My Problem With Webby Media

by Paul on October 3rd, 2005

Now the title might sound a little aggressive, but I am trying to look at the new Webby Media Blog Network from a non-network owner’s perspective and think that I might be able to help them out a bit by asking some questions.

100% Revenue All Around

Isn’t this the same thing that I am doing with the Fine Fools Community? Nope. I am offering at the very least 100% of the contextual ad revenue that your pages generate. In contrast, Webby Media is offering 100% of all the revenue a blog makes therefore meaning they are making nothing from the blogs at all. Now I admit to offering a good deal and Darren has already pointed out the other ways that I could make money from these sites, but if the writers stay at Webby Media they are offering no way for themselves to make money.

It would be nice to think that they are philanthropists and are just starting their network for the good of everybody, but essentially part of the reason we do this is to make some money. The only chance I am seeing of them making money, besides selling off the sites down the road, is by changing their member’s agreement later. Could you imagine writing your 50 posts a month for a whole year (600 posts) only to have your network change their agreement to a different percentage? Is that fair to you? I am sure I am not the only who thinks that this offer is a tad shady.

But if I recall Omar emailed me a couple of months ago (I can not find the email) so I believe he is a good guy. In fact, on his site he states that the intention of doing such an offer was to standout in the crowded blog network field:

It gets people talking and bloggers listening. We’re brand new on the blog publishing scene so we need a ‘brand new’ payment scheme. So far the idea has been well received.

I covered this last week, but you don’t need a new payment scheme, you need something that people can trust. And to be honest I just don’t trust that 100% offer. I hate saying that because I guess I am bad-mouthing someone else’s work, but I hope they can see where I am coming from. You are giving away all your money, but you are making your bloggers write a set number of entries showing that you have plans to do something in the future with all that content. It’s like showing people where the diamond mines are and providing them with the tools and then letting them walk out with all the diamonds.

I read a comment somewhere stating that the quality blog network field is not saturated at all and in fact it is barely populated. I agree completely. Sure we have to make sure that our writers are compensated fairly, but money isn’t the only thing that gets people excited and makes them want to join up with you.

No Blogs

There isn’t a single blog, save the Webby Media Blog, in the whole network. Why would I wish to join something where I am not sure what is expected. I admit to not offering a lot of content on the Fine Fools sites before allowing people to join, but at least they got a glimpse of what was going to happen with it. At the very least I suggest listing some topics that you would like to cover in your network. Give your readers something to base their ideas off of.

No More Please

Before b5media launched they hyped it up by telling us that something “new” was coming and what we got was another blog network. I like the guys over there, but they definitely should’ve taken a different approach I think than telling us that old is new again. They fixed it pretty quickly so good for them and it seems they are doing pretty well now. No numbers, but that’s what they say.

Instablogs launches this week with 50 blogs. Exciting? Not really. Just another blog network. I want to see exciting sites again. Where did they go? When was the last time you came across a really cool site and then later realized it was part of a network?

What I am doing with Fine Fools is exciting to me, but that doesn’t mean it’s exciting to anyone else. Hell, anybody could do what I am doing. I just have the luxury of linking to it from other sites, but anyone could start a network and it seems like everyone has. What’s even more exciting is what the group over at I Like Cameras is doing with that site. That site to me and how it is developing is more exciting than the Community overall.

Lets put the focus back on the sites because that is what the readers and bloggers care about. It seems in all the recent discussions on blog networks we forgot about the actual blogs in the networks. I can just see many of the networks that are forming not lasting a year and people leaving them saying that these models do not work and that frustrates me when it’s really a simple equation to success. Provide a compelling experience for people to come back to and you have done your job. Forget the long list of blog networks, how about a list of ones that do that?

Over the last three weeks I think I have reached my limit on talking about blog networks and will now return to writing about making money online and creating successful sites. That’s much more interesting anyways.

b5media.com

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