Syntagma Digital is delighted to announce the launch of our latest webtitle, the first in a new stream of small business sites which will form part of our Moneyizor network magazine, scheduled for April.

Small Business Booster will concentrate on ways to “boost” the efforts of small business owners and startups. Well, what did you expect?

It’s authored by our Small Business Team, a group of folk with a great deal of knowledge in their fields, but with little experience of writing online. Consequently, their efforts will be put together by an in-house editor. The group includes an auditor, a finance professional and a business adviser. They all work in some capacity for Syntagma Digital.

Take a look at Small Business Booster.

Back from an idyllic break which went on a little longer than planned — a touch of March sanity there, I think. Now down to the next phase in our business plan.

Lots of stuff to do including new paperwork and author agreements arising out of incorporation — you wouldn’t believe how much. But principally preparing for our new network magazine, Moneyizor, which will range across finance and small business areas.

We’ll be starting the design work — or rather Thord will be — in April; in the meantime, we’re developing a number of webtitles for the magazine inventory. We currently have four and are developing two more. We also wish to attract outside sites to the fold once the magazine is visible.

You may also have noticed the new header on Syntagma. This is Thord’s work, originally suggested as a logo, but looks great as a header I think. We’ll also be redoing all the logos in the logo cabinet in April and preparing a new version of our template for Moneyizor sites.

Maybe I should extend that holiday further.

In the course of opening up our four network magazines to external sites/blogs, we are going to need to set up a dedicated ad server capable of delivering Flash ads (rich media) to participating sites, plus good tracking and editing facilities for advertisers.

I’ve been chatting with other network owners on another site about the possibility of a joint effort, since we probably wouldn’t need the whole capacity of even a single server. Some interesting ideas are emerging.

However, we want to push ahead with facilities of our own in case agreement can’t be reached. Can any of our readers recommend a reliable server company that offers this service together with decent tech support?

Paul Scrivens has posted on the topic “Why blog networks failed” over at Wisdump.com.

Do you remember those things that we called Blog Networks? You might have paid attention or you might have gone about your life like nothing changed and that’s one of the reasons why they failed. ‘Failed’ might be a harsh term to use, but of the hundreds of blog networks that started in 2005 and 2006 which ones are thriving and by ‘thriving’ I don’t mean staying above surface?

His line of reasoning, which is mostly sound, follows the Calacanis line that atomized blogs are less effective revenue earners than major titles, like Engadget or Boing Boing.

Readers of Syntagma may recall we’ve been considering this proposition for up to a year. The reason we’ve amalgamated our 50 domains into three network magazines, and pruned a great many others, is our recognition that the model was not flexible or attractive enough to make the breakthrough in revenue terms.

I believe “blogging” as content provision peaked possibly as far back as a year ago. Other, more traditional or hybrid, models have more to offer, I believe, in connecting with a technology-and-information-bemused audience. Blog networks are fading as Web 2.0 is slowly sinking into a rosy sunset.

But I also think Scrivs underestimates the amount of time it takes to get a content business going. Even Weblogs Inc took 18-24 months to build a site to a decent readership. That takes staying power as well as trust in the model.

What has happened is that following the success of a few sites which grew rapidly in a market with little competition, thousands of copycat operations have appeared like mushrooms in a damp forest.

We have saturation point in gadgets, autos, gaming, and gossip. The failure of many blog networks is largely one of imagination and genuine innovation. Just look at the derivative stuff out there.

As for the model, it can evolve, adapt and morph into newer forms. But, as we well know, it takes an immense and constant effort to accomplish this. It’s not for the fainthearted or the easily discouraged.

Content as a business is not synonymous with “blog networks”. There are some great content sites out there that are not blogs or networks.

I agree with Scrivs that the blog network model has failed as a road to easy riches. But, if you’re in it for the longer term, and innovate while bringing in traditional publishing skills, there may yet be solid achievement round the corner.

Bottom line : There will always be a need for good, informative, well-researched content with commentary while search engines expand and refine their techniques. How that content is presented is important but less so than its usability by the audience.

The only constraining factor is excessive competition squeezing out some operators. But then, that’s always been the case in every industry since wheelwrights started up in the Stone Age.

The final step in our reorganization has been taken. Syntagma Media is now a redundant name, except in the URL of this webtitle, where it will remain. It may, though, be resurrected as a holding company when Syntagma Television appears on your screens in 2008.

Dial Publishing — the print arm — has been completely separated off from the online business, which will now be incorporated in the UK as Syntagma Digital.

We’ve introduced these changes gradually to see how they feel in practice and whether we can live with them. The answer is, yes. Apart from the internet address of this site, all references to Syntagma Media will be eventually removed from the inventory.

The reason is not that we cease to be a media business, just that there are a lot of them out there. Anyone blogging about blogging these days refers to themselves as a media business. We are following our own path and the new titles reflect that.

Okay, it’s not such a big deal, but names are important as they become brands over time. Syntagma is the brand, digital is what we do, “media” is a given and doesn’t need stressing in the company name.

As for Dial Publishing, it will take on a life of its own as a print publisher of business and digital-publishing books. It will also cover our consultancy business and all other offline activities. Dial will no longer be referred to as the print arm of Syntagma Media.

So the process of reconstructing the business that began three months ago is almost complete. In a week or two we can get down to some real work at last — producing large amounts of quality digital content.

Note : Some domain names are currently pointing to this site. They include : SyntagmaDigital.com, SyntagmaTelevision.com and SyntagmaTV.com. These properties will be built in due course.

In previous posts I’ve looked at creating a digital network out of own-resources – bootstrapping — as a way of avoiding the venture capital squeeze — bear-hugging. Now it’s time for some specifics.

Lately, we’ve been looking back over the past 16 months of Syntagma Media’s existence and attempting to work out the full cost of the operation in monetary terms. Remember, it’s been done without VC finance, bank or Angel loans or equity sales of any kind. The only aid has been a credit card, which is cleared at the end of every month. Clearly someone must have borne the full cost.

We calculated all the costs of setup, fees for advice, authoring, design, general tech, plus all the usual business stuff. I also added in my own cost and resources at my standard consultancy rate. The sweep mainly included Syntagma Digital, but also the much smaller liabilities of Dial Publishing — our incubating print arm.

The total cost to my personal exchequer came to $250,000.

I must confess I was a little taken aback by that number. I hadn’t realized I had that amount of loose change floating about. But accountancy doesn’t lie.

Of course, there has been a good deal of income, especially in the past 6 — 9 months. All of that has also gone back into the business. So the bottom line sits on the question : is Syntagma Digital worth more than a quarter of a million bucks?

I’ll let you into a secret, I was offered more than that around four months ago, but the deal involved running someone else’s British business.

Setting up a digital content business then doesn’t come cheap. The fact is, we could have spent considerably more as, for example, our near contemporary b5media has. It’s very much a matter of priorities and some fine calculation of whether a particular expenditure will be cost-effective or not. In my experience (16 months worth) most expenditures are not.

Refining the art of spending is therefore top of the agenda when it comes to bloodsucking your business — I use that term instead of bootstrapping here because it helps to know that it’s your blood the business is sucking. That knowledge alone concentrates the mind wonderfully.

Finale : Sixteen months in, $250,000 down, working like a sugar-cane cutter, no end in sight. Is it all worth it? Wait for the book*. All the killer facts are there.

* The Syntagma Story by John M Evans to be published by Dial Publishing later this year.

In reflective Saturday mood, I want to continue the discussion of the last two days on digital networks. This time not singling out specific networks or people. I’m also restricting the networks to those that start off as microbusinesses and build to at least mid-market positions.

This is the question : How do we measure success in a digital network?

The simple response is : against the goals set by the founders when the network was started.

That’s a bit fuzzy because goals can change; ambitions can grow or recede; new horizons can beckon; the original goals may have been unattainable or too easy because of lack of experience in the founders.

So we need an objective measure. I believe there are two :

1. The network sells to a deep-pocketed buyer, leaving the founders rich and satisfied.
2. The business becomes a viable company, paying salaries and fees to others, and a tidy income to the founders, while also growing asset value as time passes.

I suspect many an online publisher would settle for either, whatever way their initial preference leaned.

There are other measures too. For example, a business may not make much money, but gain credibility and respect among the audience it serves. The founders may then launch ancillary careers as consultants or advisers. But here we’re concentrating on publishing income from content delivered, so we’ll eliminate these sideline activities.

I’m guessing that anyone who becomes an online publisher starts out with one of the above two objectives as their main goal. What then do they need to do to reach digital Nirvana?

1. If you’re rearing a business for sale you are essentially a digital farmer. Agricultural methodology should be built into your plans.

For instance, be aware of the weather, by which I mean the internet climate, which can go from euphoric (1999) to dustbowl dismal (2001) in very short order. Sniffing the digital wind should be an important part of your day.

At present there’s a general feeling that Web 2.0 is in a mini-bubble state, with no-one currently launching IPOs on their startups. There’s also a dangerous belief that Google, the classic 2.0-timer, will protect everyone else in the space with its long coat-tails. Not a good frame of mind to adopt.

You also need to get your product right. Is it a generic thing made to be branded fully by someone else after purchase? Or is it an exotic offering that needs good branding now? I can think of examples of both out there as I write.

If it’s a shell of an idea, it will fail or succeed by the state of the market at the time and should be brought to sale as quickly as possible and in the right conditions. Such mass market fruit ripens quickly and begins to rot before you know it.

If it’s the exotic variety, it requires a unique selling point to carry it into the arms of an eager buyer. In many ways this type of network is more suited to Objective 2 than to 1. However, it can be very attractive if its branding is well-thought through and admired in the marketplace.

So, as a digital farmer you’re either selling raw chicken carcasses or chill-counter Chicken Kiev. You definitely need to know which it is, or you’ll end up giving someone indigestion.

2. If you are incubating your network as a viable business you should attend to all the things that such businesses require, from infrastructure to branding and product excellence.

This is the slower path as your objectives are longer-term. But it’s the traditional path. Few people in the past built businesses to sell under bubble conditions, catching the big wave as it forms. Only the surfing, internet generation has specialized in this kind of California dreaming.

Conditions are never less than dangerous for those who venture out into the swell. Such people really do need a gameplan for when it all goes horribly wrong. Like an alternative business plan that allows them to morph easily from Objective 1 to Objective 2, with scarcely a flutter of attention from eagle-eyed onlookers.

In the interim, success is measurable by where you are now in terms of the market conditions, the grasp you have on the situation, and the positioning you’ve achieved in the light of the outcome aimed for.

If that sounds complicated, it’s so because, until the wished-for outcome is met, you are still in no-man’s-land, that messy hinterland where the future is dark and the present edgy.

Taking home a good paycheck is some consolation for these uncertain times. In its absence, it should at least be imaginable sometime soon, or you’re in the wrong business.

And Syntagma Digital? Where do we stand? … Maybe I’ll tell you one day.

After the initial rush of blood to the head about “blog networks”, we at Syntagma have settled into a cautious optimism about what I now call digital networks.

However, I’m sometimes accused of selling the “industry” down the river when I criticize common assumptions on these hybrid creations. I’d prefer to be realistic about the content business in general, and build out steadily from solid ground than snowboard on the pistes of popular enthusiasm.

So I’m always interested when a voice of real experience — in print and digital — speaks out on the subject. Jason Calacanis has been interviewed by Businessweek in connection with John Battelle’s Federated Media, a “repping company” which sells digital advertising space in return for 40pc of the gross.

First, how are blog networks developing?

” … three ways: everyone is doing [it], advertisers love it, and consumers have embraced reading them on a daily basis. … only two networks ever reached any scale: Weblogs, Inc. and Gawker Media. The other blog networks are not even close to the traffic of the two winners.”

That is undoubtedly true. We’ve seen many a quick, noisy startup fade noiselessly away. Why have so many failed?

“I think what’s happened now is the window for a network has closed as the top slots in gossip, tech, autos, video games, etc. have filled.”

I’ve been saying that for a while now. Look at Autoblog and Engadget and imagine trying to compete. So how many blog networks have scaled up?

“Weblogs, Inc. and Gawker are the two biggest. Nothing else even comes close. I mean, B5 Media raised some money [$2m] but can you name their top blog?”

How much would it cost to build a new Weblogs, Inc?

“It would take a $20M investment to build a network to compete with Weblogs, Inc. and Gawker. I don’t see anyone investing that much. So, I think the window is closed for a scale blog network.”

I totally agree with that and have been saying so for quite some time. For example, when we decided to aim exclusively at the big retail markets, even teaming up with a retail consultancy for a while, the costs of market drive were horrendous, with no guarantees of success.

We discovered a thick glass ceiling between being a successful mid-sized network and blasting into the mainstream with heavyweight, stable advertisers.

Syntagma Media had a few offers of creative partnerships to take the project forward, but my innate caution about bubbly markets made us turn away from them in the end.

So, what should be the future gameplan for a mid-market digital network like Syntagma?

1. Differentiate yourselves from the pack.
2. Drop all the nerdy names that go with the territory.
3. Forget “blog” network, become a digital network.
4. Replace blogs as a unit and talk about webtitles.
5. Never mind “channels”, carve out network magazines that everybody will understand.
6. Do this slowly and thoughtfully, not grabbing at the straws of fickle opinion from people with a vested interest in selling you stuff.
7. Above all, use careful cash-flow techniques to amass your strength.
8. Don’t sell your creation in bits for money that must be spent, however few the opportunities.
9. Back up the digital with a print presence so that each can support the other with joint projects.
10. Always aim to be exceptional.

You won’t end up with Weblogs, Inc., but then that always was a deceptive model, since it was built around a handful of powerful weblogs started when there was no competition.

But as publishers, both Jason and Nick Denton of Gawker have proved their worth, as you would expect from people arriving from the print world. What they also proved is that, ultimately, being the Next Big Thing is more trouble than it’s worth.

Update: Jason adds to his critique of the “b5 model” in a comment over at The Blog Herald : “b5 media has great people, and I don’t mean to pick on them, but it’s the wrong model. I know this because I tried it back in the early days of WIN.”

Strong stuff, but it underlies my points above that wide, blog networks need to evolve into something different to stay ahead of the game.

Update 2: Jeremy Wright has replied at great length to Jason’s critique of the b5 model. It’s well worth a read. “… the truth is that both Nick and Jason came at this as a publishing play. Which is fine. That’s their background. It’s how they do things. It’s worked in the past, and it worked this time around. … When we started b5media, we didn’t do it as a publishing play. We did it as a community play.”