Yesterday we wrote about the new web design for the scobleizer web site, generally liking it, and noticing the quintessential picture of the guy with the pointy finger, and asking the really annoying question:
In the longer run, he has joined the rat race, the real question is what percentage of what percentage of click throughs does he get? Does he get all the advertising revenue, or just some small select amount of revenue off the ads? Annoying people want to know, what is your take?
Robert dropped a very nice note, but one that is well worth asking, especially if you team blog, or you are dependent upon other bloggers, which is better, fixed rate blogging, or blogging based on page views or popularity?
I don’t do clickthrough or CPA or CPM ads. They buy a sponsorship and I get a percentage off that. I get paid the same whether 1 person shows up or 1,000,000. I’ve watched what happens when there’s pressure to get traffic. It’s called Valleywag.
Frankly, I both both ways, on my pro blog, ITToolbox I blog based on popularity, at techwag I blog based on my own thoughts, because I have a tendency to ramble, and the small corner of the world that I am limited to write about really does not suit my social gadfly personality where I am interested in many things, competent in few. Running both blogs helps not just on focus, but also provides a way for me to explore a lot of the new technology that is coming out.
Most of it is dull and boring, which is why I rarely do product or company reviews, if I do one on your company that means I figured out a compelling reason to use the product, and that it will alter how I do things to make them easier. Google Reader, friend feed are the current boffo programs based on how I use them, old and dead, techmeme, technorati, digg, and otherwise.
But all of this boils down to advertising, techwag pays its own bills due to adsense, no matter what my friend Louis says, it is a way to pay bills, although I do admire that his web site has no advertisements at all, and has got me wondering if 20 bucks a month is worth it, or should I just move on and drop advertising all together to focus on content.
The addition of sponsorship to Roberts blog and his ability to get a cut of it based on the sponsors, not necessarily the number of readers is ok. That works, but the pointed valleywag comment and how Gawker runs their show also raises interesting ideas that we have noticed, because they are blatant. When I talk to folks at ITToolbox, it is all about deep linking, without deep links, few if any of the bloggers there would have an audience. But you see no such deep linking at gawker media as an entry exit point when you look at their stats.
This puts pressure on the blogger to write more and more outrageous things, like Author Clarke was a child molester, without really diving into the story and covering the whole story, rather aim for the big headline, and pray that people will come to view your page, and get that all important page view/revenue.
ITToolbox is based around the idea of the professional blog, you talk about your experiences in IT, and the tips and tricks you have learned that are worth sharing. Bloggers come and go, but there is a core set of Star and Super Star bloggers that are carrying the site. We are paid based on the number of page views, but the rules are set, you blog professionally, or you get bounced. It is about money, but it is also about your professional reputation. Valleywag is all about page views, but not about deep diving into the story and getting facts strait. The same business model, different cultures.
So if you are doing a group blog, it does not need to be a disaster, boing boing, ITToolbox, and other very well run group blogs do not have to descend to valleywag standards to make money, it is not always about the head line, it is about the content, and you can have a very well written group blog, that gets a ton of traffic, without having to take out the whole valley while you are at it.
Tags: valleywag, robert scoble, thoughts, interesting idea, ittoolbox, boing boing, professional bloggers, louis gray, advertisements
