The Weird World of Blog Networks
Two decidedly weird stories caught my eye this morning, both involving blog networks.
The first comes from Michael Arrington at TechCrunch. An almost unknown blog network (to me, at least) called Popsugar has raised VC funding of $5 million, valuing it at around $12–15m : “Blog network Sugar Publishing (the most popular blog in the network is PopSugar) has raised ‘around $5 million’ in a Series A round investment from Sequoia Capital.”
Sequoia Capital is something of a legend in the industry, not a bunch of wet-behind-the-ears kids with more money than sense.
So what is Popsugar? The main site has snippets of news about teeny idols and screen stars of the moment like Scarlett Johanssen, who’s described as the sexiest woman on earth. Great judgement for a dumpy blonde with a nondescript face. But “hip teen women” may like it, of course.
Is it a flyer? You have to respect Michael Moritz of Sequoia but I suspect it may be a case of bubble, bubble, toil and trouble.
The second story is that newly fund-injected b5media is helping to send author and guru Shel Israel on an extensive round the world trip as their Ambassador.
His Excellency Ambassador Israel will visit many countries while researching his new book and representing the b5ers along the way. What next for Jeremy and co, an Embassy at the United Nations?
And what will Shel actually do for them? Talk to a few hundred people who may, or may not, visit b5′s rather low-key main site? Will that investment pay off? Our readers will surely judge for themselves.
One word springs out here for both cases : inflatus.
Yes, there is an audience for teen sites, but they usually have to have something more going for them than gossip regurgitation and a line of comment. They do also have a “social networking” site, TeamSugar, but I’ve only looked at the oh-so-typical Web 2y front page. Frankly I’ve seen so many like it, even the colourful, chunky graphics look familiar.
And blog networks don’t need ambassadors. Face to face is unproductive compared with online viral transmission, whatever you’re trying to get across. Unless, of course, the Bill Gates Syndrome has already set in at b5. Can we expect The b5media Foundation to alleviate world poverty, with Bono as their next Ambassador?
Come on, guys, get a sense of proportion here.
No offence John, but why would it be Shel’s job to drive traffic to the main site? What do you think he’s doing, handing out posters for new blogs?
Come on, read the post. Local contacts, local content. It is far, far easier to build relationships in person.
By Jeremy Wright on October 17th, 2006 at 10:42 am
No offence intended by me either, Jeremy, but a blog network with a globe-trotting Ambassador does strike me as peculiar.
And local content can be obtained without that. We have someone blogging from a mystic mountain in South India, but we didn’t send Martin Amis around the world to find her.
Good story, though. Keep ‘em coming.
By John Evans on October 17th, 2006 at 11:02 am
John, I didn’t say we couldn’t find people without Shel. We have authors from 18 countries after all, on 6 continents! We’ve found great people through online and word of mouth.
But if you want to find people who aren’t blogging, who aren’t even online but are truly passionate about their local communities, the only thing to do is either make them come to you or to go to them.
Since Shel was going on the trip anyways, giving him a story to tell made a lot of sense.
This might seem peculiar to you, but that’s fine. If we find 2-3 really solid contacts that are really passionate about their local communities the trip is totally worthwhile.
Nothing to do with traffic. And while there might be other ways to spend 4-5K, I’m not sure how many better ways there are than valuing authors enough to go and find them wherever they might be.
By Jeremy Wright on October 17th, 2006 at 11:07 am
OK, fair enough, Jeremy. You have your ways of doing things.
You know, we could send you some really pasch people from here in the UK, and we’d give you a discount on your 4-5k.
By John Evans on October 17th, 2006 at 11:35 am