Where’s the value in blog networks?
Take a look at BlogNetworkList.Com. I just counted 68 blog networks. Wow. There are networks that cover sports. There are networks that cover business. And there’s even a network that covers jobs and careers.
But can you see anything missing from the majority of those networks? Dead right. Where the hell is the value to the end user? Sure, there is plenty of value for network owners in the form of *cough* link farming *cough*, which bumps up technorati ranking and general search engine placement.
But like I said, what are the readers getting out of these networks? What difference does it make to readers whether [insert random blog name ] is part of [insert random blog network name] or not? Do readers care? I doubt it. Do they even know whether the blog they’re reading is part of a network at all?
It’s not really an issue worth arguing about, until you go back and take a closer look at BlogNetworkList.Com.
True, there are currently 68 blog networks. But how many really differentiate themselves by being useful to their readers, as opposed to simply being a collection of generally disparate blogs?
In fact, the structure of the majority of those 68 blog networks is pretty damn similar - right down to the titles/content they offer. And that means that if any of them want to survive as a network, they’re going to have to think about how they can offer something extra - more value - to their end users.
But the question is *what* can they offer? A long list of wildly (and weirdly, in some cases) unrelated titles in the sidebar just won’t cut it.
I think 9rules knows it. Their ‘communities’ feature looks like the beginning of something that readers might find useful in addition to reading the individual blogs in the network.
wurk.net is getting it right, too. There’ll shortly be a vertical, network-wide search that ONLY returns the very best of the web’s career advice and other work-related content.
It’s like having a mini Google or Yahoo! that only focuses on career or work stuff. The results are very tightly focused and you can be certain that you won’t have to wade through spam and all kinds of other irrelevant crap to find what you want.
That feature of the wurk network alone could turn out to be one of the most useful online jobseeker’s tools around. Better still, it’s something *extra* on top of the network of blogs that’s already in place.
Another thing that wurk will offer is the chance to get your career questions answered by a bunch of the best minds in the business - all at once! Again, more value to end users from something that’s *extra* on top of the network.
Sure, I could have simply built wurk up to be a collection of blogs and left it at that. But isn’t running a business all about developing new products and services, and staying ahead of the competition?
Anyway, features like these are something that only vertical-based networks like wurk (and a handful of others) can offer. So, my question is: will blog networks like these have more chance of survival in the future?
I think so.
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Ginger said on January 12, 2006 @ 3:28 pm...
Most of the blog networks seem to exist not to serve the readers, but to serve the bloggers (increased advertising appeal, etc.). If the bloggers in turn serve their readers, then maybe everything will still be ok. Otherwise, the whole mishmash of random blogs in a network means that a few will shine as they would have on their own and the rest just serve as members of a link farm for the network.
prince c said on January 12, 2006 @ 3:59 pm...
Man, you asked a questions I’ve been asking myself for a while. Why should any ‘consumer’ give a rat’s tit about some blog network.
All these guys better find a way to make themselves stand out. It seems like they all forget that. Denton’s blogs all have attitute. I know that going in. These other networks anothing but a bunch of info. Who cares? I can get that anywhere.
Scrivs said on January 12, 2006 @ 8:38 pm...
Nail, head, done.
Well said Barry although we have a lot of work to do with regards to Communities the value will be in what it holds for both readers and writers.
Barry Bell (Profile) said on January 12, 2006 @ 9:04 pm...
Yep, I think I’m just tired of all this ‘oooh, lets start a blog network’ stuff, which is now starting to mean ‘let’s take a bunch of random blogs and stick a common logo on them all’.
I want to see blog networks that are trying to *be* something, or that are trying to achieve something new, instead of doing the same old shit that everyone else is doing.
I’m not specifically targeting any of those 68 networks, but I’m going to be pissed if that number keeps growing without anything interesting happening.
Tim Stay said on January 14, 2006 @ 11:12 pm...
We see ourselves as more of a Business Media company rather than a blog network. We certainly do acknowledge the benefit of the network for our bloggers and for cross traffic benefits. We also hope that the brand of Know More Media will eventually gain a reputation of trust for current and relevant business information.
Besides having value for us as the network owner, we also think a focused, targeted network has value to the advertiser - allowing him to find relevant properties that target his audience.
We are trying to position our properties as stand alone properties, with a loose network tie, realizing that most readers will really only care about what a specific author has to say.
Barry Bell (Profile) said on January 15, 2006 @ 5:41 pm...
Tim: Yep, I’m beginning to think that the word ‘network’ doesn’t really work in a lot of cases.