Blogging Networks : Top 5 Pros and Cons

By Basketer on Tuesday, May 08, 2007

The previous post of this miniseries was: What are Blogging networks and which ones are the best?

While doing my research on blog networks, I searched for posts dealing with the advantages and disadvantages. To my surprise there were very few on this subject. I tried to contact the networks through there emails but they haven't replied as yet. So, I went to some forums, dug up some discussions and got some ideas. To protect there anonymity, I wont mention the names but they were pretty useful.

This post will try to weigh the pros and cons of joining a blog network. I have also made it a part of the Top 5 writing project on Problogger, for better exposure. Here it goes:

Advantages of Blogging Network

Shared Expenses

The funds required for a blog design, domain name, hosting etc are substantial. The blog networks take care of these expenses for you.

Assistance and Feedback

Ranging from the technical stuff like latest blog hosting version to help for creating content, a blogging network will help you with everything. It will help you to notice a glitch on your blog or a way to improve the user friendliness. If you don't want to handle the technical stuff, they will do it for you and you have to create only the content.

Makes you noticeable in blogosphere

Organizations pay more attention to bigger organizations. Whether it be sources, press access, freebies, review units or whatever.

Money

Some blog networks pay you to blog which keeps you motivated. Indirectly, the increased traffic and exposure a network brings to your blog can be converted to money through Adsense and similar networks.

Motivation and Friends

This is an intangible benefit which brings a sense of team or a group in your blogging. The people of your network have similar goals and want you at the top. They will motivate you from time to time and wouldn't let you slack as far as posting or quality is concerned.

Cons of a Blogging Network

Loss of individuality

Believe it or not, people start calling you a member of the blog. Example: "Oh, that blog, yeah it is a XXX network blog, so it is good."

Sharing the good times and money

If you want a blog network to pick you up through your bad times, it naturally will pick up a share of your good times. The ad space is another think that you will have to sacrifice for the support.

Things might not work out

The blog networks have a lot of power in there hands. Suppose, you join a network and for one reason or the other, things don't work out. After leaving the group, there is always a possibility(however small) of hard feelings or even worst, revenge of some kind.

You Become one of them

For me being generalized as a part of the group is the worst thing. When you join a network you have to follow some of their procedures as a part of the group. Whatever you do you will always be a part of the group. Wherever your blog goes, the network name will reach first.

You have a Boss!!

You are the boss of your own blog. You write whatever you want, whichever way you want to. After you join a blog network, you are responsible to someone else for your blog. However good a network might be, you will still have somebody above you questioning you and your blog.

Post Roundup - April'07

By Basketer on Monday, May 07, 2007

The month of April has been quite good for me and my blog. My blog is just a couple of months old and my homepage got a Google page rank of 4.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for the support and suggestions you have provided. I will be glad if you can criticize my blog which will give me the opportunity to improve.

I would like to thank my Bmom Liz who has helped me a lot. She has always given me hopes and ideas whenever I was down. Thanks, thanks and Thanks.

Here are some of the best posts in April.

The Be Original Project

This has been by far the best post I have written, atleast my readers tend to think so. It has more than 25+ backlinks already, still counting.

101 Ways to Create Original Blog posts:

This is the source post created from the Be Original Project. 40 ways to create your own original posts have been collected. The goal is to reach 101, you can contribute to the same r just sit back and apply these rules to make great posts.

MBL Series:

This series had a coupe of posts namely:

5 Ways to set up your Blog posting schedule:

10 Ways to make your Blog Interactive:

Blogging Networks - Miniseries Part I

By Basketer on Friday, May 04, 2007

I have been hearing a lot about blogging networks since I have started blogging. Recently, I Googled each aspect of it and thought it is quite a powerful medium and is potentially the best way to give you motivation, tools ad readers for your blog.

In this miniseries I plan to discuss each aspect of blogging networks. This is a tentative breakup of this series:

What is a blogging network?
A list of blogging networks out there
Advantages of a blogging network.
Disadvantages of a blogging network.
How to be a part of blogging networks?

What is a Blogging Network?

A blogging network is a group of bloggers working to achieve a common goal with there combined efforts.

Basically put, a blogging network is a community of bloggers that are loosely connected by theme, by ownership, by language or by any other factors.
Some networks actively organize topics, paying bloggers for providing fresh content. Others are groups of professional writers who band together for promotional purposes

If you are an active blogger and reader in the blogosphere, a blogging network gives you the opportunity to make friends for life who share the same motivation and goals as you do. The pros and cons of a network will be dealt in details later in the series. This is just an introduction.