TechWag

Image via WikipediaWisdump has a great article on why blog networks fail, and since I have a pile of research on that very concept, Wisdump hits on some of it. Go read Wisdump’s article then come back here.

It is hard to build a good blog network on bad content, or content that does not resonate with readers. The blog networks that I have looked at (not deeply, just what was in public record) did not just fail because they did not write good stuff, but they also failed for multiple other reasons, not just poor writing.

Poor writing is just the tip of the iceberg, you also have to have a viable business model that means you grow and expand as the networks draw more traffic. Much like reinvesting your profits back into the company, some of the blog networks started out with a flagship site, like Messy Media, and then tried to expand into other things that management thought that the readers would like. Unfortunately, it did not work out that way. Messy was never able to generate enough of an audience within a limited population with what they had for writers and support staff.

The biggest reasons that I have been able to work out why a blog network will fail are: (And they all feed into each other).

1. Failure to be unique enough in the general noise of the blogosphere. One of the things that sets all the top blogs together is the leadership of the blog, each of the winners has a manager, leader, or evangelist that is colorful, unique, and/or believes in something surrounding the idea of the blog. Robert Scoble would not be Robert Scoble if he did not radiate the enthusiasm that he has for technology. Arrington would not be Arrington if he was not the colorful character that he is.

2. Be open to community – if you have visited the most popular blogs they all have hundreds of comments per entry. They strike a chord or people want to participate. I have seen far too many blogs that the owners never respond to comments, and do not participate in the community that they need to be successful. People just don’t take care of things themselves, you have to participate.

3. People have an issue or passion, Cory Doctorow would not be Cory Doctorow without DRM and the DMCA.

4. Be seen as an expert, you do not really need this one, but you want someone who can be seen as an anchor to the blog network or the blog web site. People come for Louis Gray; they stay for the guest bloggers.

5. Writing Skills, ok sometimes we crank out an article in 10 minutes; sometimes we spend 30 or 60 minutes on an article. There is no reason not to run a spell checker, and there is no reason not to run grammar checks what you are writing. It might be a pain in the butt, but it works, sometimes, depending on your word processor settings. Some of the grammar things that word wants me to do just do not make sense, so I do not do them.

6. Failure to treat your blog network like a business. Unfortunately, at this point in the economic downturn Nick Denton is looking very smart for starting to cut people and consolidate the network early. Everyone else is playing catch up. Regardless of the friendships that Nick has with his workers, primarily everyone understands that Gawker is a blog network.

So while Wisdump had a great point, there is more to it than ever expanding the blog network. People who consolidate now might be in position to do so. But in the longer run, there are always going to be more than one thing that makes a blog network fail, and all of those reasons compound upon each other and cause more problems down the road.

Tags: Wisdump, interesting, blog, failure, network, audience, marketing, writing, passion, belief, business

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