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To network or not to network
By Ben on February 20, 2006
In light of the “9rules purge” I thought I’d write an article about why I think there are advantages to being part of a blog network. Since 9rules asked Chris and me to leave I have seen people writing that they’d never join 9rules after this, and I think that’s a mistake.
As the term “blog network” implies, 9rules provided me with an opportunity to network with other bloggers. Blogging is a lot of fun, but until you’re part of the community that goes along with it, it’s a bit boring. Through 9rules I met Chris and David, and I think Matt (the guy running Blog Media) found my blog through them as well. So while 9rules kicked me out, there are no hard feelings - they do a great job of bringing their members together and helping independent blogs get a little more visibility.
Obviously, once you join a network your blog is no longer its own entity - you’re part of something, you’ll probably sign contract or, at the very least agree to a few simple rules. Breaking these rules can (as I learned) get you kicked out of the network. There are also issues of who owns the content you produce - for example, at Weblogs, inc. if you write for them they retain the rights to the content and the writer gets paid to write. At 9rules, each writer retains the rights to their content but 9rules does not pay bloggers who are part of the network (although there are rumors of a 9rules branded ad network for member blogs).
Networks are great if you’re trying to get your name out there. I know without 9rules I wouldn’t be having the success I am now, I wouldn’t be writing at Problogging.com, I wouldn’t be getting steady traffic to my other blogs, and I’d be just another blogger trying to get people to comment on my blogs.
Popularity: 2% [?]
4 comments to “To network or not to network”
Jeremy, as always, makes a brilliant point. All you need is access to the content, not rights of ownership, and you’ve got yourself a valuable service…. *cough* ;) ;)
[…] I did find the posts interesting and they even linked to CopyBlogger as the site of the week (CopyBlogger’s Brian is where I steal ,erm, remix information from when I need to sound intelligent.) […]
[…] The recently controversial (due to their name) problogging.com network asks the question to network or not to network. […]
As a note, WIN has ceded content ownership to writers now, much like b5 has done since our incarnation. It’s only smart. All a blog network REALLY needs is the rights to use the content in blogs and in network-related activities.
But, that content can be really valuable to writers over the long term. Writers deserve to own their own content.