Someone asked me for an email interview and then garbled the result. So I’m publishing the real answers here:

1. What has been your biggest surprise in running a blog network?

The amount of work involved is the short answer. I’ve been a full-time professional writer for ten years, so I should have been prepared for it. It’s not the writing side of it so much, though, just the proliferation of learning curves all over the place.

Apart from that, there’s also the competitive element between networks which can get quite fraught at times. I actually think there’s plenty of space out there for everyone, so it doesn’t worry me if someone else steals a march on us.

Syntagma Media is not a design-conscious network like some of the others. As far as we’re concerned plain and simple with good content is just fine. We’re pleased with the way our cautious monetization has been going since Christmas, so we know we’re on the right track.

2. What do you think is going to be your company’s biggest obstacle for the next six months and how are you preparing for it?

We’re looking ahead trying to anticipate upcoming server problems. I watched from within b5media as Jeremy and Duncan struggled with the weight of bandwidth needed to keep their show on the road. Currently we only have 10 blogs, so it’s not critical yet, but the time will come and we need to fully professionalize our serverside operation. We’ll also have to prepare some solid redundancy and failsafe features. That will mean importing expertise of the type we don’t have right now. But, I reckon we’ve got up to six months to do it.

3. This is a new field, blog networks. What advice would you give someone thinking of starting a blog network?

Ha ha! Moi? I wouldn’t give any hard and fast rules until I had more experience myself. I’d suggest they forget VC finance, expand cautiously throwing out anything that doesn’t work and trying new things. Don’t take on too many bloggers, then find you can’t pay them. The worker bees must always have their honey.

Apart from that, enjoy it. You may as well as it’s your own fault you’re in this place at all. But keep an eye out for server problems. That’s what can bring you down.

I hope that sets the record straight.