Jeff Johnson Search Engine Voodoo.com

Here is an article about AOL acquiring a company whose business was “blogging”.

The company started bogging in January 2004 and has just been sold for an estimated $25 million dolllars… less than two years after their first post!

Weblogs, Inc used a model for publishing that isn’t unuique and is used by many others including several of my clients….

They hire people to write their blogs for them.

They had a staff of 100+ people cranking out blogs every day. Most of these people did so from the comfort of their homes so it wasn’t like they needed huge office buildings to staff these people. No to mentino they are “freelance” writers which means that they aren’t true “employees” …

Another interestng thing to note is the number of RSS views they had each month; 25 million RSS pages views a month!

How can you make money with this information?

Simple, hire people in specialized markets to contribute content to your blogs. This can be done on a piece-by piece-basis, or by contracting them as independent contractors and have them post on a more frequent schedule.

Also, make sure that you are putting your RSS subscribe buttons at the top of your blog instead of burying them at the bottom… which is where most blog software defaults them to. (please note, my “table” is broken so my buttons appear lower than they were designed to).

The vast majority of people using RSS feeds to gather their news don’t actually know that they are using RSS… so make it easy for them by including “add to”- “myyahoo”, “newgator”, “mymsn, “myaol”, etc buttons instead of the plain old orange xml buttons.

America Online Acquires Weblogs, Inc.
October 06, 2005

Dulles, VA – Thursday, October 6, 2005 – In online content that ranges from music to movies, travel to tech, food to fashion, medicine to mortgages, 85 new topical websites now call AOL and AOL.com home – providing online consumers with new micro-communities where they can connect, debate, editorialize, comment, and learn.

America Online, Inc. today announced that is has signed a definitive agreement to acquire one of the online medium’s leading blogging companies, Weblogs, Inc. (http://www.weblogsinc.com) of Santa Monica, CA and New York, NY. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The agreement was signed Wednesday, October 5, and is expected to close next week.

Weblogs, Inc., founded in September 2003, is a privately-held, venture-backed company. Weblogs operates a media network, launched in January 2004, of 85 blogging sites covering a range of subject matters. The company features more than 100 independent, freelance expert bloggers producing over 1,000 blog postings weekly – providing rich, unfiltered content for millions of dedicated blog visitors and contributors.

Weblogs produces blogs in specialized, ‘niche’ consumer and trade markets, with over 30 million monthly web page views and 25 million monthly RSS page views per month. Weblogs’ more popular blogs include: Engadget (technology), Autoblog (automotive), Joystiq (gaming), Cinematical (films), Blogging Baby (parenting), Luxist (luxury), Gadling (travel), The Wireless Weblog, SlashFood, and TVSquad.

For the rest of the story please visit AOL buy Weblogs, INC