1-5: Should you Start a Blog Network
Darren of Problogger.net wisdom writes about why you should join a blog network. Knowing why others would want to join a blog might give you more insight while recruiting bloggers.
Then Darren turns right around and tells us all why you shouldn’t join a blog network. Again, you can use this to counter anyone elses doubts about joining your network.
As if you didn’t need more to add to your doubt about starting a blog network, here’s a little begging the question are blog networks worth the money.
The recently controversial (due to their name) problogging.com network asks the question to network or not to network.
Should you start a spam blog network? Before you do, maybe you should read this great article over at plagiarismtoday.com about the birth of a spam blog network.
6-14: How-to Articles on Starting a Blog Network
Building focus in your Blog Network - I’m gonna start off with that first article I wrote, because I think it’s one of the most important things to think about when starting a blog network. In this new world of “everyone has a blog”, you need to use your time wisely to move to the top of the list. You need to focus on one niche, then build from there. Once you have income, you can create more time by paying others to write for you.
I’ve always liked this post by Mark Cuban about Blogs that just write about other blogs. There’s a lot of them out there, some of the most popular, where I get information, are of this type. Should you use this model in your network.
Why not listen to the President of B5 Media about blog networks. He may have something worth following. 
10 Questions to Ask a Blog Network within this article by Jeremy Wright will give you a big advantage over the next guy or gal if you always keep this in mind while building your blog network.
Mac Slocam of the fodder network lists 5 mistakes he made in his first year in a blog network. These are always big gems when you can hear mistakes others makes.
Richard at ReadWriteWeb.com talks about sticking with niches. Which is always a good lesson.
Here’s a list of 10 things for your blog network to take it through the Web 2.0.
Here’s a top 5 list about how to make your blog network standout.
Although not a step-by-step guide, this how to create a blog network article can get you started in the right direction.
17-32: Making Money from Blogging and Blog Networks
Making money from blogs is tough, and if you want to start a blog network with many blogs, focused on different topics, that’s even tougher. Yaro Starak over at Entrepreneur’s Journey has put together a killer series on looking at blogging as a sustainable business model and what it takes to be a professional blogger. Whether you manage them or are one these articles will help.
I - Blogging as a Sustainable Business Model
II - Can you be a professional Blogger
III - Advantages Top Bloggers Have
IV - Key Resource For Sustainable Blogging
V - Are there more Business Blogging Models
Here’s a few interesting articles on the mother of all blog networks, Weblogs Inc. They’re from Blog Herald and deals with payments from weblogs inc and the other is and extension of the first and is about the state of pay rates in blog networks. Although it’s from 2005, it gives you a little more info and keeps you going on your blog network.
Performancing has an old article about payment models for blog networks and can help you out if you’re trying to figure out what to pay bloggers on your network.
Another Good article about payments for bloggers come from Blog Herald and looks into what’s the best payment model for a blog network owner. Abe Olandres looks at B5 media and Weblogs, Inc.
David Peralty of BloggingPro.com explains how payed blogging works. He lists several possible options like funding it from your own pockets, revenue sharing and using other projects as a fund source.
David also has a great article with actually blog payment numbers $$$. This is really what everyone wants to see anyway.
Jon over at the ArtofMoney.com recently posted about needing $130,000 to start his blog network. Which if you don’t want to spend all the time in the world blogging, promoting, link building, etc, etc, you may need a good chunk of change to really make an impact in the blogging world.
John Chow blogs about his blogs income for a few months which is always entertaining. He also helps you learn how to best monetize blogs with and without Google.
Here’s a good Wall Street Journal article discussing blogs and can they make sustainable money. The article features Weblogs Inc founder Jason Calacanis and JupiterMedia dude Alan Meckler. (Can you guess which one thinks they can and which one doesn’t?)
Rogers Cadenhead, of cadenhead.org, responds to a recent Toronto Star article in which they wrote a claim that only 100 of the 65 million blogs make money. Small articles, not as outlandish as you may think.
Here’s an old post about what to pay bloggers and how B5 Media caught heat during some fo there earlier rounds. Although there are enough blog networks out there and people realize you can probably make more joining a network (promoting, traffic, monetizing all takes lots of time), this article gives you more insight.
The blog-republic.com, a blog network itself, has some great articles about starting and maintaining a blog network. One, A Business model for small blog networks talks about how smaller networks might want to begin making money from their blogs.
33-41: The Bad and the Good about Blog Networks
The CEO of 9 Rules wrote recently over at his blog about Why Blog Networks Failed. It’s quite insightful and why not learn from what others fail at to help you succeed. This article also sparked quite a few other articles that I list here about blog networks failing. I included most of them cause you can learn a thing or two from each commentary on this wisdump post.
And here’s a rebuttal by VC’s. Tell us what you think about the VC money that’s now started to trickle into blog networks. Could it be that they actually do have a place in the business world.
Nate Ritter began a blog network related series about how to start a blog network that looks like it should have more in the series, (I but I couldn’t find them.) It’ll help you get those juices flowing.
The problogging dilemma, is there a dilemma? Do you blog your passion? If you’re starting a blog network you may want to start with blogging your passion because it’ll keep you going. But can you make money from starting a blog network about your passion?
How about one called why blog networks suck. Interesting points, good things to avoid? Warning though, sorry to send you to a site with a popup ad. (People still use these? that aren’t at sitepoint.com?)
A top 40 Blog Networks list to give you something to shoot for. There’s a lot of blog networks out there but making it to the top takes something special. Learn what these networks have that yours might not.
The popular SEOBook.com gave their opinion on why blog networks suck in that article. However, they did mention B5 Media as a prime example of “why we don’t need more networks” and that was before B5 raised $2 mil. None the less, once again, learn from the critics.
Although I don’t agree that “blog networks are fading,” having it pointed out once again that Weblogs Inc took 18-24 months to build some of their blogs readership can be relief when you hit road bumps.
Blog Networks in the limelight is an article that talks about money raised, networks that have failed, and networks that have succeeded. Good resource.
And there you have it. I hope these articles help you on your way to starting a blog network. I have followed a lot of the advice and need to learn more to help grow my blog network even more.
Blogalaxia Tags:Blog,Blogger
