Blog Networks Roundtable at Blog Herald

Blog Herald’s Thord Daniel Hendengren held the first (that we know of) blog network roundtable. As you can imagine, this is especially of interest to me, not only because of this blog but because I started my own blog network a few weeks ago.

The roundtable featured Jeremy Wright of b5Media, Collis Ta’eed of Envato, and Mike Rundle CEO of 9rules. Regardless of how anyone feels about blog networks nowadays, it’s an interesting read.

I think my favorite quote was from Mike Rundle after being asked about the “ideal” setup for blog networks. Should they be small and focused or vast and varied?

I think that’s the way to go — create blogs that can stand on their own, are outstanding, and have a small number of them to focus on. I think if a blog network publisher can’t name all the blogs they own off the top of their head, they probably have too many to concentrate on.

I remember a couple of years ago when 451Press announced they were the biggest blog network around. I often wondered if that was the right approach. It’s great to cover the gamut, but isn’t it better to build up one blog at a time?

As for FWJ, I think it’s too nichey to be huge, which is how I like it. I don’t want our little coffee shop to turn into a massive buffet.

What do you think? Quantity, quality or both?

Will Work for Diggs

I hit the Digg front page a couple of times and it felt darn good. When I hit it wasn’t because I sent a shout or email to friends asking them to vote. Each time I hit, someone else (someone I didn’t know even) submitted my post and it got lucky. On the occasions I asked for Diggs for what I felt were good articles nothing happened. I stopped asking for Diggs and Stumbles, however, because I feel doing so on a regular basis turns one into a pain in the butt.

It’s no secret how I feel about people who come out of the wordwork to ask for social media loving. With that in mind, I’m sure you can already imagine how I feel about b5Media’s new policy of rewarding bloggers who hit big on Digg.

Actually I learned a little about a new bonus system before the details were announced at TechCrunch because I had the pleasure of chatting with Jeremy Wright and David Peralty in the speaker room at BlogWorld Expo. While we chatted, I agreed with Jeremy that bloggers should receive bonuses for hard work. Indeed, when I have an especially good month at FWJ I share with my bloggers. Also, when I was an editor for LovetoKnow we were allotted a monthly allowance to give bonuses to our bloggers. I feel strongly about rewarding the people who work for me and enjoy calling them out for going on and beyond. I think b5Media got it right when they put a plan in place to award bloggers bonuses in recognition of a good month or good deed.

But (and you knew there’d be a but)

The more I think about giving out bonuses for Diggs the more I’m not so sure it’s a good idea. This could just be my personal feeling but I think by doing so b5 bloggers will write more for the Digg factor and less for their readers. Don’t get me wrong. Linkbait can be fun, but I don’t want to read it every time I visit a blog.

I also feel this will turn many bloggers into social media beggars. More bloggers will be hitting up their buddies, and even people they barely know, for Diggs and Stumbles. Digg lists will be created so everyone can vote on each other and now bloggers will put much of their effort in getting Diggs rather than building community or writing good content.

Rewarding bloggers with bonuses? Good idea. Mad props to Jeremy and the team for looking for a way to give credit where it’s due. Encouraging the almighty Digg? I’m not so confident this is a good idea. Digg traffic is temporary. Instead bonuses should be awarded for community building, quality comments, great content and a good steady rise in traffic.

What do you think? Am I wrong about this? Should bloggers be encouraged to get out the Digg?

A Few Blogging Tips from Darren Rowse

Deb’s Note: In December 2006 I interviewed Darren Rowse while auditionin for a job with About.com. I did get the job and worked as About.com’s Guide to Weblogs for a year in 2007. I’m reprinting some of my greatest hits here. I also conducted interviews with John Chow, the Go Fug Yourself ladies, NBT’s own Gayla McCord and Jeremy Wright. Expect to see those profiles here in the upcoming months. This interview was from the first time I spoke with Darren – now he’s someone I’m happy and proud to call friend. He’s just as helpful and gracious now as he was a couple of years ago.

If you’re interested in blogging professionally, you’re sure to have come across Darren Rowse’s ProBlogger Blog Tips. ProBlogger offers useful tips, an eye pleasing template and writing that won’t send you to the dictionary every five minutes. The tips are practical and you’ll always click away from your daily reading with information you can use. Who is Darren Rowse and how did he come to be a professional blogger?

Darren  began blogging professionally since 2002 on the advice of a friend. While he maintains about 20 blogs, it’s ProBlogger Blog Tips that has captured the attention of many aspiring professional bloggers. Behold the wisdom that is Darren Rowse.

Darren Rowse on The Appeal of Blogs: Probably the first thing that captured my attention with blogs wasthe ability that they gave the average person to have a voice and be  listened to on a global scale on their topic of interest.Secondly – they are so easy to set up and maintain. As someone with  very little technical ability the idea of being able to set up a  website in just a few minutes (I was using Blogger when I first  started) was very appealing.

Lastly (and there could be many more) – the conversation that I saw  happening on the first blogs that I cameacross was very attractive.  Here were people all around the world talking about my interests,

sharing ideas, giving each other feedback and building community – I  just had to be a part of it.

Darren Rowse on Mistakes Made by Aspiring Pro Bloggers:

Giving up too quickly. I see many bloggers start blogs with dollar  signs in their eyes, thinking that they’ll be earning big dollars  very quickly, only to find that it takes many months (or years) to  get a blog running to it’s potential.

Darren Rowse on How to Become a Full Time Professional Blogger:

In short.

• Pick a topic that you enjoy and have knowledge in

• Set up your blog

• Start writing

• Interact with others writing on the same topic

• Interact with those readers who find your blog

• Find a revenue stream that fits with your niche

• Gradually put more time into blogging and less time into your other work as the income slowly grows from your blogs

• Keep writing

• Keep optimizing your income streams

• Consider starting other blogs

• Repeat all of the above

Darren Rowse’s Advice to Those Just Starting Out as Professional Bloggers:

Start out with a topic that you enjoy. Blogs take a long time to  build up to a point where you’ll earn a good income from them and as  a result you’ll need to be able to see yourself writing on that topic

for the long term.

Darren Rowse on the Future of Blogging: I think we’ll continue to see the collision of many different mediums into one. Video, Audio, Static Images, Blogging, Social Networking,  Bookmarking etc will continue to merge and evolve.

As you can see, Darren’s advice is still valuable today. It’s a formula that has worked for him for several years.