b5media

September 30th,2005

What Makes a Blog Network Successful?

By Jeremy Wright

Somehow, the launch of b5media last week focused in peoples minds the question of whether or not blog networks were useful, whether or not readers found them valuable and why in the world bloggers would join them. It also made people wonder about what the “right” pay scale was.

After all, some networks pay a flat rate per blogger (Weblogs, Inc and Gawker spring to mind), others pay a percentage (b5media and Creative Weblogging) and others give you all the cash (a few of the newer networks springing up).

All of us at b5 have been trying to figure out what we think about all of this. Most of the decisions we made when launching b5 were really all about “how do we get this off the ground succesfully?” Things like compensation, whether or not we’ll offer bonuses (we’re leaning towards it, by the way) and who actually “owns” content are being discussed practically non stop.

Martin, over at HomeOfficeVoice, asked “Are blog networks right for you?” and stirred up a huge conversation about it, with most of the blog network owners chiming in. He asked great questions, and the comments are just fantastic (both for their value and the level of respect everyone is showing one another).

Paul, from 9rules, refocussed the question straight to the point: what is the best way to pay bloggers?

The best part of his post was this:

The question you have to ask yourself is what type of model do you need to bring in the talent to help you succeed?

Darren, in typical Darren fashion, refocused Paul’s refocusing by asking “Why are some networks so succesful?”

Here’s an excerpt of what Darren sees:

My answer to this question is still forming in my mind - but let me attempt to give a glimpse of what I’m coming to by describing what I’ve noticed so far about those wanting to join b5media.

One of the few things that I can put my finger on is that in most cases people seem to want to be involved with Duncan, Jeremy and/or myself.

This sounds totally arrogant and to be honest I laugh at the thought of people wanting to join an ordinary fellow like me at anything - but the fact is that over the last three years of blogging - for some reason that baffles us all a little - the three of us have built some level of credibility, trust and/or respect with those who read our sites. We’ve got some runs on the board in terms of running blogs and we’ve built relationships with other bloggers in the process.

These things seem to be the foundation for many of the applications we’ve had so far.

From what I see - people are not joining up because they see a cash cow (although everyone would like to make some money from it) - they are joining because they want to belong to something that goes beyond the money. I’m yet to put my finger on exactly what it is but I’m wondering if one of the keys to successful blog networks is that they are started by people with track records of actually doing it for themselves previously.

One of his commenters also brought up some great points:

1. The outright intelligence that you display as a group is a magnet. Intelligent people want to work with other intelligent people. Over and over when I’ve not been able to pay top $ I’ve been able to get top people by having a reputation for not ever asking them to do something *stupid.*

2. Creativity–Your loud, exhuberent call for creativity is a beacon that says to those who want to write for you, that they get to have part ownership in a personal way, that the blog will be different because that individual will have participated.

3. Sense of Humor–You guys don’t take yourself too seriously. In an endeavor that requires being creative on demand. This is crucial for long-run success. Without it the stress of producing changes one’s feeling about the work–the writer gets *angry* at the work and the work sufferes.

4. Humanity–You three don’t try to separate who you are from what you do in the good way. You think of the people you work with as people not workers. No need to explain that further.

So, what do I think?

I simply don’t know. But I have a gut feeling that there’s a shifting going on here, with more writers becoming bloggers and more bloggers becoming writers and more people wanting to be involved in something bigger than themselves and more people wanting to get out of their tired lives and try something new…

All kinds of trends emerging, and somehow blog networks are positioned at the center of all of that, and they are capturing peoples’ imaginations. I have no idea which blog networks will eventually survive. But, I do know that no matter what happens, we’d sure as kicking better have fun doing it. If we, our bloggers and authors and our advertisers aren’t having fun while we’re trying to push the envelope and create new markets then what’s the point?

What makes a blog network succesful? I’d like to think it’s the 4 things that ME Strauss outlined in one of Darren’s comments: intelligence, creativity, a sense of humour and humanity. Maybe those are the metrics each blog network should be measured by; if a blog network has those foundational things, won’t good things come out of it no matter what the model?