A Weblog Examination

1
A Weblog Examination

• observations and experiences from the world of
  blogging
• Meg Hourihan

2
What is a weblog (blog)?

• Web page with small chunks of text
• date-stamped
• ordered chronologically
• newest information at the top of the page
• Web native format
• Distributed discussions
• Peer-to-peer

3
Blogger.com

• Initial approach
• Self-funding strategy
• Series A round
• Business models
• Enterprise software
• Subscription/licensing
• Custom installations
• Averaged 2.2 updates a day

4
Blogger Mistakes

• Lack of focus
• Afraid to spend
• Never asked anyone to pay
• Revenues Q4 00 13,000
• Goodwill of community (not a mistake)
• Tool is of the people
• How can we use this?

5
Present Day

• Independent researcher
• Co-author of We Blog Publishing online with
  weblogs
• Columnist for the OReilly Network
• Blogroots.com
• Tools exploration

6
State of blogging

• Software/tools
• Blogger and LiveJournal both 500,000 users
• Movable Types TrackBack
• Radio UserLands RSS News Aggregator
• Cultural initiatives
• Weblog Foundation proposal

7
Financial state of blogging

• Radio UserLand
• Per seat licensing
• Blogger
• Pro version by subscription
• Advertising revenue (text and banner)
• LiveJournal
• Optional paid accounts
• Movable Type
• Donation-ware

8
Financial state (contd)

• Jim Romanesko/Poynter
• Andrew Sullivan
• Amazon wish lists
• Amazon associates

9
Where are we going?

• Making relationships explicit
• TrackBack
• Blogdex
• Adding context
• Finding the good stuff
• Integration
• With other devices
• With other applications
• Business blogging

10
What do we need?

• People to write/collate/collect/filter/link
• The collective
• People to build
• Financial support

11
How do we fund it?

• Traditional media business models
• Text ads
• By subscription
• Traditional software models
• By seat
• Sponsorship (patrons?)
• Donation-ware

12
How do we fund it? (contd)

• Micropayments
• Tip Jars
• Economic unit of blogger at group level
• Blogging adds value collectively more than
  individually. To me, that suggests that a network
  of bloggers is the more likely economic unit than
  is the individual blogger. - Arnold Kling