Blog Networks: to Join or Not to Join...That is the Question

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Blog Networks: to Join or Not to Join…That is the Question

Written by Jason Boom on February 26, 2008 – 8:09 pm

A blog network can be a truly helpful tool to new blogs, so when Antonio Marques of Digital-Folders.com emailed me asking if I wanted to join his network I had to consider it. Many of you might not be familiar with Blog Networks just yet. They offer bloggers a way to connect to other blogs, both in content and in readership. The basic framework of any blog network revolves around helping each blog succeed.

The Digital-Folders network is a fairly new one, as compared to older, established networks like B5Media.com. Other than having links on the sidebar of other blogs back to my site, what benefit exists in joining a blog network? Can anyone join? I had these questions on my mind after Antonio’s initial email, so I asked him these questions and a few more. He’s graciously allowed me to post the responses to those questions. I’m still in the deciding mode, but I encourage those of you who want to experience the benefits of a blog network to check out Digital-Folders.com.

I would retain all rights to my blog, right?
Absolutely correct. We do not claim any rights on anything on the associated blogs. All content is owned by the authors and they can, at any time, break the association with us. It’s your blog and you steer it in any way you want. We may provide advice but again, it’s your blog.

The ad space on my site would be sold at 75% profit for me, correct?
Correct again. You’ll know for how much we are selling it and 75% of it is yours.

How much would estimate a site like my own would pull in for ad space?
This is probably the hardest question we face. It’s not easy to put a price tag on a space. We like to discuss this with the bloggers and know how much they would like to sell it for. Nonetheless, it’s always a fine balance: Too high and it won’t sell, too low and we’ll be loosing money. We like to start low and see what the response from advertisers is. The pricing is a progressive process, and prices can be easily changed to deal with changes in the growth of each site. For an estimate, you’ll have to tell me what spaces we are talking about and what the demographics for your site are.

Do I have any say so on who can advertise on my site?
As principle, we do not allow ads from suspicious sites or sites connected with anything illegal. We also steer away from gambling or adult sites. If you want to approve every advertiser, it’s possible to be done, or you can trust our editorial instincts. As for advertisers that we approach, we can guarantee that they will be relevant to your site and provide value to your visitors. And let’s face it, this is direct advertising: companies or sites usually don’t invest money on ad space that will not bring them some targeted visitors. But again, if you so wish, before putting an ad live we can contact you and ask your opinion on it.

Do you have quality standards you hope to meet with new blogs?

This question needs to be addressed differently for a blog integration (like yours) or for a blogger wanting to open a new blog with us.

In the first case, we have a “checklist” that every already existing blog needs to meet before either we approach the blogger or the blog is accepted. One of the main points is quality. We don’t mind if the blog is still small, but if the quality it shows looks promising for a steady growth (like yours), we will approach it.

or new blogs to be hosted by us, it’s a harder process since we have nothing to evaluate. On our application page for new blogs, we ask a brief description of what the blog will focus on. If we find the idea promising, we’ll take it. It’s risky since a blog is not only constructed by good ideas and it will probably require a good deal of tutoring to get it running.

In any case, both for integrated blogs and new blogs, we have an individualized training program where we discuss with the bloggers things that could be changed and/or improved to allow for a faster growth, so no blogger is alone on this ride with us.

Also, we try to regularly clean our list. What I mean with this is, if a blog drops in quality for an extended period of time and we can’t get the blogger to get back on it, we’ll probably drop it from our roll. Statistically, 95% of the new blogs around do not survive long. We try our best to reduce that “death rate” with our blogs, but if it simply can’t be brought back, we remove it from our inventory in order to maintain the quality level.

Thanks again, Antonio for answering my questions. I will be following up with Digital-Folders soon with an answer. In the meantime, what do you think, readers? Would you join a blog network? Do you think it would help your blog explode on the internet?

15 Comments to “Blog Networks: to Join or Not to Join…That is the Question”

Jeff - buzzmyblog.com Says:
February 26th, 2008 at 8:19 pm

I don’t know man. You’ve done a great job exploding on your own. Why add a middleman? If anything, maybe join for a little while to increase your base, but eventually go back on your own and sell your own ads.

Jason Boom Says:
February 26th, 2008 at 8:22 pm
Thanks, Jeff. I might consider it for a while. I do have that dead space in my sidebar where the BlogRush widget got blasted. I could put the network info there.
Egonitron Says:
February 27th, 2008 at 12:45 am
Ha, as I’m writing this, their site is down. I’d stay away from this one.

Si Philp Says:
February 27th, 2008 at 2:49 am

I think no matter what you do it’s all about content. If you’re posting something interesting then you’re certain people will come back/subscribe.
Am finding that a couple of my posts on my website are getting quite alot of hits from places all over the place so my thoughts are why not expand on the popular posts?

A. Marques - Digital-Folders Network Says:
February 27th, 2008 at 8:25 am

Hi Jason and readers,

First of all I’d like to thank you for your post. And you’re very welcome about me answering your questions. It’s always a pleasure to do so.

If you allow me to continue the discussion, I’d like to follow up on the comment by Jeff…
One of the obvious advantages is the linking. Not only for direct traffic but mostly to increase ranks for organic traffic. Each post on each blog of the network will link back to you.
The second point is that we are talking about direct advertising (we are not an ad network). From our own experience it’s not easy to approach a company and convince it to invest on advertisement on a blog (specially a not so big one). Trying to do that on your own it’s time consuming and will probably create less impact than if the contact is made through the network. You can see it in the following way: if you’d spend all the time it takes to search and contact advertisers actually creating content or marketing your blog, would the final revenue not be bigger than those 25% we take?

I’ll leave you with that thought.

Thanks again Jason for featuring us, and I hope we’ll have you on our team on the near future.

Stephan Miller Says:
February 27th, 2008 at 11:00 am

I think A. is right about the links back to your site as this network’s range increases. 25% is a pretty low number. And if the network does get bigger, you could get more sales from people looking for specific links rather than those that saw that you have advertising space available when they come by your site.

Jason Boom Says:
February 27th, 2008 at 11:05 am

That’s what I’m thinking too Stephan. I like the idea of someone out there hitting the pavement for my ad space. And A. has won me over with his rhetoric. I’m sure he could sway potential advertisers. I think I’m going to give it a shot, since it appears to have little downside. I can always back out. Some new people may find me, etc. It will be a good experiment for my readers as well.

Thansk for all the comments, everyone.

Jonathon Says:
February 29th, 2008 at 12:59 pm
Jason,
How do you think this will compare against Project Wonderful? Right now I am not making much off of PW; however, I have only been with them a few days.

Jason Boom Says:
February 29th, 2008 at 1:16 pm

For my purposes, it should be much more lucrative. Instead of me managing my ad space, selling to potential advertisers, I have a network ad manager doing that for me.

PW relies on competition whereas simple ad space relies on traffic alone. I think it’s more advantageous simply because I don’t have to manage the ads. I sit back and allow someone else to do that for me.

Jonathon Says:
February 29th, 2008 at 1:34 pm

Maybe you can help me then. I am averaging about 500 visitors a day (and is continuing to grow) and 900 page views a day, with a total of 51 feedburner readers. Would this be better for me than PW, in your opinion? Thanks

Jason Boom Says:
February 29th, 2008 at 1:40 pm

I think it would be worth giving a try. You can go to digital-folders.com to fill out an application to be included. I’ll put in a good word for you.

I think it’s a good situation, since there’s nothing to lose, but maybe a little time setting up the ad space. You can always back out later if its not working for you. Why not give it a try for a month? That’s what I”m doing.

Jonathon Says:
February 29th, 2008 at 1:54 pm
Thanks for the quick reply Jason. I am reading the info on the site now and will soon enter my application.
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