I’m really excited to announce that I’ve just recently started a process of putting some quality bloggers into my blogs to help lighten the load of blogging. This will free me up to spend more time blogging at ProBlogger and working on some of the other exciting projects that I’ve been throwing myself into recently at b5media, six figure blogging and a couple of yet to be announced projects.
The first blogger that has come on in a paid capacity is BJ from Adventures in Net Marketing. BJ will be editing my Camera Phone blog (one that will be hopefully getting a complete redesign in the coming weeks).
BJ came on board at the Camera Phone blog way back in June when I asked for guest bloggers and at the end of my time away when it came time to hand the reigns back over she asked if she could continue on a voluntary basis – getting only a link back to her blog on each post. Since that time she’s put more and more time into posting and in the past week or two has taken over the reigns of the blog almost completely as I’ve taught her my system there.
It’s been a learning experience not only for BJ as she’s learned the ropes of how I run the blog – but also for me as I’ve had to consider how to explain what I do. I’ve also found it an interesting experience to sit back and let someone else work on something that I’ve been putting so much time into over the past year. While I’m enjoying the extra time that this gives me – it is a strange feeling stepping away from something that has taken up so much of my focus.
Also a part of the process is working through the eternal question of ‘how to pay’ authors who come onto one of my blogs. I think we have a system that is mutually beneficial to us both – time will tell if we need to tweak it! I’m not going to go into details of what the arrangement is – BJ and I haven’t talked about whether we’ll make it public – but I will say that it’s a bit different to any of the other revenue sharing systems I’ve seen in other blogs. At the basis of it however is incentive for BJ to blog in a way that builds up the blog’s quantities of content as well as readership.
At this stage BJ is the only extra author I’m ready to take on but in time as we see how it goes I’m looking forward to either expanding her role to other blogs and/or to engage the services of other bloggers on my blogs. This will not be a quick process. I’d rather take it slow – find the right blogger for the right blog – make sure I have a good relationship with the blogger/s concerned – and find the right compensation system for the blog and blogger.
Congratulations Darren – it’s great to see you moving ahead like this.
The biggest test is going to come in the next week or two – will you really be able to delegate or will you be always going back to look over BJ’s shoulder … just to be sure? :)
You are so right to take it slow. Get one going right. Make sure you’ve worked out the process and the communication things. It’s so human nature to think we can run right through those steps and it trips us up every time that we do.
Congratulations on the free time you’re finding for you.
ooh stuart is a man who knows the issues that can make small business operators struggle!!
but i’m convinced you won’t micro-managing poor BJ.
Congrats to both you and BJ, Darrem
Yes it can be tough to hand on something, even voluntarily. It will be an interesting experience for you both, but I’m sure very beneficial.
<humour>Do you feel like paying me for one of your other blogs, although I’m not writing on it I am still getting the trackback spam emails from it ;)</humour>
Jealous, moi?
Blue with envy – hehe.
I’m curious, why didn’t you just make it part of b5? Seems like you’ve got what you think is a good system for managing bloggers who are working on blogs that you own already. Why create a different system just because it’s a blog that you started yourself? I think that may create more headaches for you.
All the founders of b5media have their own existing projects and I think it’s good that some things are still separate.
Also, though the owners could bend the rules, existing blogs don’t get added to b5media – it’s for new blogs. Some of Darren’s blogs have been running for a long time.
Andy’s right. Some of our pre-existing blogs might come in on b5 at some point – but just because we have started a new business together doesn’t mean all our existing ones need to merge.
I guess its about diversification of incomes. As I always argue here – it’s not smart to have all your eggs in the one basket. My other blogs will definately support the b5 blogs via links and cross promotion from time to time – but they don’t need to become one with each other.
There are other more complicated reasons of course also – but this is at the crux of it.
I suppose that makes a certain amount of sense, but… speaking strictly as the devil’s advocate, it also could give the impression that you aren’t 100% behind b5. I’m sure that’s not the actual case, and I am sure that you have your reasons. But the first thought I had was “hey, why isn’t that part of b5?” I don’t see any reason why you and the other partners in b5 couldn’t work out a part of your own corporate agreement which deals with bringing your own blogs under the b5 umbrella. I think to the general public, in terms of brand strength and confidence, that would send a very strong message. If your own blogs aren’t part of the network, I think the network loses a bit of its cache.
Oh, and BTW, those minimalls DO pay pretty well. I got my first click from one yesterday. And yeah, it was only one, but it did pay well for being only one click. Hopefully, several more clicks will be forthcoming. LOL
I suspect that very few of our network’s readers would have any idea of who is behind our blog as owners – what other blogs they have – and many of them would have little understanding that what they are reading is a blog in and of itself.
I doubt it would have much impact whether they see my other blogs as part of it or not.
Another factor – the b5 network already has a cell phone blog – two might be overkill.
In terms of whether I’m behind b5 totally or not – I don’t think anyone who knows me or reads this blog would doubt my committment to it with the time, thought and effort we’ve put into the thing.
I am fully in agreement with you. But I’m not talking about those groups of people. I’m talking about your potential blog network writers who may find you here and read what you say.
They may not know you, and they might have those kinds of reactions upon reading that you are operating outside of your own network. And please don’t think that I am at all a detractor. I think this blog is fantastic and has helped me tremendously in getting started and I think b5 is also great for those who will join it with the right attitude and bring their “A” game to the party. I am just pointing out that you might need to be careful what sorts of things you post here relative to your own blog business because while you may still actually BE a free agent in some ways, you are also part of the network. The two are very very much related and I would hate for you to be sabotaging your network in any way by turning people off here. I hope that makes sense.
I hear what you’re saying – but I don’t know that most people who read this blog will have any issues with it. Most readers hear know that I have 20 blogs – that I work on multiple projects and a variety of business interests including b5.
I’ll keep i in mind of course.
I just thought I’d chime in here and add to something that was brought up initially in the comments – Darren definitely isn’t a micro-manager. I’m used to working on my own, and it’s been nice to know that he seems comfortable with my blogging. When I’ve needed a nudge in the right direction, I get emails that carefully point me there without stepping on my toes. :)
But at the same time, I know he’s there and available, just in case, and that’s been good too. I suspect, Darren, that you won’t have any trouble bringing more bloggers onto your LivingRoom blogs, because you’re very easy to work with.
BJ, I think you are doing a great job. I write on a couple of blogs for other people and always find my postings on them coming second to writing on my own handful of blogs. The commitment you must have to put in the number of quality postings that you have been doing on the Camera Phone Blog is admirable.
On another note, I’ve been running my mobile phones website as a clumsy HTML site for around 2 and a half years and after seeing how good yours looks I’ve decided this week to scrap the old site and move to a blog format with WordPress. Just hope I can keep on top of posting to it every day.
Would be interested to know how you organize compensation. Salary or percentage of earnings etc.
I’m not sure we’ll be talking about this publically in any detail Mike. Will let you know if we do though.