In my few months at Jason Boom dot com, I’ve seen more and more sites put on the auction block. One in particular this week, Blogging Experiment, went on the market and quickly sold. I understand people’s lives change, but should we sell our blogs?

I don’t think it’s a moral dilemma. It’s really not. It’s a personal choice. A blog belongs to the owner, not to the readers. And, if you look at your blog like a business, then you should treat it like one when considering buyouts. However, in some ways, it feels like a betrayal.

I can always unsubscribe, right?

How much of our blogging identity creates the blog? Can we shuffle in new owners and still capture the essence of a blog? I think it would change, maybe not drastically but it would change. How many can say they bought a house and left it exactly as the previous owners? You may hang new curtains, paint the walls, repair minor defects, or even change the floor plan. It’s rare to find a home you want to stay exactly the same. For this reason, I doubt a new owner would simply keep everything the same. At the very least, their writing will not line up with the original blog owner’s style. Worst case scenario: they over-monetize the site and reduce traffic. But they did pay for that right.

I’m not saying its wrong to sell your blog. I’m just wondering about the ethics behind it. Is this a business? Should I do a public offering and sell stock in Jason Boom dot com?

March Contest Ending Soon!

We’ll be holding an April contest, but be sure you’ve entered into the March one first. It’s simple to enter. You can even write a comment on this post to gain an entry.

Other’s Explosive Content

I ran across this post through a link on Twitter. Loic Le Meur talks how decentralized he feels with all the social media sites. It’s something I’ve thought about as well.

Here’s a good Entrecard post. I saw a link to this through the Entrecard forums. It’s a good, quality read.

Gorilla Sushi posted an interesting study of Entrecard. He studied the Art category and drew correlations between the cost of an ad to the amount of traffic through Alexa. It’s a fascinating read.

February has come to a close. It was my first full month of running this blog. How exciting! I’ve made some major steps. I’ve joined a blog network, rewrote parts of my About page (although there’s more to come there), and created the first Boombox podcast episode. All in all it’s been a good month.

Happenings in February

I wrote an article that received quite a bit of traffic entitled “Creating Your Blog’s Perfume Page.” I wrote many other accomplished posts, including a followup post to the perfume page one. I’ve made many connections with other bloggers throughout February. I think that’s the prized accomplishment. I’ll do my earnings report right here: I made fifty dollars!

Traffic and Subscription Report

Before we jump into February’s results, I want to look back over the goals I set for myself.

February’s Goals

1. Receive 200+ unique visits a day.
2. Increase my page views and time spent on site. I want a sticky site.
3. Network with other bloggers.
4. Join in discussions on the Bloggeries.com forum more often.
5. Guest post at least once.
6. Comment often on other blogs in my niche.
7. Raise exposure through Entrecard.

I think I’ve accomplished many of the goals for February. I raised my exposure on Entrecard by offering various services for sale in the shop. I have networked with other bloggers. My pageviews increased quite well. I didn’t do a guest post, but have agreed to do on one a neighboring site. I’ll do that soon, maybe this week. And I think I’ve commented quite a bit on other sites.

Now for the numbers:

Pageviews: 7,880
Unique Visits: 4,953
Time on Site: 1:45

Top Referral Sources: Entrecard with 1,169 and close second to Stumbleupon with 1,018.

Organic Searches found my site 103 times. I brought people for keywords of my site name, Nantucket, and spandex mostly. I need to work on that.

The most viewed page on my site was the homepage, with the most viewed article being the 100 Why Not Activities for Bloggers.

RSS Subscriptions

Many of you can now monitor my RSS subscriber numbers with me. On the first day in February, I had 41 subscribers. Today I have 60 subscribers. I had a high of 62 earlier this week. I hope to build that number by at least another 20 in the coming month.

Goals for March

Let’s hope March continues to expose my blog to new readers. I have joined a blog network and am seeing a good amount of traffic from that already. I am going to focus more on writing quality content this coming month, and try to take my eyes off the stats. I think it makes me too jumpy and sensitive.

1. Receive 200+ unique visits a day.
2. Increase my page views to over 10,000.
3. Increase time spent on site to average over 2 minutes. 
4. Network with other bloggers.
5. Guest post at least once.
6. Comment often on other blogs in my niche.
7. Raise exposure through Entrecard.
8. Increase RSS subscription numbers by 20.

Upcoming Explosions

I’m going to write a post on how to podcast. Believe it or not, there were not many sources of inspiration on this topic. I found no end-all-be-all posts on the subject. I want to create the how to podcast post to rule them all.

I have already begun thinking about my next boombox podcast. My wife says it needs to be more interesting. I agree, but the first one was just me testing out everything. Ok, no more excuses. The next one is going to rock!

Other’s Explosions

I want to start a new section on Sundays where I look at other posts throughout the week that influenced me. I have found quite a few recently that intrigued me.

Andrew Pavelski has started a new series focusing on successful blogs and how they got to be that way. I loved the first installment, and hope everyone takes a minute to check it out.

Jeff at BuzzMyBlog.com ignited a quality discussion about Entrecard this week. Graham Langdon responded with an in-depth view of the Entrecard economy. It’s a good read.

Mr. Javo will be celebrating his birthday this month. In recognition of that fact, he’s holding a contest to give away quality ad space and Entrecard credits. He even has a Jason Boom dot com banner on there! Go wish him a happy b-day by signing up for the contest.