John Robb: The Weblog Network

Sun, 06 Jul 2003 13:39:05 GMT

OK. Here is a status report on the Weblog Network.

Sources of revenue. I have five in mind. None include banner advertising or sponsored sites. I am going to work on firming these up and will keep them under wraps for competitive reasons.
Expert weblogs. The initial response has been great (my mailbox is full even though this is a holiday weekend). I am working on a strategy for bootstrapping this into a structure (from both the readers and authors perspective) that provides value. Great ideas on this front. Will assemble a team to figure this out.
Infrastructure and hosting. I am looking for ideas here. The structure of the Weblog Network is fairly simple with relatively little centralized architecture.
Design and programming. I have a preliminary conceptual design in place, however it is very rough and open to discussion. Looking for help here of course.

If you are running a service aimed at webloggers and want to join in on this, let me know (BlogStreet, Daypop, Technorati, and others come to mind).

Sun, 06 Jul 2003 12:43:44 GMT

My perspective on the current tool debate has changed. My current perspective is that next big thing in weblogs isn't about how the tools, APIs, and features used, but rather the integration of weblogs into the larger world of search, information flow, and services. I do still think it is a mistake to see the weblog world fragment on the technological level, but it was probably inevitable as the big vendors entered the market. That is why I want to work on the Weblog network. It isn't something the big vendors won't duplicate and if done correctly will enable highly focused and valuable micro content find a stable source of income. Google's AdSense is the first baby step in this direction. There are many, many others...

Sat, 05 Jul 2003 23:55:54 GMT

Check this out....

Sat, 05 Jul 2003 15:50:13 GMT

I have created a topic specific weblog focused on The Weblog Network mentioned previously.

Sat, 05 Jul 2003 12:06:48 GMT

Excellent! Great response to yesterday's question (particularly given that it was a holiday). There are a couple items in the critical path of this project yet to be surmounted. Please keep the interest flowing. Also, there is definitely a growing professional interest in K-Logging, enough to build something that could provide mutual benefit in the space (research, case studies, presentations, referrals, etc.).

Sat, 05 Jul 2003 00:40:25 GMT

I did some more looking into this. I think I could deliver $10 to $300 a day to weblog experts/authors, depending on area of specialization/popularity/etc., via the system I mentioned below. There are also ways to jump this to a full time job for some area experts ($500 to $1000 a day). I am going to spend much of the next week working on getting this going. BTW: I do have experience doing this. At my last company (Gomez), I was able to generate $500 k in profit a quarter in less than a year with a site/system focused on solely online brokerages (done with only seven people). The major difference with this is that my partners (the expert authors) will be getting the benefits of the network and not a VC. Please click the e-mail link to the right or post a comment if you are interested in working on this.

Fri, 04 Jul 2003 19:42:09 GMT

One thing I always wanted to do is to pull together experts in combination with an online advertising agency to build an About.com on the cheap using weblogs. I think I have the advertising agency that would pay the bills. Would any be interested in doing this? It would be pure collaborative revenue share and I think lots of fun.