He caught up with me over email last week to talk about Incsub’s brand new offering: Blogs.mu.

So what’s the difference between, say, Blogs.mu and WordPress.com?

Well, the main difference is that at Blogs.mu you become the blog provider, and you have a huge amount of flexibility and functionality that you just won’t get anywhere else.

It’s like WordPress.com in a box really, only better! Once you’re up and running you can create and host as many blogs as you want, at your own domain.

You’ve been able to do this for a while using WordPress MU but that’s been pretty hard as you need to setup hosting, run installation, download and configure themes and plugins etc.

Now though, we do that all for you… and you are free to grow your blog network or community in whatever niche you like – and, of course, run your own advertising!

It’s white label blog networks if you will… kinda like Ning.com for blogging.

So, you say users can run their own advertising, how does that work?

Blogs.mu Supporters (starting from 5 cents per blog per month) can run their own advertising across the entire network just by dropping in any ad code – it’s simple and very effective (or at least we like to think that!)

Every blog theme has 4 ad ‘spots’: under the post title and above the content, under the content and above the comments and at the top of each sidebar – as well as across a footer slot, for running JS contextual ads like Kontera or similar.

And you can set display rules for your ads too – like ‘only show them to IE browsers’ or ‘only show them to search engine visitors’ so you can make money like WordPress.com too… without annoying your users.

So what’s with the MU, are you big in Mauritius?

Heh, very funny, the MU actually stands for MultiUser – as in WordPress MU – also known as WPMU. We love the platform and have been on it from the start – one our WPMU Sites (Edublogs) is older than WordPress.com by 3 weeks… so we know what we’re doing.

And yeh, we did the obvious as well and setup WP.MU too – it’s an installation service for people who do want to get down and dirty with the guts of it all.

So we hope we’re covering every base!

And how do you think Problogger readers could best use Blogs.mu?

Well, I’m hoping there are a heap of ways that established and aspiring probloggers could use Blogs.mu. First up, if you’ve got an active community then this is a great way to get them writing in your space (you could even configure your site to a subdomain of your existing site!)

Another way would be that it’s a really affordable and powerful way to run your own 10 or so blog network.

Either way there are tons of advertising opportunities – and we’re looking into incorporating eCommerce, membership subscriptions, ‘pay to blog’ features and more pretty shortly.

Also, we’ve got some forums up and running for existing and prospective users (it’s completely free to join) at forums.blogs.mu so if any of your readers would like us to consider or build in specific features – we’d love to hear from them!

Check out Blogs.mu for yourself.

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

Interview with Blogs.mu founder James Farmer

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It is for that reason that I’m really excited about a brand new service that has just launched – Blogs.mu.

Blogs.mu is essentially your own blog network in a box. It allows you to set up your own WordPress.com type community using the powerful WordPress Multi User platform – this opens up many possibilities both for existing and new bloggers.

There’s a lot to be said about Blogs.mu so I’ll let you peruse their site to learn whether it fits with your needs but a few highlights include:

• Let your readers start blogs or just limit it to starting your own on sub domains
• Run advertising on it
• Using it on your own domain
• Lots of Themes built in
• Plugins pre installed
• Import previous blogs into Blogs.mu
• Support forums

The service is free with loads of features but you get extra capabilities and unlock some of the above features (and others) by becoming a Blogs.mu supporter. Support packs start out at $9 a month for a 10 blog pack.

Blogs.mu has been developed by Inscub – a team with a heap of experience using WordPress MU who have helped set up and run some massive WPMU blog networks. I’ll have an interview with James Farmer from Inscub later today to talk more about Blogs.mu – but in the mean time it might be well worth your time to sign up and reserve your Blogs.mu community name and preferred url before someone else does.

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

Start Your Own Blog Network or Community with Blogs.mu

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I’ve read thousands of blogging applications over the last few years. And while explaining what I look for in a blogger is pretty much like trying to pinpoint what one looks for in a mate – generic and unhelpful for any prospects – I can very clearly describe what prompts me to put an application in the “no” pile before I even finish reading it. Unfortunately, these are the applications I get more than any others. Eight out of ten applications inevitably go into the trash because of the following.

1. Write in no caps.

Yes, you’re only applying to a blog, but we still publish all our posts with capital letters and proper grammar. Hit that shift key when you start a sentence, and refer to yourself as I, not i. This is a real, paying gig, so be professional.

2. Use the word blog incorrectly.

A blogger is so much more than a writer, so if you don’t understand this, at least don’t announce it. You can use blog as a verb. I blog frequently is fine. You can also refer to our site as a blog. After all, we are looking for a blogger. But never call a post or an article, a blog. Don’t tell me you can write several blogs for us per day. Don’t say you’ve attached sample blogs. When in doubt, just use write or articles or site instead.

3. Provide one link to your blog as writing samples.

It is human nature to be proud of every post on your blog. Selecting just a few for sampling purposes might feel like I’m asking you to pick a favorite child. However, it is not possible for me to look through your entire repertoire. By selecting two or three of your best posts, you are showing me that you know how to identify great content, and that you’ve put some thought and effort into the application. I also use the samples to determine how well you understand the type of posts that fit well on our site.

4. Let me know I can request writing samples.

Nothing tells me that you’re sending out mass emails to any publisher around like an email that says “writing samples can be provided by request.” My job posting only asks for two things: topic ideas and writing samples. Don’t write me a long cover letter explaining why you’re perfect for the job, attach your resume (which I didn’t ask for), and then say that I can request writing samples. Why would I bother hiring anybody I already know I’ll need to ask twice for anything?

5. Spell our site name incorrectly.

If the job description says Wise Bread, please don’t write Wisebread.

6. Ask me the next day whether I’ve gotten your application.

My autoreply message specifically says that we can’t respond to every single applicant, but that we appreciate every application and will consider each one carefully. During a recruiting round, I get hundreds of applications a day, on top of the daily load of regular emails. I honestly don’t know if I’ve gotten your application. Most likely I haven’t even read it yet. All I can do is tell you the exact thing my autoreply already did: “We’ll let you know if we find a good fit.” I know you want to show that you are a person who takes the initiative, but what you’re actually doing is slowing down the process for everyone.

7. Give me a 31 page writing sample.

Don’t send me your college thesis. I won’t have time to read it and your application won’t be considered.

8. Be a mercenary.

I know serious freelancers write for multiple sites. But if you tell me you write for 20 different sites, and can do 10 articles a day for us, you’re telling me that you’re just a content machine who’s only concerned about your ROI.

9. Give me irrelevant writing samples.

You might not have any samples that fit our site’s topic, but at least pick samples that have the proper tone, length, and style. I don’t want a press release, letter of recommendation, or book report you thought was fantastic (although these can be included as extra samples to show your range).

10. Tell me your life story.

Getting to know bloggers and connecting with them on a personal level is my favorite part of the job. The cover letter is a way to let your personality shine through, as well as make you stand out in the sea of generic cover letters. However, your cover letter is not the appropriate place to talk about your personal problems or struggles that are not related to the position. Please only give me relevant experiences and tell me how you feel about our site. Keep it professional, please.

11. Ask for more information without including an application.

Sometimes I get an email that says “I’d like to apply, but would like to get more information first.” I understand that some writers are wary about sending writing samples, because some unscrupulous site burned you before and published your samples without your permission. But you have to tell me what additional information you are looking for, so I can properly respond.

Concluding Thoughts

Many bloggers miss out on great gigs because they simply don’t take the application process seriously. Sure, blogs generally aren’t as corporate and stuffy. I might be in my PJs reading your application in bed, but that doesn’t mean I’m still not looking for bloggers who show professionalism.

Keep in mind that writing for a quality blog can really raise your profile. Many of the great bloggers we have hired from the Problogger Job Board get frequent mentions and interviews from major news outlets like the New York Times, ABC, FOX, CNBC, and Self Magazine. Many of our bloggers also contributed to our upcoming book, 100,001 Ways to Live Large on a Small Budget, which will allow them to put the coveted “published author” designation on their resumes. It is therefore worth your effort to complete a professional and compelling application.

My biggest tip for anyone applying for a blogging job (any job, really) is to read the job posting carefully. All the information and instructions you need is there, so just pay attention. It’s fine to send extra information and materials, but make sure to include everything that is asked for.

I hope these tips can prevent otherwise talented bloggers from missing out on great blogging opportunities!

Lynn Truong is co-founder of Wise Bread, a top Personal Finance site that helps readers live large on a small budget.

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

How to NOT get Hired for a Blogging Job

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Some of it is as a result of the closing of the Know More Media blog network, some of it as a result of AOL and Gawker making changes to the way their networks pay bloggers and some of it is…. well…. just because every six or so months there seems to be talk about blog networks.

Today one of my co-founders in b5media (and our CEO) Jeremy Wright put together a post that I think picks up a lot of the themes and casts some light on what it’s like to run a blog network. Effectively Jeremy has written 6 posts in one (I really have to teach this guy about writing a series of posts :-) )and covers:

1. A summary of some of the talk going on around the blogosphere on the topic with some great links
2. 10 Reasons Managing Bloggers (and Blog Ads) Is Harder Than Your Grandma’s Corns
3. 3 Simple Tips for Starting a Blog Network
4. Thoughts on Starting a Blog Alliance
5. 3 Tips for Starting a Blog Ad Network
6. Final Tip(s) for Success for Everyone

Depending upon where you’re at in your own development of blogging I think there’s something in this post for everyone. Read it here.

Jeremy’s reasons why managing bloggers and blog ads is hard will be particularly insightful for those starting out with networks because I often come across bloggers who think blog networks an easy way to make money – you simply just hire extra writers and slap more ads on the blogs right? Ummm…. time for a reality check – my experience of blog networks is that while you can potentially multiple your income with more blogs you also multiple the headaches, challenges, problems and risks.

Jeremy’s tips for those starting out are also useful.

Further Reading

A few posts from my archives that might be useful for bloggers wanting to start or join blog networks:

• A Strategy for Building Niche Focused Blog Networks (if I were starting again today it’d be with this approach. While I fully believe in the model b5 is pursuing (we’ve gone wide with lots of niches) it is a lot harder to do this now and presents a lot of challenges)
• Why Should You Join a Blog Network
• Why You Shouldn’t Join a Blog Network
• How to Launch a Blog Network

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

Talking Blog Networks

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Having done a couple of blog-a-thons myself I know how much work is involved – so do drop by some of the blogs in those channels and give their bloggers some support and donations.

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

b5media Blogathon – Now On!

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While the income from blogs I own is rising steadily, the bulk of the money I earn blogging comes from maintaining blogs for other networks and individuals. It’s the network blogging thing I’d like to talk to you about today.

Many people balk at the idea of writing for a network because they feel there are too many rules or the pay is too low. I’m here to tell you this doesn’t have to be the case. Network blogging can be a great career boost – and very lucrative if you give it your all.

What follows are a few network survival tips.

1. Don’t balk at the base – Don’t let a low base pay keep you from blogging for a network. For most networks that’s just a starting point. The key to making money for a network are the traffic bonuses. With blogging, you get what you give. If you work hard to promote your blog and bring in traffic, those bonus bucks will add up. Trust me, I know. I’ve made four figures a month with my network blogs – mostly due to good traffic.

2. Don’t Choose a Topic You Know Nothing About – Because you’ll be blogging every day, you really do need to be passionate about your topic. If you choose a topic you don’t really know or enjoy it will soon be clear to you – and your readers. The most unhappy bloggers are the ones who aren’t blogging their passion. People who enjoy their topics never run out of things to write about.

3. Be a team player – When I worked in a corporate office I hated all mentions of teamwork. With network blogging it’s a different story. When I worked with a team in an office, someone else took credit for my work and very rarely was I rewarded for my efforts. With blogging, you want to work with other bloggers to promote each other and raise awareness and bring traffic to your blogs. Do take advantage of channel wide promotions and be free with your link love. Other bloggers will appreciate your efforts and do the same. You’ll also find yourself making some wonderful friends.

4. Stick to a schedule – The best way to meet your monthly quotas is to create a schedule and stick to it as best your can. When you’re blogging for a network it’s all about meeting your monthly quota. If you’re juggling multiple blogs, this isn’t so easy. I had a couple of bad months when I strayed from my routine. When you don’t post on a regular basis, and meet your weekly or monthly obligations, your pay and traffic suffers.

5. Establish a relationship with other network bloggers – With blogging, it’s definitely who you know. As mentioned above, successful bloggers scratch each others’ backs. If you find yourself unable to meet your obligations due to illness or emergency, your fellow network bloggers are always happy to help out.

6. Take advantage of channel and network-wide promotions – Many networks or channels have particular theme days or promotions. Do take part. They’re a lot of fun and can be a great way to introduce others to your blog. Usually those participating in the promotion will post links to all participating blogs.

7. Don’t be afraid to take on a co blogger – If you constantly find yourself behind but don’t want to give up your blog(s) consider taking on a co-blogger. I recently did so and found it to be a very positive experience. It brings a new voice to the blog and relieves some of the pressure of posting daily.

8. Take advantage of network training sessions and chats – If your network has regular chats or training sessions do yourself a favor and attend. They’re a goldmine of information! You’ll learn traffic tips, SEO tips, tips for writing content and more. Attendance isn’t usually mandatory, but where else can you get free training from experts in the field?

9. Don’t be afraid to have fun and inject a little personality – Many times bloggers feel that because they’re an authority, they should sound…well…clinical. This is fine if you want to put your readers to sleep. By all means, be factual, but use your real voice to keep people interested. And don’t be afraid to use humor, videos, cartoons, polls and quizzes to make things a little more interesting.

10. Speaking of video – Use it! I recently invested in a little Flip camera and use it to show product reviews and DIY updates. My readers respond to this because they get to hear my voice and also, I get to show them as well as tell them. I especially like video for product reviews as the reader can see what the product looks like, judge its size and also have a more honest review.

Are you a network blogger? If so, what survival tips would you like to add? If you’re not a network blogger, are there any questions you’d like to ask regarding blogging for a network?

You might know Deborah Ng from her blogs Freelance Writing Jobs, which is the number one freelance writing community online, and Network Blogging Tips . For a peek at jus a few of her network blogs visit Deb at Simply Thrifty, The List Maven and News from the Glamorati.

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

10 Network Blogging Survival Tips

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Regular readers of ProBlogger will be familiar with Wendy Piersall from eMomsatHome.com. I’ve watched Wendy establish a presence with her own first blog and then in more recent times expand it into a small blog network of 7 blogs.

A few weeks ago she emailed me to talk about the rebranding and naming of her blog network. I’ve been fortunate enough to see a little of her journey of grappling with this new process and am really happy to be able to officially announce that eMomsatHome.com is now….((insert drum roll here))….

Sparkplugging

As I post this Wendy and her team are rolling it all out (still a few little touches still to go – these things take a little time to transition).

Wendy asked me if I’d like the scoop of announcing the new name and I suggested that we take it a step further and that she allow me to ask her a few questions about the process of switching names. She agreed and here’s my mini interview with Wendy.

Why did you feel the need to change your brand’s name?

Since I started eMoms at Home initially as a hobby site, I didn’t really think of the long-term consequences of naming a site that excludes half of the human race. I started noticing it as a problem very early on, about 5 months after I started. I had a lot of dads and non-parents frequenting the site. But I also had people say things like, “Oh, I didn’t pay attention to your site because I thought it was only for moms”.

I thought that I could build up the brand enough to overcome the initial limitations, but recently at the SXSW conference, it just became painfully clear that we had completely outgrown our name. People flat out told me they would never have read our site based on our name – even though they admitted that they had an active interest in our content. I could now see that ‘eMoms at Home’ was actively holding us back from further growth.

Can you talk us through how you went about making this change?

Understanding our Audience
Quite honestly it was an extraordinarily difficult process. At first I came up with several names around ‘parents’, and when I asked for input from our readers, the feedback was fascinating. Many of them weren’t parents, and even those that were parents didn’t want to come to a ‘parenting site’ for their business information. I hadn’t expected that at all. And it made the naming process 100% more difficult as I realized this wasn’t just a naming issue, but the site needed to entirely reposition itself to truly serve our readers needs.

So I took a step back from our site being a site for parents in business – which was not easy for me personally, because I’m very proud of the work we have done to help working parents. But in order to really serve our readers, I realized that we needed to position ourselves as a resource for people who use the internet and technology to create flexible work for themselves – both parents and non parents.

Domain Research Hell
I hadn’t looked to purchase a domain name of this magnitude of importance for 2 years. It was astonishing to see just how much the domain squatting industry has been built up in that time. I found hundreds of potential names, yet all were taken and had made for AdSense sites on them. I think I spent over 100 hours on domain research and brainstorming.

Another factor is that our audience, while extremely experienced in business, doesn’t really have a standard ‘label’. They don’t really consider themselves ‘home business owners’ nor do they consider themselves ‘true entrepreneurs’. They are a vastly diverse group of amazing people that kind of fall in between those two stereotypes, and call themselves things like “author, blogger, consultant, freelancer, moonlighter, marketers, or tech geeks”. I couldn’t really choose one one of those names, because any of them would be too limiting.

More below the screen caps…

Finding the Right Metaphor
So the quest for something brandable and metaphorical began, and it was excruciating. I emailed nearly every marketer I knew asking for help and advice, including you, Toby Bloomberg, Susan Payton, and Marla Tabaka, my business coach. PickyDomains offered their help, and I also found WordLab, a free naming forum. All were extremely helpful – none came up with the right name.

Finally, after probably 10,000 page views on Thesaurus.com, I came upon the word Sparkplug used as an adjective, “A person who makes things happen”. Immediately I knew I had found my metaphor. At that point, I just had to find a good domain with some version of that word in it. That took another week, and I had to stalk a few domain owners to try and get them to sell their domains. In the end, I was able to purchase our domain from the owner who was going to let it expire in about 60 days. And we are now Sparkplugging – Thinking Big in the New Work at Home Generation.

Now that you’ve made the decision to make the change, can you tell us about your plans to transition from the old brand and name to the new one?

I already had plans in place to add new blogs to my blog network in March. The naming process delayed that project, and all of us were happy to get that name picked so that we could get back to doing what we do best – blogging.

I pestered Aaron Wall and my Twitter followers quite a bit for information on how to manage creating accurate 301 server redirects, because even my very experienced developer had never moved a site of our size to a new domain. I’m pretty confident we’ll be fine, but I do anticipate taking a hit in traffic from Google for a while.

An unexpected casualty of this process was that I didn’t know what to do with my own blog on the network with this new name. I never liked that my blog was the same name as the site – I thought it was confusing. But in order to continue to be the ‘flagship’ blog of my own network, I realized I couldn’t be focused so much on Moms anymore, which again was difficult for me personally. I really was only able to be OK with that decision by adding a blog to the network specific to work at home moms, because helping moms start a business is just so near and dear to my heart. I found the perfect person to do that, Kelly McCausey. She’s a very well known WAHM and I was thrilled to get her involved. And my own blog will be named Sparkplug CEO and shift focus a bit to be more entrepreneurial, especially because I’m thinking of doing some much bigger things with the site under our new name.

So right when we change, we’ll be launching the first two of ten new blogs we’re adding to the network, The Home Office Organizer & Believer in Balance. Then to keep up our momentum (and keep people coming back!), we’ll be launching 2 more blogs a week for the following 4 weeks. Of course, we’ll do things like contests, press releases, and hit our word of mouth efforts heavily as well. Plus we’ll put a huge focus on rebuilding links to the new domain. Giving up our Technorati rank is admittedly a blow, but obviously what’s best for the company comes before anything like that.

Honestly, I feel like I am in very uncharted territory. I know that The Mining Company changed their name once upon a time to About.com, but I haven’t seen any large blogs do anything like this. So as much as I can prepare for it, I know full well that I’m going to be totally learning-as-we-go. Many people in the blogging community have offered to help spread the word and I really don’t think that we could pull something like this off without the support of our readers and peers. Overall this has been both a rewarding and humbling experience – and I couldn’t be more grateful for my authors, my friends, and my colleagues who have helped us grow to this point, and who will be there for us as we change.

Ultimately it’s really an honor to be a resource for our community, as I’m sure you well know, Darren. :)

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

Renaming eMomsatHome to SparkPlugging [Interview]

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“Here we’ll share tips, advice and ideas for those who blog for someone else. We’ll offer commiseration, jobs tips and even occasional leads.”

Disclaimer: Both of these bloggers are bloggers at b5media (the network I co-founded) – however I never realized they were doing this til I saw David blogging about it.

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

Network Blogging Tips

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This isn’t to say that starting a blog network with a wide focus on many topics can’t work – at b5media we’ve managed to grow to 315 blogs on everything from Tax to Bags to College Basketball to MTV Reality TV – however starting a network with such a wide focus is a challenging thing and to kick something off around a more focused niche has some distinct advantages.

Advantages of a Niche Focussed Blog Network

1. For starters having related blogs means you can cross promote and leverage the traffic from one blog to promote another
2. Secondly it has some advantages for selling advertising directly to advertisers. If you have two blogs on completely different topics it’s virtually impossible to sell ads on both of them to the same advertiser but if you have two blogs with similar reader demographics it doesn’t take much to upsell advertisers to run campaigns on both.
3. Thirdly – it can help with your SEO to be interlinking related sites.

How I’d start a Niche Focused Blog Network

1. Work hard at building a blog with a good profile and traffic base on a single focused topic

One of the mistakes that I think some bloggers make is that they bite off more than they can chew in the early stages. They hear about some of the big blog networks and think that the key to success is to launch with lots of blogs. While it might be impressive to launch with 10 or 20 blogs, unless you have an established team and serious time on your hands you’re setting yourself up for a nightmare when it comes to keeping them all running. You’ll also probably spread yourself too thin and never really develop any of the blogs to their full potential.

If I were taking this approach I’d pick a topic for the first blog that was reasonably wide and that had scope to be broken down further later. I would work hard on this first blog for months (probably 6 or so) before even thinking about launching more blogs. The key is to build it to a point where you can use it as a springboard for further expansion.

2. Leverage the First Blog

nce you have an established readership I would then begin to think about how to leverage my first blog’s profile and traffic to start a second blog. This second blog should relate at some level to the first either in terms of topic or demographic. Let me flesh these two options out a little more.

Topic – By topic I mean that the second blog should relate to the first blog’s niche focus. It could do this in two ways.

Firstly it could either pick up one of the topics that the first blog covers – perhaps by taking one of the categories of the first blog and expanding it into a blog focused upon that specific topic (see image below). An example of this here at ProBlogger would be if I were to start a second blog on the topic of SEO (a topic I touch on from time to time in my SEO category).

The second way is to pick a related topic to the first that isn’t really gone into in much detail on the first one. There may be some overlap but it’s limited. An example of this here at ProBlogger would be if I were to start a blog on ‘Video Blogging’. I’ve never really written on this topic but I’ve done a little video blogging and there is a definite cross over in terms of topic.

By choosing a topic that relates to the first blog (using either of the above methods) you’re more likely to be able to draw some of your existing readers into your second blog.

Demographics – the second way to choose a topic is to think about the type of reader that you already have reading your first blog and to pick a topic that might appeal to them. This is in effect what the Gawker blog network has done. They’ve started a series of blogs that share a certain demographic (young, largely male, edgey readers). So blogs on gadgets, porn, tech, cars, gaming etc have done well for them as they’ve been able to cross promote – not because the topics really relate but because the audience shares numerous interests. Lets illustrate it visually:

Firstly we have the first blog and their readers:

And next the second blog is added and rather than the topics overlapping we see the second blog targets a similar kind of reader.

Whether your second blog relates to the first by topic or demographic (or both) the key is to think about ways of cross promoting the two and drawing readers from your first blog to your second. In this way you give yourself a head start.

Another example of this is Wendy’s eMomsatHome network of blogs. Wendy started out as a single blog but in the last year has added 6 blogs to her network. All of these blogs relate to one another in terms of both topic and demographic (she’s targeting online working parents).

3. Extract Yourself from Your Blogs

It’s not easy writing on more than a single blog. At one point in my own blogging ‘career’ I was attempting to write on 15 or so blogs each week. Let me tell you, this is not sustainable. It’s just not possible to provide quality content on that many different topics – even if they relate to one another. At some point you need to find a way to extract yourself from your blogs and to work with others so that you can expand. This might happen while you still have one blog – or it might happen after you’ve started a 2nd or 3rd – but it needs to happen before too long or you’ll hit a ceiling of what you can achieve.

If I were starting out again I’d attempt to bring on a second writer (or more) as quickly as possible. Hiring writers is a topic for another post (here’s something we’ve published previously on the topic of hiring writers) but it doesn’t have to be that hard. I recently advertised for bloggers for my photography blog on my own blogger job board and had 50+ quality applicants within a day or two. It was then a matter of choosing those that I thought fitted best and negotiating conditions with them. It takes a little while to get everyone settled and working well but it’s one of the best things I’ve ever done and has allowed me to spend more time on other tasks.

4. Rinse and Repeat

The more you blog in a niche the better you get at identifying new potential topics for blogs. This comes through interacting with readers, listening to their questions, watching the trends in your niche and watching what other blogs are starting up around you. As you do this you’ll begin to see other topics that relate to your current blogs and reader demographics. When you notice them and if you feel you have the resources to kick start another blog – do it. Once you’ve started a few you will find that the process for starting up will get easier and you may be able to use some of your current writers on new blogs (at b5 we find that using our current bloggers can be good because it means we don’t need to retrain from scratch – however you don’t want to stretch them too thinly). The key is to launch blogs that relate to your current ones in some way so that you get that kick start we talked about earlier.

In a sense what I’ve described is what I did in my early days of blogging by going from having a Digital Camera Review Watch site to adding Digital Photography School. In doing so I was able to promote DPS to my existing readers and newsletter subscribers and launch with a thousand or so daily readers pretty quickly.

This strategy is also quite similar to what b5media has been doing with our ‘channels’ or ‘verticals’. While we’ve gone wide with quite unrelated topics we’ve also grouped them together in channels under the leadership/editorship of ‘channel editors’.

Further Reading: Last year I wrote a post on How to Launch a Blog Network which bounced off a post that David wrote on the topic. In that post I told some of the story and lessons learnt in the development of b5media. Hopefully between that post and this one there will be some help for those starting out on the blog network journey.

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

A Strategy for Building Niche Focused Blog Networks

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Valleywag today has a post on Gawker’s new blogger pay structure – they’re moving to a system where their bloggers are paid based upon traffic levels. It’s a smart way to go – we’ve been doing a similar system (base pay which is based upon how long you’ve been blogging with us plus traffic bonus) at b5media for a while now.

I think it’s good because it guarantees a minimum level of income that a blogger can expect to earn in a month but gives incentive to write the type of posts that get traffic.

Other systems that I’ve heard other blog networks using include:

• Payments Per Post – a flat fee per post (I’ve heard of anything from a few dollars up to hundreds of dollars per post – depending upon the blog, topic, blogger profile and post length)
• Revenue Share – where the blogger earns an agreed upon percentage of their blog’s revenue (I’ve heard anything from 20% to 80% splits)
• Revenue Share of Certain Income Streams – where the blogger takes a % of one or two income streams and the network takes other income streams (for example a blogger might take 80% of AdSense revenue and the network takes the other 20% plus any other income from the blog). Another variation on this is where the blogger is allowed to use affiliate programs and the network takes advertising revenue.
• Traffic Payments - some networks pay purely on traffic levels – a CPM model (ie blogger is paid $X per 1000 page views)
• Flat Monthly Fees – the blogger is paid a certain amount per month if they reach certain posting goals.

I’m sure there are plenty of other blogger payment models used in other networks (there are plenty of variations and combinations of the above too). I’d love to hear of others you’ve heard of or used.

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

Blog Networks and How They Pay Bloggers

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As I read his post a few comments on his list come to mind. Let me attempt to add a little of the wisdom accidental learning that I’ve gleaned from the process of being involved in the launch and growth of b5media. Let me pick up a few of the areas that David writes about (there’s more in his post that I won’t cover):

Points 1 to 4 – Money

You don’t actually need a lot of money to launch a blog network – however it does help and it does accelerate the growth significantly. I don’t remember the exact figure but when we started b5media the founders each put in around $200 (it could have been a little more or a little less). We decided early on that we wanted to not put too much into it but would grow it gradually as we went and put any profits back into the company.

This worked well for us – we each put in the skills we had and were able to get things up and running reasonably well with just a few hundred dollars. We did already have some profile between us and called in a couple of favors – but we only ever added to that few hundred dollars once more (again with $100 or so).

Having said this – after a year or so we took on $2,000,000 investment and the money certainly didn’t hurt – in fact it accelerated our growth incredibly. So it is handy – but not absolutely essential to have a lot of. I guess the key take home lesson is that if you don’t have a lot of money to accelerate your growth slowly but steadily and to not expect to take any money out of the business but to invest it back in. Also – devise a blogger payment system that doesn’t pay out more than you receive if you don’t have cash reserves.

Points 5 and 6 – Goals

Good advice here from David – we’ve set Goals all along the journey. These goals included how many blogs we wanted to have, setting deadlines for different projects, setting goals for income etc. Going through the process of seeking Venture Capital took this goal setting to a whole new level. You should see some of the models and projections that Jeremy (our CEO) put together in the lead up to landing investment. It was a lot of work – but even just in the preparation stage and the thinking strategically about where we wanted the company to be in the years ahead was a great learning experience and something that helped us grow in and of itself.

I think David’s point of putting people around you to help you achieve these goals is important too. We did this initially as a team – but involving VCs helped a lot with this too. We’re also exploring ways of doing this with others outside the company too (we should have an announcement on this in the coming weeks).

Points 7 to 11 – Blog Overview

One of the keys to launching multiple blogs is to develop systems to help you do this. We now have around 270 blogs in the network (we’ll hit 300 in the coming months). Launching one single blog (and then managing it) can be an overwhelming enough task – but doing it with hundreds in just a few years is a real challenge and means you must have procedures in place around design, recruiting bloggers, launching the blogs publicly etc.

I won’t pretend to understand how our tech team does it – but they have streamlined the process so that a blog can be up and running quickly. We have a procedure for our Channel Editors to follow in recruiting bloggers. We have things that need to be done before launch by bloggers and have systems in place. We have systems for maintaining blogs so that we don’t have to make individual changes on each blog if we want to make tweaks – but can instead manage it all centrally. We have processes that streamline blogger payments. (I could go on)

This doesn’t just happen (we are still tweaking and streamlining things) – but the earlier you start to put procedures like these in place to help you automate processes or at least cut down the work needed the less work you and your team will need to do. Without doing this you’ll end up hitting a ceiling of how much you can do and won’t be able to continue to scale things up!

Points 12 to 14 – Hosting

Hosting is critical to a blog network (or even a single blog). When you scale things up it becomes all the more essential that you have good systems in place. Again – this is not my area of expertise (you’d have to ask Aaron our Director of Technology for more details) but it’s something we’ve worked hard on and dedicated significant resources to.

I always remember Jason Calacanis talking in the early days of Weblogs Inc about hosting issues being the major challenge. Most blog networks go through patches where they struggle with it – we’ve been no exception. I think one of the keys is to keep ahead of your growth and to have a system in place that will not only handle your blogs current traffic – but their future traffic (and a little more, in case three of them land on the front page of Digg simultaneously).

Points 18 to 21 – Advertising

Thinking about how you’ll monetize your blogs is obviously something you’ll want to put significant time into. In the early days for us this was almost exclusively with AdSense. It didn’t take long for us to realize that while AdSense converted reasonably well on some of our blogs that it didn’t with others. We began to explore other options including YPN (Yahoo’s version of AdSense), Text Link Ads and a variety of other ad networks. We also began to develop relationships with other ad partners, look at selling private advertising etc.

The key is to quickly realize that there is no one ad solution that will convert on every blog and to experiment, tweak and track how different ones work for your blogs.

We also took on an ad sales team to help us sell ad space directly to advertisers. This is key to scaling things up to the next level.

Points 25 and 26 – Graphics

I don’t think that each blog in your network needs to look completely unique – however it is important to have some elements that are. This is a balancing act – but one worth thinking through. Most of the blogs in our network have the same template but all have their own logos and color schemes. This enables us to make changes quickly to templates across the network but give each blog it’s own brand and look.

I guess this depends somewhat on how many blogs you’ll have in your network. If it’s a small network it probably is less important to have standardized design.

Points 29-31 – Writers

Finding quality bloggers is essential for a blog – or a blog network. We’ve learned a lot about recruiting and managing bloggers and I have no doubt that we’ll continue to learn a lot more.

A few random lessons:

• Know what You’re Looking for - advertising for bloggers and taking anyone who applies doesn’t work. Define what you’re looking for and don’t take people on who compromise this too much. There’s more work in having to let a blogger go than in holding off for an extra week or so to find the right person. Read more on some of the lessons I’ve learned Advertising for Bloggers
• Don’t change the Rules too often – while the systems that you set up will never stay the same – changing things around too much too quickly is unsettling for your bloggers (this includes payment systems, the tech side of things, procedures etc).
• Create Community and Add Value - some of our bloggers would probably blog for no money simply because they enjoy the community aspects of b5. Add value to what you pay people where you can by creating ways for your bloggers to connect, running internal competitions, offering training, having newsletters etc. However – also keep in mind that not all of your bloggers are wired this way for community – forcing them into it can be frustrating to both you and them.
• Look for more than just Writers – recruit people who are not just good writers – but people who have more skills and experiences to bring to the table. I personally look for previous examples of where people have been successful at building things up, people who know how to promote themselves, people who are willing to promote and market their blogs rather than just put content on it. Finding those that go the extra mile will often lead to great blogs.

Points 36 to 38 – Domains

Picking domains is something that we’ve put a lot of time into. It’s also something that we’ve always had fun (and fights) with. Like David writes – picking domains is important. We have taken different approaches with them but ideally it is memorable, good for SEO (keywords can help), says something about the topic, isn’t too long, doesn’t have hyphens, is a .com and is catchy/brandable. Having said all that – sometimes it’s impossible to get everything you want and a less than ideal domain isn’t the be all and end all.

Points 39 and 40 – Workflow

I’ve already touched on the importance for good systems. They’ll help you scale up, improve internal communication and cut down a lot of work. We’ve used a variety of different internal communication and management tools including Wikis, internal forums, tools like Basecamp and internal mailing lists (we use Google Groups to manage many of these).

In terms of blogger workflow – we tend to leave this up to bloggers. Some use blog editors, others prefer to work in the back end of WP etc.

Point 41 – Management

It’s so important to have a good team in place – particularly if you’re looking to really scale things up. We started with a group of pretty experienced bloggers as our founding team – but soon realized that while we had skills and experience in blogging that if we wanted to grow that we’d need to fill in the gaps in our combined skill set and also hire people to help manage the workload.

In addition to hiring bloggers we’ve hired numerous others including administrators, tech team (including WP experts, code ninjas, hosting gurus, designers), ad sales team and a variety of other managers. At last count I think we had 14 staff (mostly full time) and there are more to be announced in the coming weeks.

Yes having a team this large costs – but it is also the reason we’ve been able to grow so quickly.

Point 45 – Statistics

This has been something that we’ve grappled with since we started (ie finding the right tool to measure our traffic and other metrics).

We’ve used a variety of tools including server side stats and some custom made tools.

The reasons for knowing metrics are many:

• They help in the selling of ads
• They contribute to how much we pay bloggers
• They are important in reviewing blogger performance
• They identify trends and point out possible new directions

Don’t just measure traffic – look at other things like how much bloggers are posting, how many comments they might generate, incoming links etc.

Point 46 – Exit Strategy

When it comes to having an Exit Strategy I think it’s worth to have one in mind – however the key is to build a profitable business. Whether you want to sell it down the track or whether you want to build it to enjoy the profits – the key is to build a business that generates good income.

Concluding Thoughts

Wow – that turned out to be quite the epic post!

A few random concluding thoughts:

• Blog Networks Can Be Big or Small - starting a blog network may sound like a massive task after reading some of what I’ve covered above – but really it can be as big or small as you like. While we’ve built a network with hundreds of blogs – I guess a network is really anything more than 1 blog :-)
• Networks are a lot of work - having said that they can be small – many people mistakenly believe that they are easy to run. While I hear some talk about starting a network as simply having lots of people write for you – multiplying the content produced and therefore the income earned – keep in mind that you not only multiply the content – but other things including expenses, logistics of managing the blog, keeping bloggers happy etc.
• Verticals and Leverage - if I were starting over again today I would probably tackle a single vertical. While we’ve done well targeting everything from business, to entertainment, to technology to video games – I think the way of the future for blog networks will be much more around more tightly targeted niches. Probably the best way to do this is to start with a blog that you currently have and to add another that is on a related topic so that you can leverage the traffic, profile and credibility you already have to launch the second blog.
• Successful Blog Network are Built on Successful Blogs - if I had one piece of advice for an aspiring blog network owner it would be to start by building (or acquiring or partnering with) a successful blog. I’ve seen a number of blog networks attempt to start 20 new blogs from scratch – only to find that they had nothing to build them on.

I’m sure much more could be said on the topic – but before this becomes coma educing (for all of us) I’ll leave it at that and hand it over to you for your comments and reflections on blog networks. Again – read David’s original post on the topic here.

PS: The graph above is actually a picture of the b5media blog network created with this website graphing tool.

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

How to Launch a Blog Network

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Topics under discussion:

• Better ways to pay bloggers
• Infrastructure requirements of a growing blog network
• How to sell ads in today’s online ad environment
• Challenges of 2007
• Ways to collaborate (or not)

I won’t be there but Jeremy and a few other b5′ers will be and I’m sure they’d be happy to have you along no matter what size your blog network (or potential one) is.

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

SXSW BlogNetworkCamp

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Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

b5media Hiring Ad Sales Manager

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I have to say I’m not too surprised by the move – from what I’ve seen the blog never really found it’s place in the wider niche and looking at their stats the seven months that the blog has been active haven’t put it among the most trafficked blogs at WIN (although ironically this month will be their biggest).

It was always a blog that wrote good quality content but that never really stood out as being terribly unique or ground breaking.

The blogger from the blog, Andrew Barrow, reports in comments that it could have been to do with the lack of response in their numerous calls for new bloggers.

I generally advise bloggers to go a little longer than 7 months to see how a blog goes (particularly in terms of Search Enginge rankings which can take 12 months to really settle) – but I guess in the scheme of things at WIN an underperforming blog is more trouble than it’s worth to maintain (sometimes it just comes down to business sense which I can understand having retired some of my own poorly performing blogs).

I wonder also if it’s difficult having a related blog living in the shadow of a blog like Engadget which has such a presence in the tech blog scene.

As usual with their retired blogs WIN are keeping this one live as an archive (and it’s archive will continue to generate some income for as long as it remains online via SE traffic).

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

Even the ‘Big Boys’ Call It Quits At Times

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b5media is currently seeking business bloggers to join its new business channel.

We’re open to being pitched ideas for the channel but have a list of suggested topics that might get your juices flowing a little:

• Giving Back & Community Involvement
• Entrepreneurship
• Recruiting/Interviewing
• Venture Capital
• Taxes
• Small Business Advertising/Marketing
• Word of Mouth Marketing
• Press Releases & Business Writing
• Law
• Office space (Leasing, Real Estate, Scouting Property, etc.)
• Web Hosting
• Home Businesses
• Freelancers (Business of, getting clients, etc.)
• Business of Blogging/Blog Marketing

As Jeremy writes in his post calling for bloggers – we’re more than interested to hear your own ideas for business blogging topics also as it’s a large field with plenty of potential.

Jeremy’s written full details of who b5 is, how we operate, what we’re looking for and how to apply at b5’s home page.

Disclaimer – I’m one of the co-owners of b5 and ProBlogger.net is part of the network.

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

b5media Seeking Business Bloggers

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The reasons for the changes are five-fold:

• Decreases in Advertising
• Increases in Operational costs
• Despite Cross Promotional Attempts traffic wasn’t sticking on some blogs
• Difficulty in turning around a title (they are either hits or flops and the die is cast early on)
• Desire to shake things up a little and get out of ‘comfortable habits’

The two blogs that are ending are up for sale (they are Sploid and Screenhead).

Also a number of bloggers are leaving Gawker, others are reshuffling to new positions and a a few new bloggers are joining to head up and write for different blogs.

It’ll be interesting to see what impact the reshuffle has on the Gawker empire.

Update: The NYT has an article on the reshuffle also.

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

Gawker Blog Network Reshuffles

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• Mistake No. 1: Underestimating the Time Commitment – I suspect this is something many bloggers with dreams of developing multiple successful blogs make. Establishing one blog is a massive task but multiply that by several and you’ve got a full time job very quickly.
• Mistake No. 2: Forgetting About the Exponential Nature of Tweaks – Mac talks in this point about the amount of work that just a simple tweak can mean if you’re making the same tweak in multiple blogs. On the flip side of course is the good things that can happen as a result of a simple tweak too. For example I remember the day I discovered that moving my AdSense ads closer into content would increase their earnings – of course I quickly did this on all of my blogs and the impact was significant.
• Mistake No. 3: Building Single Sites instead of Deep Sites – I don’t think there is a right or wrong with this – either strategy can be successful but I also think that especially when you’re a smaller enterprise that it makes sense to build fewer deep blogs than lots of stand alone ones.
• Mistake No. 4: Managing Expectation Levels - This is a hard lesson to learn. When recruiting bloggers it’s important to give them a realistic idea of what they’ll get out of it. Unfortunately when you’re in start up mode what bloggers get out is not massive unless you have some cash behind your venture. I think most blog networks run into this problem at one time or another as it takes months (if not a year or two) for a blog to really hit its stride and many bloggers just won’t hang around that long.
• Mistake No. 5: Naivete About Advertising - I’ve come up against this myself in the last couple of years. Once you build a blog up it’s difficult to know how to find advertisers for it and how much to charge. Managing advertising is difficult and as a result I have contracted someone to do a lot of that work for me which has taken a load off my mind.

Mac’s list is pretty typical of many of the issues that bloggers and blog network owners come up against. None of the mistakes he’s made are insurmountable but all are worth considering before getting into the game.

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

Blog Network Owner Shares ‘Mistakes I’ve Made’

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See the celebrations and leave your congratulations in their core team’s 1 year anniversary posts at:

• Scrivs – One Year Down
• Colin – Three Six Five
• Mike – 9Rules Network Fame
• Tyme – 1 year already?

Well done 9rules – I raise my coffee cup to you on this morning and wish you well for many more years of blogging!

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

Happy Birthday 9rules Network

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I love reading the stories of (and meeting) young technological entrepreneurs. There’s something about the freshness of their ideas and ‘can do’ attitude that is so amazing. I think Matt’s one to watch.

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

Interview with Matt Jones of Random Shapes

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1. Revenue Split - While I argued in my previously post that a positive of joining a network is that it can potentially bring in a higher revenue to your blog – the downside is that with most blog networks you will be sharing this revenue with the owners of it in some way. In the larger more established networks you are likely to be paid a flat rate per month for posting a certain amount of posts and might be paid incentives based upon factors like traffic and revenue. In smaller and newer networks the revenue is generally shared between network and blogger in some way (usually some sort of percentage split). The methods of payment are varied but at the heart of all of them is that you don’t get every cent your blog owns. If you’re not willing to share a blog network might not be for you.

2. Ownership/Rights – Once again there are variations between networks when it comes to who retains ownership of content – but this is a key question that you’ll want to explore with the network before signing up. In many networks the content that you produce as a blogger is fully owned by the blog network and in a sense you are just contracted to write for them. This means that if you leave the network you leave with nothing but the earnings you earned during your stay. Other networks allow you to retain ownership but ask for some sort of exclusive rights to user your content in different forums. Other networks use a joint ownership system where both you and the network owns the content. There is no wrong or right way for content ownership to be viewed in my opinion – but it’s definitely something to think through before you join a network. Questions to ask a network might include:

• who owns the content?
• who owns the URL?
• what happens to the blog if/when I leave?

3. Reputation – One of the pluses of joining a network is that they have the potential to bring a certain level of prestige or credibility to you as a blogger and just by being involved you can build your own profile and levels of traffic. On the flip side of this is the fact that a network also has the potential to impact your reputation (and that of your blog) in a negative sense. This is particularly true in relation to the decisions and actions of the network owners. Some blog networks have quite high profile 9 (and outspoken) people heading them up and while this can be a definite advantage to your blog in terms of the buzz they can create it can also hurt you to be tied to them if they fall from grace in the eyes of the wider blogging community.

4. Loss of Control – One of the reasons I see that many bloggers have decided to stay out of blog networks is that they do not wish to lose control of their blog on a number of levels ranging from design, branding, advertising, promotion etc. Some networks are more flexible than others and allow bloggers to have input in these areas if they wish – but others are quite structured and take on making all the decisions. Of course this is the very thing that attracts some bloggers who don’t feel able or willing to run these aspects of a blog – but if you’re the type who wants complete control of your blog then you might want to stay independent.

5. Risk – Out of some of the above factors comes the risk that things could go pear-shaped across the network and impact you personally. I guess I’m thinking here again of the impact that a network’s owners can have upon their bloggers in terms of their decisions. For instance I’ve seen a number of bloggers over the years log onto their blogs only to find themselves locked out, or even worse to find their blogs have just disappeared as a result of the decision of someone else. While these stories are rare (the ones I’m thinking of are over a year ago) I guess you need to remember that when you join a network that you’re entering into a relationship with individuals and that at times individuals let others down. There is risk with every blog (or business) – but in a network you’re putting yourself into the hands of others to some extent and you’ll want to do everything you can to make sure they know what they’re doing, have a good track record and are in it for the long haul.

6. Legalities and Responsibilities - While I’m not privy to most blog networks agreements with bloggers I do know that many are legal entities and use contracts in their interactions with bloggers. In signing one of these you’re entering into a legal agreement that governs a variety of aspects of your blogging activities that might include agreements to post a certain level of posts, keep certain information confidential, not blogging on similar topics outside of the network’s blog, not participating in other networks, participate in network activities etc. The consequences of entering into such an agreement and not holding up your end of the bargain are worth considering before signing.

Concluding thoughts

My own experience of blog networks has largely been worthwhile. I’ve enjoyed the relationships I’ve found in them and have found them to be increasingly profitable for many of those that involve themselves in them.

As with any blogging the traffic and revenue doesn’t just appear overnight and blogging in a network needs to be a long term commitment.

I quite often suggest to bloggers that if they give blogging in a network a go that it might also be worth blogging as an independent as well. Most of the bloggers in the network I’m involved with do this and I find that it works well both for the sake of the network but also bloggers.

Don’t rush into a blog network deal. A lot of the negatives that I’ve written above come out of situations that I’ve seen with bloggers that have rushed into networks without considering the implications before they sign up. Networks are not THE answer to every blogger’s goals and objectives. They can enhance your blogging in many ways but if you take your time in getting into them you could save yourself considerable pain later on.

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

Why You Shouldn’t Join a Blog Network

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