When commercial blogs get personal

A new network launched called erati. Since I deal with commerical blogging I decided to check it out. I’m confused…are these David’s personal blogs or are readers supposed to be learning something about blog networks? Excuse me, only Scrivs’ networks at the moment.

A new network launched - Erati, a division of BlogMedia. So I’m checking out the network and I am assuming things are slow because of the holidays. That’s to be expected….what’s up with all the Scrivs’ posts? Blogerati is: “Blogerati is about blogging intelligently. Creating smart blog networks. This is the place I pick apart the blog networks, professional bloggers, and yes even the mainstream media bloggers.”

Did David talk about B5, Instablogs, where Nick Douglas disappeared to, OSM (that’s always a good one)? No…so far just Scrivs. This neutral blog has a very personal tone to it. It is supposed to be neutral, right?

Here are some examples:

“Fine Fools had absolutely no structure and that’s why I left. I cant speak for any one else. And I didnt run around recruiting people. They came to me.”

“My most trafficked portion of the site. So with a great design people came back. But they were only staying on that front page. And the right hand sidebar with no ads. Wasn’t paying off. I made more money standing on a corner in 4 minutes asking for a quarter than i did with Fine Fools.”

And another:

“Athough it will be fun watching 9rules get off the ground again. I wonder if they haven’t hurt their image by not communicating. The same issue happened at Fine Fools when bloggers began jumping ship. I wonder how long before 9Rulers begin jumping ship.”

And why is the fact that 9rules took the site down for 24 hours news? Why? I don’t get it. I just did a major overhaul here and I fully understand taking the front page down. Makes life a heck of a lot easier…should have done it myself. If I had perhaps I wouldn’t have the bugs I still have to sort through. Anyway, a redesign is not news…because you know what they are going to do right? Report the redesign…which I suppose “could” be news. I’m losing my point…sigh…

Is it that David is trying to use the drama that happened at Fine Fools to draw traffic to the new site or is it another personal blog?

David why don’t you get it all out of your system, tell your story what should have been done or shouldn’t have been…then move on to something else? Blog Network List has a decent amount of networks – pick one, rip it apart then pick another one, rip it apart. I’ll help you out. Duct Tape Marketing – what not to do if you’re going to start a network. Or DailyPixel – don’t put “daily” in the domain name unless the site can um…actually be updated daily. Ooh…another - B5 launched a new channel.

Perhaps it is my business perspective but new blogs should launch hard – come out swinging. Really show their stuff because they have to gain attention and keep it. I’m not feeling that with blog.erati. Or tech.erati. biz.erati – complete opposite…excellent content. Shame it has a FeedBurner feed or I would subscribe. The posts on tech.erati that David made are personal “5 Essential Technologies I Use Daily”.

Matt, I wish you the best of luck but I’m honestly puzzled at the approach and the personal feel of the blogs in a commercial space…unless it’s not commercial….

And before anyone goes there – yes I am in 9rules but I am also in TPN…this is a neutral observation – a rather obvious one.