a great way to continue to develop this character and then take it to the right people. Excellent writing...Witty...Interesting...Clever. I'll definitely be checking back in with this blog...Great job!
contrary woman
Mary does what most bloggers strive to do on a regular basis and that is post and post regularly. This is a perfect example of a pure blog journal based on the daily life of Mary from Ft. Wayne, ID. Only criticism I have is again...no site meter. If you are going to keep a blog that you want people to read then it makes sense to put a way to track your visitors. Other than that it is a good blog. Written well and flows nicely. Nothing off the charts exciting, but not boring or eye bleed material, just a nice blog about daily life. Good work!
If I knew then what I know now
When I was in high school I kept a bunch of the marble copybooks that I wrote in and then I finally got a computer....it was some dinosaur called ATARI computer or something like that with an archaic word processing program and a dot matrix printer. But when you are young it's cool to do anything new. Peanut here keeps a blog of all kinds of stuff from quizzes to personal experiences and everything in between. Lots of pictures a site meter and good content. A little scatter brained in my opinion, but if you ever looked at a high schoolers copybook there is usually no space in it as it's been doodled upon and written on and all that kind of stuff...so it's nothing to worry about or be upset about....it's you're blog and that's all that matters. Good Job!
Through the eyes of an artist!
What a beautiful blog. Pleasing the eyes since July 2005. I have a personal soft spot for artists because my uncle was a painter in New York with his specialty being Marine Art, mostly boats and the big ships. My personal favorite is your Give Peace a Chance...It reminds me of Dali and Miro. The blog is fantastic and gives another angle to this world of bloggers. Some criticism...I didn't notice a site meter to see how many visitors you are getting which I think is important and the link to your other web site is broken. I would put your website link in the section of your favorite blogs on the top and in capital letters to draw attention to it. Capitalize on your creativity. Nice job.
Thursday
Flock Entrprize
Cool site...very busy looking...I like the team writer concept...I love football and betting...I love the overall feeling of the blog....Moving forward this can turn into a real repeat offender in terms of readership...You have all the right tools with regards to site meters and the such....but why no Adsense or some other type of advertisements...The adsense crawler would eat your site up sending you betting sites and the write up you had on the Nike sneaker and the Ipod...etc...I think this is missed revenue on your part...All that aside it's a good project and I will be keeping track of your football picks :)
Straight outta Noida
Here's a blog written by a teen in India with goals of getting into IIT...his IQ is charted as genius which makes it pretty sure that his goals will be met. IIT I assume is the equivalent to the American MIT, also tough to get into. It sounds like he's a typical teenager with typical teenage friends with the typical teenage stress, with the typical teenage problems. The only difference is that he is from India. Wouldn't it be cool to capitalize on this fact and give more of an insight into the culture and differences that might exist for a Teen from India. Just a personal suggestion... as far as the blog goes I think it is good but geared more towards other teens with a lot of the "F" bomb being dropped which kind of lends itself more to a "Myspace" feel. Not that there is anything wrong with any of this...don't take it the wrong way...Your blog can go in a lot of directions especially with you being so young and your blog being so young having just been started in the summer. So experiment with your blog and if you think my advice is not good advice then do whatever you feel you should do. The beautiful thing about blogging is that it's free and it's an outlet for you to freely express yourself however you want. Nice work! Keep Blogging.
Side note
Just want to say agian thank you for all your kind comments and thanks again to Bobby from www.Bestestblogofalltime.blogspot.com I am chipping away at each email I have recieved and will critique each and everyone. I feel lucky to be able to read and comment on these blogs you send...I get to do all the things I like doing...blogging and writing...
the wonderful world of nothing
Fellow rat pack lover Mike writes, in my opinion, a great blog about nothing...Entitled...The Wonderful World Of Nothing. Fact is... it a blog about a lot of things...cleverly written and well done. It has to be giving the fact that Mike's blog has pulled over 1600 readers since just August. I really believe that lot's of the bloggers I review should go out to your local book store and pick up a copy of The Writer's Market and start submitting articles to some magazines. Keep up the good work Mike....I;m glad to have the opportunity to read so many great works.
GREAT BLOG
I love this blog! I just spent some time reading and answering alot of your questions...I left out the stripper name though :) Anyway...what a great way to capitalize on the comment section by asking interesting questions and at the same time giving a glimpse into you own life with your own answers. Very interesting...Great idea... Looks to be a new blog so I hope you plan to continue to post and blog...nice job!
Who Writes?
I may have jumped the gun just giving an honorable mention in my last post in regards to Mimi's other blog...I took a quick look at it after I published the last post and the quick look turned into a closer look and look what I found...
Mimi Writes...
Leather and Locks
"I've been blogging for 40 years.
In a little leather diary with a tiny lock and key. Deep dark secrets stuffed under the mattress.
My mother never found it. The three nosy siblings I shared a room with never found it. I hope. The juicy stuff was encrypted anyway; not even my best friend knew the code.
Scandals ran amuck in my Barbie doll world. Highly classified information between neatly lined pages; written under the cover with purple pens and buttered popcorn. Trying not to breathe or rustle the leaves and wake up my sister, who went to sleep hours before my nocturnal musings began. "
How true is this excerpt from Mimi's blog? As I've been saying...blogging is such a new media form that is touching people's lives in so many ways...here is just another example. Aside from that I have to say hat's off to this blog...I think if the format you are toying with takes off it will be cool to watch it grow...Keep on blogging!
MI MI MI MI MI
For all you singers out there you recognize the title as a pitch finder...Mimi, a musician herself and a freelance writer has a unique blog that delves into the realm of personal ads with a twist...her own twist. Mimi puts her two cents in and makes a blog that both entertains and makes you smile. Nice job. If you liked this blog then check out Mimi's other blog http://mimiwrites.blogspot.com/ Also curious...being a trombone player myself...what kind of musician are you?
Wednesday
Writers Write
Ian's blog is a great advertisement for his passion( I can't say hobby because he's been published) of writing. Take no offense to this next statement, but every time I think of writers and writing, in regards to the novel, I think of the Billy Crystal movie, Throw Mama From The Train. This movie is a comedy about lots of things but what sticks out in my memory was the following..."The night was moist". Having said that I think that Ian's blog is once again the perfect example of the greatness of this media outlet. Here is a professional writer who gets to expose his writing to the world for all to read. I, myself, will be checking back in to read his 100 day novel and I suggest you do the same. Right on!
Patience is a virtue
Thank you to everyone who has and who is forwarding their blogs to be linked and reviewed. I will critique each one and post the comments and link your blog. It will take a day or so. Thank you for your understanding as I like to read each blog thoroughly and give a fair critique.
Billy Mac
Billy Mac
In it for the long haul...
Tuesday, February 18, 2003Well, here I am. My first blog. Never in my life have I done any kind of journal before. So I'm not really sure what to do. I don't even know if I'll be able to keep this up. I tend to work things out internally.
Click the envelope to e-mail this post by: Kevin / 2/18/2003 10:46:34 PM
DENNY CRANE~!
In flip this body there is some definite eye catchers when it comes to story and flow. Body transformation is always a cool thing and the blog has some pictures of weight loss that are fantastic in my opinion...I guess this is where I admit that I'm trying to flip my own body and lose weight. Julie does a great job of entertaining with her writing where her creativity shines thru in each post! Being an actress is easy to understand as you read through the posts where you can almost sense what kind of mood Julie is in. On a personal note I have to say great find for the splenda flavored coffee..."You have a great taste in television" - Denny Crane. This brings me to my next important comment inspired by Denny and it is this. If you ever get any criticism about what you've blogged about or opinion you posted and people ask why you'd dare print such a thing, simply reply..."Because my name is on Blog"- (again) Denny Crane.
Last but not least I took the liberty of quoting an excerpt from your blog that rings true for a lot of bloggers and is part of what I preach in some other posts.
Julie writes:"Wow! That last post was my 100th post. Yay! It's only been about 2 months since I've started blogging, and man, has it been fun. I've met so many great people and I have found my passion for writing again. Yahoo!!! "
Sums it all up in my opinion
BESTEST BLOG OF THE DAY HONORS!
It was an exciting honor to receive the email yesterday that I was chosen to be today's Bestest Blog of the Day. I have received many congratulations and lot's of emails requesting critiques which I will do over the next few days, so have patience. I want to thank Bobby for the flattering "critique" of my blog and in true Critique my Blog fashion I'd like to also say that The Bestest Blog Of The Day is truly a pioneering blog that has proven it's power to drive traffic to people's blogs. As I've said in the past...the whole reason we blog is to be read and it is sites like Bobby's that bring a certain legitimacy to our writing. It is clear the appreciation and high regards that bloggers hold for Bobby and the BESTEST BLOG OF THE DAY and it is a well deserved appreciation. So hat's off to Bobby for the hard work (and it is hard work to edit and maintain a blog in general let alone an involved blog like Bobby's) and if you haven't had the pleasure to explore the BESTEST BLOG OF THE DAY then I highly recommend it.
Tuesday
What CRITIQUE MY BLOG is all about
When I started out with this blog back in August my intentions were to set up a place where bloggers could go to read up on information and advice about blogging and also to offer a critique for people who wished to have their own blogs reviewed on the front page of my blog. After the review the blogger's link was added to my side bar so that other people who visited later on down the line could check out the review.
I personally get a lot from blogging and I think it's a great outlet creatively and emotionally for a lot of people. The whole reason most people blog is to be read. Think of all the want-to-be writer out there years ago who never had a way to be published, but they loved to write and create. Along comes the blog and now people of all ages, races, and nationalities can express themselves as they please. When you think about it...it's amazing.
I surf the blogosphere and read lots of blogs, it's amazing the scope of topics that are out there and the care and time people put into their blogs. So my idea was to help promote this fantastic form of media via my simple blog.
I urge others who would be interested in having their blog critiqued to email me at billymac174@aol.com and put in the topic "read my blog"
I personally get a lot from blogging and I think it's a great outlet creatively and emotionally for a lot of people. The whole reason most people blog is to be read. Think of all the want-to-be writer out there years ago who never had a way to be published, but they loved to write and create. Along comes the blog and now people of all ages, races, and nationalities can express themselves as they please. When you think about it...it's amazing.
I surf the blogosphere and read lots of blogs, it's amazing the scope of topics that are out there and the care and time people put into their blogs. So my idea was to help promote this fantastic form of media via my simple blog.
I urge others who would be interested in having their blog critiqued to email me at billymac174@aol.com and put in the topic "read my blog"
Rich Nerd?
Here's an interesting blog if it is true. This cat claims to be blogging by the pool and living the large life making his money from the internet. It looks to be a brand new blog and fact or fiction, it proves to be good reading. Guess it makes you think twice about picking on the four eyed dork in the school yard...more power to ya!
Monday
Blogs, Blogs, Blogs! What They Are, and Why They Matter.
Blogs, Blogs, Blogs! What They Are, and Why They Matter.
by Trey Pennewell
I remember that it was not that long ago that I did not know what a blog was or what one was for. Now blogs are everywhere and anyone with a computer and Internet access may be writing one. If you are new to this whole blog phenomenon let me explain a little about what a blog is. Blog's got their name from combining two words "Web log" to make one word, "blog".
For most people, blogs started out as something like an online diary for friends and relatives to read. Instead of going to the trouble of sending out individual emails to all of your friends and relatives to let them know how things are going in your life, you could simply write a blog for all of them to view. This way everyone could know all of the interesting developments in your personal life and you could save time and energy by not writing to everyone individually. This was the origin of blogs. Oh how far we have come since then.
Blogs then grew into marketing devices, ways to get revenge, and methods of raising awareness on important issues. Some of the more famous blogs are ones written by current disgruntled employees of large corporations. These large corporations, such as Microsoft, have been scrambling to deal with the bad public relations created by these blogs written by angry employees.
There are many ways that you can set up a blog. Whether you want to use a blog for professional or personal reasons you can find a service to help you out. Many companies have been scrambling to create blogging software for consumers. However, there are also many blogging sites that will let you use their software for free. Of course, the software that you have to pay for comes with many added features that the free blogging software does not include.
Online businesses are beginning to realize the impact that a blog can have on their business and the number of people that they can get visiting their websites. Blogs generate new text on a regular basis, depending on how often you update it, which helps in search engine rankings. The major search engines such as Google and Yahoo give higher rankings to websites that have regularly updated content. Blogs make this happen in a very simple manner. The only trick to all of this is to make sure that your blog is directly accessible from your homepage. This is a rather simple process of changing some of the HTML coding.
By using a blog to add new content on a regular basis saves you the trouble of redesigning your entire website every time you want to add content. It would not be realistic to go in to your website a few times a week and change the content because it is so much work. However, a blog will accomplish this for you in a matter of minutes. Some website owners have taken the blogs even further and incorporated keyword densities into their blogs. This further aids the websites search engine rankings and helps to drive more potential customers to the website. As you can see, having a blog on your website can offer a great deal of benefits.
In addition to the fact that you can increase your search engine rankings with a blog, many people may come back to visit your site on a regular basis just to see what new information you have to offer them by way of your blog. For example, if your blog offers weekly updates on what is new in your product or service line, a potential customer may be interested but does not make a purchase today. Then this potential customer returns in a week to read your blog and continues to do so until he or she reads something in your blog that convinces he or she to go ahead and make the purchase.
Blogs are very versatile marketing tools. You can update your blog with industry news, news about your particular company, new product offerings, or new services that you are providing. Any of these methods, or a combination of them, can be extremely effective in closing a sale on a potential customer who is sitting on the fence.
No matter how you choose to employ blogs to improve your website, always be sure that you have connected your blog to your website in an easy to read and easy to find format. Link your blog to your homepage so that visitors do not have to search for it. If you can customize your blog template to look just like the rest of your website, then your visitors can move between your blog and your website with the feeling that they have not left one to enter the other.
Blogs have grown enormously over the past year and all indications are that they will only continue to grow. Blogs are more than a passing Internet fad; they are successful business tools that are already being utilized by many successful webmasters.
Market Day
by Trey Pennewell
I remember that it was not that long ago that I did not know what a blog was or what one was for. Now blogs are everywhere and anyone with a computer and Internet access may be writing one. If you are new to this whole blog phenomenon let me explain a little about what a blog is. Blog's got their name from combining two words "Web log" to make one word, "blog".
For most people, blogs started out as something like an online diary for friends and relatives to read. Instead of going to the trouble of sending out individual emails to all of your friends and relatives to let them know how things are going in your life, you could simply write a blog for all of them to view. This way everyone could know all of the interesting developments in your personal life and you could save time and energy by not writing to everyone individually. This was the origin of blogs. Oh how far we have come since then.
Blogs then grew into marketing devices, ways to get revenge, and methods of raising awareness on important issues. Some of the more famous blogs are ones written by current disgruntled employees of large corporations. These large corporations, such as Microsoft, have been scrambling to deal with the bad public relations created by these blogs written by angry employees.
There are many ways that you can set up a blog. Whether you want to use a blog for professional or personal reasons you can find a service to help you out. Many companies have been scrambling to create blogging software for consumers. However, there are also many blogging sites that will let you use their software for free. Of course, the software that you have to pay for comes with many added features that the free blogging software does not include.
Online businesses are beginning to realize the impact that a blog can have on their business and the number of people that they can get visiting their websites. Blogs generate new text on a regular basis, depending on how often you update it, which helps in search engine rankings. The major search engines such as Google and Yahoo give higher rankings to websites that have regularly updated content. Blogs make this happen in a very simple manner. The only trick to all of this is to make sure that your blog is directly accessible from your homepage. This is a rather simple process of changing some of the HTML coding.
By using a blog to add new content on a regular basis saves you the trouble of redesigning your entire website every time you want to add content. It would not be realistic to go in to your website a few times a week and change the content because it is so much work. However, a blog will accomplish this for you in a matter of minutes. Some website owners have taken the blogs even further and incorporated keyword densities into their blogs. This further aids the websites search engine rankings and helps to drive more potential customers to the website. As you can see, having a blog on your website can offer a great deal of benefits.
In addition to the fact that you can increase your search engine rankings with a blog, many people may come back to visit your site on a regular basis just to see what new information you have to offer them by way of your blog. For example, if your blog offers weekly updates on what is new in your product or service line, a potential customer may be interested but does not make a purchase today. Then this potential customer returns in a week to read your blog and continues to do so until he or she reads something in your blog that convinces he or she to go ahead and make the purchase.
Blogs are very versatile marketing tools. You can update your blog with industry news, news about your particular company, new product offerings, or new services that you are providing. Any of these methods, or a combination of them, can be extremely effective in closing a sale on a potential customer who is sitting on the fence.
No matter how you choose to employ blogs to improve your website, always be sure that you have connected your blog to your website in an easy to read and easy to find format. Link your blog to your homepage so that visitors do not have to search for it. If you can customize your blog template to look just like the rest of your website, then your visitors can move between your blog and your website with the feeling that they have not left one to enter the other.
Blogs have grown enormously over the past year and all indications are that they will only continue to grow. Blogs are more than a passing Internet fad; they are successful business tools that are already being utilized by many successful webmasters.
Market Day
Sunday
Cancer News
This blog covers news and information about cancer. Informative and up to date news about one of the most horrible problems in todays world.
GOD IS GOOD
The truth is God works in mysterious ways. This rings true in Kami's blog about life and their trials and tribulations as they go through life as a family. The blog reads like a made for TV movie that has a happy ending. Any one who has had a monster in law will like this blog with the twist in the end being a gift from God. I smell a Hallmark Hall OF Fame movie. Nice job with the blog....keep posting....and keep your readers up to date with the relationship with your father in law. I think you'll find a lot of return readers coming back for more!
Saturday
janajee.blogspot.com-Revisited
I was looking back at some of the previously reviewed blogs and came across Janajee's blog. Looks like night and day and I actually got to read some of the posts which I found to be interesting and deep. The blog is unique and written with what looks to be a following of readers. The only advice I would offer is that you add some kind of site counter so you can see how many people are visiting your site and reading it, you obviously care very much about your blog and put a lot of work into it and it would be cool to see that your work is being read. www.sitemeter.com is blogger friendly and one you might want to use, but there are tons of others out there. Good luck....keep posting...and keep up the good work!
Friday
Amish paradise!
http://www.lookinginmyrearviewmirror.blogspot.com/
Weird Al Yankovic had a song out in the 80's or 90's where he sang a parody to a song and titled it Amish Paradise. The video was straight stereotype and portrayed an image of ridged men and woman being Amish. Thank the Lord Lue came along to set the record straight! As great as the last blog was I critiqued I'd have to say that this blog about Lue and her husband Bert who both left the Amish faith and now writes a blog about here everyday life and the adventures that present themselves to her family on a daily basis. A well written and interesting this blog is, it is equally...well...nice. For lack of a better word let's use nice. Lue ends each post with something she is thankful for which reflects her strong Christian background and says a lot about her as a person. I have a double motive for liking this blog in that I worked for some time on the road in Lancaster County Pennsylvania and have been stuck in many a traffic...or...eh..."buggy jam" on the back roads of the area. It was some of the most relaxed times driving I've ever experienced. I loved driving along watching the farmers do their work and the Amish people's kind ways. Anyway. Job well done on the blog Lue. I highly recommend having a peak.
What Blogosphere is all about!
Here is one of the finest blogs I've come across in a long time! It's purpose of being a journal that captures the daily life of a family, a rather large family, is outlined so well. The writing is both enjoyable and natural and flows effortlessly. The blog is full of great pictures and items that look to have been scanned in. It has lots of other "extras" that gives the blog a fun feel and it is clear that the author gives a lot of attention to the blog. Hat's off to this blogger for having fun with a media outlet that is in it's infancy, job well done!
Autism Blog
Autism affects many children in this country and the world...This blog deals with the latest news and information as well as inspirational stories and poems dealing with this very special topic.
Wednesday
Email Updates!
I've added a feedblizt box on the right under the link section. If you want to sign up for E-mail updates of this blog then click and sign up. I appreciate it.
Tuesday
GPS
So far all the blogs I've reviewed in a positive fashion, janajee's blog, I regret, I'll have to be more critical. I thought it was very tough to navigate needing a GPS system to even get into the content. The writing was good and the blog itself was cool, definitely one of the most creative blogs in blogspot I've seen so far, but it can be the coolest blog in the world, if it can't be navigated easily then readers won't come back. I think it can become a kick ass blog if it were configured a little differently.
Inspiration
Blogging for big bucks
It's not just a hobby -- some small sites are making big money. Here's how to turn your passion into an online empire.
By Paul Sloan, and Paul Kaihla Business 2.0 Magazine
August 22 2006: 6:10 AM EDT
(Business 2.0) -- Michael Arrington is a partying kind of guy. While showing off his home in Atherton, Calif., he boasts about how he crammed 500 people into his one-acre backyard at a bash in February. Then there are the official parties, like the one he threw last Friday at August Capital, a nearby venture firm. Weeks ago, Arrington posted an open invitation on his website at 3 a.m. By sunrise, all 500 spots were taken; the onslaught of traffic crashed his site.
Arrington, a 36-year-old entrepreneur behind a long list of unrecognizable startups, has suddenly become one of the rising stars of Silicon Valley. Why? The answer lies in TechCrunch, Arrington's blog about new technologies and companies. In the year since he launched the site, he's become a go-to person for VCs and tech execs looking to leak corporate tidbits or announce news. More than 1.5 million readers regularly check out his site.
Michael Arrington's TechCrunch has seen a 10-fold rise in revenue since the start of this year.
More from Business 2.0
Why gambling at the office pays
Mark Burnett hunts for online gold
TiVo's new recorder: high-def, high-price
Fastest Growing Tech Companies
Current Issue
Subscribe to Business 2.0
But here's what gives Arrington real distinction: He's pulling in $60,000 in ad revenue every month. That's 10 times what the site was making earlier this year, which was when Arrington, convinced of the potentially monstrous riches ahead, quit his day job as president of a startup to blog full-time.
Real businesses, real money
With Internet-like speed, blogs have gone from self-indulgent hobbies to flourishing businesses. Real businesses, with real revenue streams from real advertisers.
Boing Boing, a four-person operation that bills itself as a directory of wonderful things, is on track to gross an estimated $1 million in ad revenue this year. The digital-media news site PaidContent.org, headquartered in the second bedroom of a Santa Monica apartment, is set to post even more than that.
And Fark.com, a site packed with sophomoric humor run by a lone guy in Lexington, Ky., is on pace to become a multimillion-dollar property. In short, some of the most popular blogs, long the bane of the mainstream media, are themselves becoming mainstream.
What has changed? For starters, blogs today are so cheap to create and operate that a lone blogger or a small team can, with the ever-expanding reach of the Internet, amass vast audiences and generate levels of profit on a per-employee basis that traditional media companies can only fantasize about.
At the same time, advertisers - shunning old-line media in favor of the Web - are discovering the unique power of blogs. Blogs have become our guides to a content-saturated world. As such, their recommendations are highly valued by readers - which naturally has made advertisers take notice.
In recent months, big-name companies like Banana Republic and Coca-Cola (Charts) have for the first time run ad campaigns on blogs, in the belief that blog communities often consist of concentrated numbers of the passionate and influential people all marketers want to reach. Intel bought its first blog ad in March; now all its ads run on blogs as well as traditional outlets. Says Thom Campbell, head of media strategy for Intel (Charts), "The audience on blogs is the cream of the crop."
But before you quit your day job, consider that this isn't easy money, nor is it guaranteed to last. For one thing, the market is small right now: Web ad agency Organic puts ad spending on blogs at $40 million this year. Bloggers are typically selling only about a third of their available ad space at top rates. (The rest goes at heavily discounted prices.)
Still, the blogging-for-dollars phenomenon is only in its infancy, and already blog ad spending is roughly twice what it was last year. With overall Web advertising expected to grow by 50 percent to $23.6 billion in 2010, it's certain that more and more ad dollars will land on blogs.
For a growing cadre of bloggers, the opportunities to score fat profits from pumping out posts on whatever their particular passions might be are widening - and one consequence could be a radical reshaping of our notions of how to build a successful media company.
I'm with the band
Trying to provide those opportunities has become the mission of a host of would-be blog entrepreneurs. John Battelle, a founding editor of Wired magazine and the creator of the now-defunct Industry Standard (as well as a freelance columnist for Business 2.0), was working on a book about Google (Charts) when he had an epiphany: Bloggers were building huge audiences for free. Yet even popular bloggers couldn't make a living full-time; existing networks like Google and BlogAds weren't paying enough.
Battelle figured he could find out which bloggers were already generating heavy traffic, and then serve as a middleman between them and advertisers. He launched his startup, called Federated Media Publishing, last fall with seed money from the New York Times Co (Charts). and eBay (Charts) founder Pierre Omidyar.
Battelle compares FM's model to a record company. He and his team are the band managers; the bloggers are the bands. The key difference is that bloggers own their content, earning 60 cents of every ad dollar.
He has signed about 75 of the most popular bloggers of various stripes, and hopes to land a few hundred in all. FM's eight-person sales force has been aggressively approaching big marketers, armed with detailed and persuasive demographics.
And Battelle believes Fark.com, a collection of reader-submitted links to amusing videos, jokes, and curiosities from all over the Web, could become the most profitable site in mainstream blogdom. Already it vies with FM stablemate MetaFilter for the top spot in blog traffic rankings.
Any downturn in the economy and ad market will, of course, hurt bloggers. The sheer numbers of blogging-for-dollars artists charging into the game could also muddy the market and put pressure on ad rates.
Still, it's far easier to weather a downturn when your costs are next to nothing. Plus, many players are diversifying, even within the blogosphere. "I know that I'm riding the Web 2.0 wave," says Arrington. Now he's preparing for a day when the wave crests.
He just launched a gadget site and staffed it with a former writer for Gizmodo. He has plans for a gaming site and a site devoted exclusively to analyzing heavy-duty enterprise software. Even as he expands, however, he expects to keep his expenses - now about 12 percent of revenue - at no more than 30 percent. And occasionally there are bonuses.
With little effort, Arrington got dozens of sponsors, mostly Web 2.0 startups and VCs, to bankroll the party he held Friday at August Capital. So after a night of revelry, Arrington had pocketed an extra $50,000. Now that's something to blog about.
____________________________________________
It's not just a hobby -- some small sites are making big money. Here's how to turn your passion into an online empire.
By Paul Sloan, and Paul Kaihla Business 2.0 Magazine
August 22 2006: 6:10 AM EDT
(Business 2.0) -- Michael Arrington is a partying kind of guy. While showing off his home in Atherton, Calif., he boasts about how he crammed 500 people into his one-acre backyard at a bash in February. Then there are the official parties, like the one he threw last Friday at August Capital, a nearby venture firm. Weeks ago, Arrington posted an open invitation on his website at 3 a.m. By sunrise, all 500 spots were taken; the onslaught of traffic crashed his site.
Arrington, a 36-year-old entrepreneur behind a long list of unrecognizable startups, has suddenly become one of the rising stars of Silicon Valley. Why? The answer lies in TechCrunch, Arrington's blog about new technologies and companies. In the year since he launched the site, he's become a go-to person for VCs and tech execs looking to leak corporate tidbits or announce news. More than 1.5 million readers regularly check out his site.
Michael Arrington's TechCrunch has seen a 10-fold rise in revenue since the start of this year.
More from Business 2.0
Why gambling at the office pays
Mark Burnett hunts for online gold
TiVo's new recorder: high-def, high-price
Fastest Growing Tech Companies
Current Issue
Subscribe to Business 2.0
But here's what gives Arrington real distinction: He's pulling in $60,000 in ad revenue every month. That's 10 times what the site was making earlier this year, which was when Arrington, convinced of the potentially monstrous riches ahead, quit his day job as president of a startup to blog full-time.
Real businesses, real money
With Internet-like speed, blogs have gone from self-indulgent hobbies to flourishing businesses. Real businesses, with real revenue streams from real advertisers.
Boing Boing, a four-person operation that bills itself as a directory of wonderful things, is on track to gross an estimated $1 million in ad revenue this year. The digital-media news site PaidContent.org, headquartered in the second bedroom of a Santa Monica apartment, is set to post even more than that.
And Fark.com, a site packed with sophomoric humor run by a lone guy in Lexington, Ky., is on pace to become a multimillion-dollar property. In short, some of the most popular blogs, long the bane of the mainstream media, are themselves becoming mainstream.
What has changed? For starters, blogs today are so cheap to create and operate that a lone blogger or a small team can, with the ever-expanding reach of the Internet, amass vast audiences and generate levels of profit on a per-employee basis that traditional media companies can only fantasize about.
At the same time, advertisers - shunning old-line media in favor of the Web - are discovering the unique power of blogs. Blogs have become our guides to a content-saturated world. As such, their recommendations are highly valued by readers - which naturally has made advertisers take notice.
In recent months, big-name companies like Banana Republic and Coca-Cola (Charts) have for the first time run ad campaigns on blogs, in the belief that blog communities often consist of concentrated numbers of the passionate and influential people all marketers want to reach. Intel bought its first blog ad in March; now all its ads run on blogs as well as traditional outlets. Says Thom Campbell, head of media strategy for Intel (Charts), "The audience on blogs is the cream of the crop."
But before you quit your day job, consider that this isn't easy money, nor is it guaranteed to last. For one thing, the market is small right now: Web ad agency Organic puts ad spending on blogs at $40 million this year. Bloggers are typically selling only about a third of their available ad space at top rates. (The rest goes at heavily discounted prices.)
Still, the blogging-for-dollars phenomenon is only in its infancy, and already blog ad spending is roughly twice what it was last year. With overall Web advertising expected to grow by 50 percent to $23.6 billion in 2010, it's certain that more and more ad dollars will land on blogs.
For a growing cadre of bloggers, the opportunities to score fat profits from pumping out posts on whatever their particular passions might be are widening - and one consequence could be a radical reshaping of our notions of how to build a successful media company.
I'm with the band
Trying to provide those opportunities has become the mission of a host of would-be blog entrepreneurs. John Battelle, a founding editor of Wired magazine and the creator of the now-defunct Industry Standard (as well as a freelance columnist for Business 2.0), was working on a book about Google (Charts) when he had an epiphany: Bloggers were building huge audiences for free. Yet even popular bloggers couldn't make a living full-time; existing networks like Google and BlogAds weren't paying enough.
Battelle figured he could find out which bloggers were already generating heavy traffic, and then serve as a middleman between them and advertisers. He launched his startup, called Federated Media Publishing, last fall with seed money from the New York Times Co (Charts). and eBay (Charts) founder Pierre Omidyar.
Battelle compares FM's model to a record company. He and his team are the band managers; the bloggers are the bands. The key difference is that bloggers own their content, earning 60 cents of every ad dollar.
He has signed about 75 of the most popular bloggers of various stripes, and hopes to land a few hundred in all. FM's eight-person sales force has been aggressively approaching big marketers, armed with detailed and persuasive demographics.
And Battelle believes Fark.com, a collection of reader-submitted links to amusing videos, jokes, and curiosities from all over the Web, could become the most profitable site in mainstream blogdom. Already it vies with FM stablemate MetaFilter for the top spot in blog traffic rankings.
Any downturn in the economy and ad market will, of course, hurt bloggers. The sheer numbers of blogging-for-dollars artists charging into the game could also muddy the market and put pressure on ad rates.
Still, it's far easier to weather a downturn when your costs are next to nothing. Plus, many players are diversifying, even within the blogosphere. "I know that I'm riding the Web 2.0 wave," says Arrington. Now he's preparing for a day when the wave crests.
He just launched a gadget site and staffed it with a former writer for Gizmodo. He has plans for a gaming site and a site devoted exclusively to analyzing heavy-duty enterprise software. Even as he expands, however, he expects to keep his expenses - now about 12 percent of revenue - at no more than 30 percent. And occasionally there are bonuses.
With little effort, Arrington got dozens of sponsors, mostly Web 2.0 startups and VCs, to bankroll the party he held Friday at August Capital. So after a night of revelry, Arrington had pocketed an extra $50,000. Now that's something to blog about.
____________________________________________
Sunday
Affiliates revisited
I talk a lot about affiliates and monetization on peoples blogs and other than adsense, some bloggers might be in the dark as to how many affiliate programs there are out there to choose from. I've gotten together some affiliates and link programs that are easy to sign up for and easy to ad to your site to gain some money. Here are some to check out: Click Bank,
< commission junction, Bidvertiser, revenue pilot, adbrite, adsense, clicksor. These are just a few and I'll be reviewing others as the days go on. It's definitely worth your while to investigate affiliate programs because if you're taking the time to write your blog and you're getting alot of traffic then why not take advantage of that situation by making a few extra dollars.
< commission junction, Bidvertiser, revenue pilot, adbrite, adsense, clicksor. These are just a few and I'll be reviewing others as the days go on. It's definitely worth your while to investigate affiliate programs because if you're taking the time to write your blog and you're getting alot of traffic then why not take advantage of that situation by making a few extra dollars.
Les Mis
http://www.ask-answer-receive.blogspot.com/
Richard from Georgia writes, "These are the the 3 simple steps you will need to follow in order to communicate your desires to the universe and then, through the law of attraction, to have your wishes granted. They are the secret to abundance in all things. Health, Wealth, Love, Romance, Work, Happiness. Learn how to use them and have fun with your new abundant life. This is the law of attraction." This is the beginning of a beautiful blog! Content rich, using the amazon associate affiliate to make a few bucks, the only thing missing in my opinion is a site counter to track his traffic. I like his taste in books (money) and his taste in music, don't worry about like Les Miserables...there are a lot of closet "show tuners" out there. That musical is one of the best. Waiting to see Spamalot here in Philly. Anyway, back to your blog, keep the content flowing and steady and I think you'll do great. I really enjoyed reading your blog and I think others will too. Well done.
Saturday
Outlet for frustration!
Here's alittle side note since I have a platform to vent....I am having our annual block party and the bees are attacking. Any kind of soda or beer is attracting bees from as far away as Russia!!! Is there no peace for a man with a bee phobia!!! Anyway...blog on.
Planning and Posting
Starting a blog often times goes like this...You look thru some blogs..Think that it looks cool...And you sign up on BLOGGER or Wordpress or wherever...And in a minute and a half you have a blog...That's ok except for one thing. There is no direction. Take your blog to the next level by planning out your posts and doing some basic housekeeping. For instance in blogger, don't just leave the Google news, Edit me, Edit me, section the way they are. I so often come across great blogs with good content that is kept up to date with posts and see that they have no links in that section. Put a few links to web sites that have something in common with your topic. If you are blogging about investing then link to the DOW Jones or Wall Street Journal. Another thing is if you have a bunch of ideas running thru your head then write out the articles and save them, but don't publish them, this way if you are having writer block a few days down the road you can pull from your arsenal of posts and publish one from there. It's all about keeping the content fresh and posting on a daily basis. Don't be lazy, it only takes a few minutes.
Thursday
Next Blog
I often will sign onto my blog and then click the top right hand corner button "next Blog" and just surf other people's blogs. It is amazing to see the thought and time people put into their works. It's clearly such a great outlet for people to jot down their thoughts and ideas on a form of media that actually gets read on a regular basis. Being such a new technology it will be interesting to see how the blogosphere grows in the future.
New Zoo Review
Holy Garbonzo Beans Batman! We've got live one here. Bloggsend is an unusual look into the mind of probably everyone, although no one would admit it. It is full of funny one liners and short thoughts, you can almost imagine someone sitting at a desk and a little blurb bubble pops out of their mind and you see a post off of bloggsend. I'd suggest starting from the first post and read forward, very fun, very bazaar, and thought provoking at the same time. Insightful and scatter brained all at the same time. Full of content and heavily read as indicated by the counter. Why no adsense or some other means of using an affiliate? With such rich content and lots of readers you could make a few dollars I bet. All that aside...keep up the good work and keep posting...I believe you keep alot of folks smiling and scratching their heads at the same time daily.
Island man
First off let me say hello from smoggy, cold, and grey Philadelphia, Pennsylvania! What a great gig you have living and going to school where you do! You've chosen a great profession as well. Now for the blog, thoughtful, well written, coming from more of a journal entry point of view, but that's OK. I enjoyed the flow of the writing and it invites the reader into your journey. It was great to see many of your posts had comments from other readers which is fantastic, it shows people are reading your blog. I'd put a site counter in your blog to see exactly how much traffic you get. Keep up the good work and good luck in school. Cheers!
Wednesday
Sybil or Hemingway?
Here is an interesting blogger who is using the blog as a notebook of sorts. Josh is an aspiring writer with some already thought provoking and some almost dark outlooks on life, but as a notebook or journal goes, that is what it is for. There are several "personalities" in this blog who appear and I'm not sure if it's a case of multiple personalities or the makings of a novel, whatever the case, it's a great start to to an entertaining blog. Good luck with it and hopefully we'll see your work on bookshelves at Barnes and Noble one day.
Saturday
Last Comic Statnding
www.aspiringcomedian.blogspot.com is a newer blog with a comedic twist. I liked the writing and thought it flowed well, definitly a creative mind working behind this blog. Only advice I'd offer would be to add a counter to track how many visitors will be enjoying your blog. Keep adding content and building it up.
Friday
Taking off
"Read my blog" is finally starting to accomplish what I started out to do in the first place...promote bloggers who like what they do and do it well. I'm no expert in blogging, but I like to write and I like to read what others have written and I like creativity and passion. It's good to see that email are starting to come in via the e mail me link to your right and I hope to get more as the days go on. Feel free to shoot me an email with your blog link and I'd be happy to check it out and post it on my blog with a review.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
