Comments on: The Blog Herald Sold

By: Cary

Cary — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 20:34:34 +0000

Wow… Stuart, you seem to be making huge assumptions about a group of people you don’t know anything about. My wife & I have used blogs to connect with cancer patients all over the world, most of whom are not bloggers.

There are many, many amazing people using blogs to reach out across the gap…

By: Stuart

Stuart — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 11:03:59 +0000

I guess I’m not surprised at the reaction of some people here to another blogger using the Problogger name but as Darren says there really is plenty of room for both Darren and Matt.

In fact it may surprise some people but there are more people out there on the Net who have no idea of what a blog is than there are who do. For those of us here in the blog world it sometimes seems like the centre of the universe but mention the word ‘blog’ to most people and their response is “Huh?”

Names that mean plenty to us are basically unknown to most Net users who couldn’t give a toss about Jason Calacanis or any of the ‘A Listers’ and until bloggers realise that they’re basically minnows in a huge ocean blogging is going to remain insular, isolated and unknown no matter how good we might think it is.

How many of you are actually taking the benefits of blogs to those who know nothing about blogs? How many of you are actively promoting your blogs in any other way than by trading worn out traffic via your blog rolls?

My partner is currently working on a deal to take blogging to aboriginal women who are only now learning how to use a computer. She wants to give them a voice and encourage them to claim their ‘space’ on the Net.

How many of you even bother to talk to your neighbours about it?

Here endeth the rant.

By: Darren Rowse

Darren Rowse — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 10:07:36 +0000

Thanks for your concern Emily but I’m sure Matt’s being genuine in his comments and even if he does have some overlap with ProBlogger.net I’m sure there is plenty of room for everyone – it’s a large niche and in my opinion the more people writing on the topic the better for everyone.

In terms of the name – yep they are pretty similar. I’ve already had a couple of emails from people who have mixed us up that I’ve referred on to Matt.

If I were still in the consulting game (I got out of it a while back except for a very small number of jobs) it could have been a nice little way to find clients for me! :-)

I guess it will probably cause some confusion for some but hopefully not too much.

By: Emily

Emily — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 10:02:33 +0000

I just saw Matt interviewed at a blog called Deep Jive Interests where he said this,

“my writings at Problogger wil (sic) be more about how to build your blogs, make money, find great bloggers, etc.”

once again, I don’t see how this doesn’t compete with ProBlogger.net here as I think most of that is covered here, he even called his ProBlogging.com blog ‘Problogger’! Seems to be some mixed messages coming from Matt today.

By: The Geek

The Geek — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 07:06:14 +0000

Making a blog profitable is not an easy venture. Good luck to the new crew coming in.

By: Emily

Emily — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 07:01:40 +0000

did they ask you when they decided t call themselves problogging.com?

I think they both made a mistake with that (as you have the that brand pretty much sewn up) but also think it is bad form them choosing a name so close to yours. While they say that they are not going to compete with you in that podcast with Aaron it does sounds like they are when they describe some of what they are going to do with the site.

It is interesting that they are talking about building a resource for bloggers when performancing, which seemed to start with the same sort of goals, looks like they are either going out of business, selling up or changing their focus (from what I am hearing being whispered behind closed doors).

Add to that the shambles that I’ve heard 1938media is in (another group that was getting into helping/managing bloggers) with Prince C apparently in massive trouble and I think it is a risky space to be getting into.

Lastly, I was dumbstruck in that interview with Matt when he said that they under estimated how much work it took to run a blog network and that they couldn’t make their blogs profitable. Sounds like just the type of people I would want to hire to consult with in getting into Professional blogging!

By: Robyn Tippins

Robyn Tippins — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 06:09:40 +0000

I’m consulting now more than I am writing. It’s a different mindset. I can’t decide which I like better, but I do enjoy helping a business that has only heard of blogging find a way to make it helpful for them.

I’m speaking locally on blogging/podcasting on Tuesday and most of the execs I’ll be addressing are intrigued about blogging, but don’t know where to start. It’s rather fun being the person that gets to help them along in this regard.

By: James Smit

James Smit — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 03:49:09 +0000

I’m a follower of the blog herald, I do miss the feeling when it just started. I do agree that a strong voice is hard to replaced.

By: Matt Craven

Matt Craven — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 03:41:57 +0000

Thanks for the kind words.

I will confess to being a bit worried about not having a major traffic blog behind problogging.com – but I also believe that we’ll be able to build up traffic there with good content – and good products in our services line – which you’ll see down the road a bit.

Thanks again :)
Matt