April 07, 2006

‘Getting to Even’

BizNicheMedia is 9 months old, and for the first time ever we are nudging up against the break even mark. In the next few months, we expect to actually turn a small profit.  Through our often stupid mistakes, the occasional lucky break, and a great many man-hours we have learned a great deal about what it means to run a blog network. 

We began this network in the dying days of the spam content era.  Just a year ago the SE’s were too clumsy to recognize decent content through monitoring user behavior (arguably MSN still can’t) but as we quickly learned those days are now gone. 

So after hiring a virtual army of garbage quality content writers to wax extensively on the various aspects of oft-spammed topics like payday and home equity loans, we came to the conclusion that the only long-term strategy for surviving in the blogosphere was providing a service to the reader.  Not surprising you say? Well consider that before this, many people, including the members of our staff, had done quite well at just that.

After recognizing the need for quality we were faced with what turned out to be a much tougher realization... we had no idea how to get to quality.

But after months of bumbling, firing literally dozens of sub-par writers, and making some pretty sizable investments in our content production, we are finally what we consider to be pretty close to that goal.  A few lessons that we have learned are well worth passing along:

-Know your competition
For us that means keeping a vigilant eye on the blog network watch and, while not jumping on every whim of the blog network industry, always looking for new trends.  Knowing your competition is as much about learning from their mistakes as from their successes.

-If you want quality, pay for it
Writing is an art, and writers should be treated with respect and paid accordingly.  We have found that the gains from marginal improvements in the quality of our blog content are well worth the increase in costs.  The days of providing sub-par content are over, only those willing to give the user something of value are surviving.

-Have goal-oriented payment structures
All individuals are self-interested.  Recognizing that does not make you heartless, it makes you a good business-person.  So after months of paying per post (a system which encourages quantity, but certainly not quality) we have adopted a bonus structure which adequately encourages writers to continually push themselves towards improvements. [note- we still don't do rev-share... in our opinion that model blows.]

-Be willing to cut your losses
One of the most difficult things for us, as for many bloggers, was accepting the realization that some of our blogs weren’t working.  We have incorporated a semi-monthly review of all our blogs matrices, revenues, traffic sources, competition, and intangibles to determine whether they are worth maintaining.  We have lost a good 30% of our blogs along the way as a result.  But in doing so we were able to provide better attention and quality to those that remained.

Take those tips for what you will. If you want to put us to the test, click over to a random blog on the left and check out the content. The money's where our mouth is.

--
Did you enjoy this post?

April 7, 2006 in Milestones | Permalink


Comments

Ahhhh...So the Spam Kings are finally forced to bow down and eat humble pie. Just remember that I predicted early on that your spam fest wouldn't work.

Posted by: Peter Poffen | Apr 9, 2006 9:37:54 AM

Wow...a real post. Reads like it was from Andy no less.

What is the world coming to!

2/3 of me thinks this was a heartfelt post, but the othe 1/3 thinks Andy is a kick ass link baiter. Hmm.

Posted by: aaron wall | Apr 11, 2006 2:36:31 AM

Actually Rich wrote it.

Posted by: Andy H | Apr 11, 2006 9:32:07 AM

nice post.
really.

Posted by: chartreuse | Apr 11, 2006 12:10:55 PM

Wow, I'm almost sad.

Almost. :)

Way to see the writing on the wall, gents.

Posted by: Brian | Apr 11, 2006 1:07:55 PM

Thanks Chartreuse, someone has to balance out this ass of a partner I teamed up with.

And by the way Peter, don't think that just because we are going legit in this avenue, our days of starting
www.Home-Equity-Cheap-Vitamin-Mesothelioma-PennyStock-Payday -Loan.com are over.

Posted by: Rich | Apr 11, 2006 1:30:09 PM

Clearly not. Or no SEO am I.

Posted by: Andy H | Apr 11, 2006 2:09:43 PM

Are you guys saying that Andy didn't write this? Oh, I'm always so confused. I was just starting to fall in love with is writing voice and now you break this news. You could have been more gentle about that.

Posted by: Liz Strauss | Apr 12, 2006 1:10:12 PM

Sorry, Liz, it was him. If it's any comfort, I can tell you that he goes to great lengths to imitate my writing voice, seeing as I have been a role model for him since an early age.

Posted by: Andy H | Apr 12, 2006 1:59:35 PM

But I don't even know a thing about Rich. At least I know that you loved Clarissa. That gave me a wisp of hope . . . Guess I'll have to rewrite my future again.

Posted by: Liz Strauss | Apr 12, 2006 7:41:17 PM

Post a comment






« Chartreuse, Scrivs, Scoble, 37 Signals and the Art of Namedropbaiting | Main | Sorry, Rev Share Still Blows »