Anyhow, I guess you know where I stand on this. I have no problem with making money for bloggers. But my question was to what benefit do the blog networks give to the blogosphere outside of the inner network circle? I’m not certain if I can come up with anything tangible. I was just wondering if you had any thoughts about it.

You will also have to excuse me but I am a mediator by profession and I’m always looking for the win/win proposition. If the networks want to be seen as viable and not just self-serving, I think they need to figure out how give back to the blogosphere as well.

That’s my two cents worth anyhow.

Cheers,

…BB

It’s a big question and one that I guess could be answered from many perspectives.

A few thoughts come to mind – forgive me if this is jumbled but my mind is fried!

The first thing I thought of is that I’m not sure it’s really a blog networks role to offer value to the ‘blogosphere’ as such – my own approach with blog networks is to provide value for blog readers, bloggers who write the blogs, advertisers who wish to highlight their products and services on them and through the blend of that to myself and my partners as owners. It is a business so by definition we want to make it profitable – but the only way of doing that is to find a model that offers value to all of the contributers. This doesn’t just happen but over time – getting the balance right takes time.

Having said that and thinking about the different elements – I wouldn’t say that blog networks are for everyone. I’ve written numerous times about it from a number of perspectives including talking some of the reasons why some bloggers wouldn’t want to join a blog network.

As I say to bloggers who ask me about joining – our model is great for some bloggers but there are others who would do better in other networks or by going it alone. Like anything in life, it’s about looking carefully at the pros and cons and making a smart decision after weighing it all up.

Anyway – not sure all that makes complete sense – getting late here and I’ve been running around all day preparing for a trip. Happy to add more if I’ve not answered the question right.

That said I think it’s important that we disclose product and network affiliations openly when it’s appropriate to do so.

We purchased Blog Network Watch from Martin and will be continuing the work that he began – this gets a bit interesting because we do run some other blogs as well. This post reminds me that we need a very clear disclaimer posted on our site to make sure that our ownership and conflicts are clear.

Matt

thanks for all the comments people. Was expecting a bit more angst on this one – but appreciate people’s comments about ProBlogger so far.

And from what I’ve seen over the past few months you’ve been nothing but upfront about who you are and what you do. It’s not as though all your posts are about YOUR network’s blogs and you give good advice. So carry on with what you’re doing – you’re obviously doing something right!

what helps us helps you.

Thus, the real issue is disclosure. If your readers assume your perspective is that of a balanced observer with no financial stake in the issue, it would be wrong to maintain financial relationships with artcile subjects and not disclose them. If your readers know that you’re a financial partner (as was the case with Darren and b5), they can consider that in any positive commentary you may offer.

FWIW, I think the notion of objectivity is no longer useful. Accuracy, balance and fairness are better metrics for good journalism. Journalists have never been truly objective.

As for the linking between you and Duncan, I have to ask: how can anyone blog about the pro blogging world and not link to your posts? To not link would be to do a disservice to readers.

In such an environment, in-fighting between bloggers should be minimal and concerns such as conflicts of interest of scant importance – your site is of benefit to all and if you should happen to profit from it who cares?

However, as the industry matures and “new” money dries up professional bloggers will start to compete for a greater share of the existing income. It’s at this point that a conflict of interest will be seen as more important if it gives you an unfair advantage.

Having read your site for a while it would appear that your business ethos is to keep things sufficiently transparent to avoid any serious allegations that you gain an unfair advantage.

Did I miss anything? I don’t think so. Everybody here knows what’s going on. Darren helps bloggers earn money. Darren is partner in a blog network b5media. Darren has his own network of blogs, most listed at the bottom of every page. So far .. action speaks louder than words .. or anonymous rantings.

I’m with Fly Girl…. ‘next’ :-)

However, Something good did come out of this post.. I now have learned of another blog network .. of Mike! That cat pause looks interesting for starters…

if Bill Gates wrote a review about OpenOffice I would like to read it.

Personally I don’t think it goes much past that.

However, given the complexity of the internet, it’s unlikely that any authority would go into such detail unless the offender was a mega-player in the Microsoft league. Much activity on the internet is probably illegal, or subject to tax, on a strict interpretation. But…life’s too short, and it’s the legislators’ fault in the first place for creating the uninterpretable complexity.

The reason I keep coming back is because what you do is what your write about. If you weren’t involved in making money blogging, this blog wouldnt’ be popular, but you’ll still get the people who complain you ::gasp:: make money on this blog (though I remember you saying it was a pittance).

If you had a blog network and didn’t blog about it on your professional blogger site, that’d be dumb. JMO

C of I only comes into play when part of the info is kept secret. If I’ve been reading right, you are divulging secrets here, sharing them with the world.

I’d note also that if you look at my Blog Network coverage recently you’ll see a lot more stories on other blog networks than you would have seen on b5media. Indeed perhaps I need to post more on it :-)

Conflict of interest? maybe, its something I’ve considered, but I don’t see any reason to change, its worked well for 3 years. Indeed if we want to talk money it would be far more profitable for me to stop writing the Blog Herald and do something else with the time, because at the end of the day blogging terms don’t pay a lot and if I was doing a different topic with the same zeal I’d be a 6 figure blogger like Darren. Its important to note, a bit like Darren with Problogger, that writing about blogs is really about a passion as opposed to business, so I’d suggest that if profit was the only motive than the conflict of interest would be there. Its not.

Some might consider this naieve, but the way I see it, “conflict of interest” has absolutely no relevance in this context. ProBlogger is a blog about making money…it’s one man’s opinion…and for as long as I’ve been reading it, I’ve never seen you claim it to be anything else. Unless you are explicitly selling your blog as “News,” as in you’re trying to act as an online journalist, you have no responsibility to be completely objective…heck, that’s why I specifically label my blog as “commentary.” I blog to express my opinion, and let’s face it, you’re entire readership is here to get your valuable opinion. They aren’t here to get news.

Unless you claim to be unobjective, conflict of interest is a non-issue.

Just my 2 cents.

You are taking your time to teach all who read here about blogging so why shouldn’t you link to your other blogs and to your network?

That isn’t a conflict of interest – that’s just common sense, good business practice and for the rest of us it’s a cost of getting your good advice and help.

Damn … some of these people who attack you and proclaim conflict of interests need to get in touch with reality.

A conflict of interest would be if you ran this site and didn’t use it to promote your network and didn’t use it to point out what you see as the genuine failings in some of those other networks.

All this touchie- feelie crap that some of your critics come up with about conflicts of interest absolutely crack me up.

This is the real world people – get with the plan or continue to make cab fare. The choice is yours but don’t waste your time criticising someone like Darren because you’re just making yourselves look dumb.