Just a quick announcement that I’m sure will not shock anyone.
As of today ProBlogger.net has formally joined the b5media.com network of blogs (which I am a part owner of).
This will mean little in practical terms to this blog except that there will be (and have already been) some minor tweaks to the page in terms of design and advertising. In many regards this just formalizes what has already been as I’ve been linking to the rest of the network from my sidebar for a couple of weeks now.
ProBlogger will continue to provide the same content that it’s always provided, it will continue to be authored by me, it’s hosting will remain the same and it’s design will not change too much (although I’ve been thinking about a redesign for the new year).
The other owners of b5media brought their personal blogs into the network a couple of days ago – but I was a bit behind with getting things organized.
Look out Rupert! Here comes b5.media!
Will you be moving your other blogs? or is that too big a task?
At this stage I won’t be moving my other blogs – not because of the size of the task but because of numerous other factors including that most of them share a domain that is in effect already a blog network which is jointly owned.
Love the site, but 9 different advertisements just on this page! Nicely positioned nonetheless.
Congrats.
How does it work in terms of ownership? Do you maintain ownership or is it transferred to the company?
Patrick – at this stage we’re working on the blogger agreement with regards to content ownership. As it currently stands the content on blogs at b5media is owned by b5media and not bloggers. This is what we’re currently working on to find a better outcome for.
Of course as an owner of b5media the content of this blog remains mine in a sense.
Stay tuned to b5media for more on this issue in the coming week/s.
proph3t – thanks for the compliment. This blog IS about making money from blogs via advertising – so I think it’s ok to have some well positioned ads ;-)
Thanks, Darren.
It’s been an, shall we say, interesting path for the group blogs and figuring out revenue distribution. I appreciate you sharing your experience.
I’m really enjoying watching B5media grow and develop. It’s almost like an on going case study.
Darren,
What are the specific benefits for you to join a network instead of going at it alone?
Andy > For one he will get a link to problogger.net from all the sidebars on the B5Sites sites on the network. It think they have a blog roll going on.
Second, I’m sure the network would benefit from the addition of yet another credible source of information. Users will see problogger.net in the side bar and they’ll be impressed by B5Media.
I guess its the nature of the web. The more strong connections you can get the better. Why stay unlinked when you have about 80 people who can go ahead and link to you for free. :)
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Hi Darren,
Glad to have your super site on board the b5media network. Its people like you that motivate junior bloggers like me. Hopefully one day I can also be a 6 figure blogger like you.
Interesting that you have now come under the B5 umbrella Darren, I guess it was always on the cards from day one, something which Jeremy confirms in the comments at http://www.b5media.com/the-blog-herald-and-ensightorg-join-b5media/ (at least about ensight)
Its interesting from the point of view that it will strengthen the b5 network by having such a big hitter as Problogger join, yet it will not overly impact on Darrens income, as Darren has mentioned a few times the Problogger as a single blog does not generate the same level of income as the other blogs he runs.
Of course I’m guessing the revenue sharing model for the owners of the network and their blogs is different to those blogs that have been invited into the network. If it was, and Darren was to bring all his blogs into the network, it would surely hit financially as 60% (?) of the revenue would go into the b5 pot and split however that is done between the owners….
I am quite surprised that Darren would give up full ownership of his problooger blog
after all he just went from 100% owner to 25% owner — what could he have possibly received in return?
only 4 people in the blogosphere will know…
It seems to me like the owners of the blog network ought to add all of their blogs into the network. I mean, if they wouldn’t put all of theirs in, why would you put yours in? So I’m glad to see Jeremy, Darren and ummm… man, I forgot his name! Anyway, I’m glad to see them starting to add their own blogs into the network. It’s funny that now that they are doing that though, that they’re looking at a “better outcome” regarding blog content ownership.
I feel sure that these guys will work out the kinks, and I hope that moving their own blogs into the network and being forced to consider that transaction from the other side of that relationship will lead them to making their network even better for those who blog in it.
I’m finding it very interesting to watch.
Darren, how does this affect the money that you make from ProBlogger?
I would think that it shouldn’t do anything but benefit Darren. After all it’s not necessarily true that his ownership of his blog has gone down to 25%. I would think that he still owns all of it and its an understanding all the owners have.
Getting a link back from all the network blogs and in turn linking back to them is all this blog is probably doing. That does not mean that the other owners now all of a sudden own 75% of everything darren worked on and earns from his blogs.
It all depends on the agreement they had with each other. The owners terms and conditions are different than the little baby blogs.
//pure speculation
But should they be different? I guess in some respects, maybe. But it’s my feeling as a completely outside observer, that it would make a stronger statement about the owners’ confidence in their system for their bloggers, if their blogs all were joined with the same deal as their blog members’. It is unfortunately true that they would not be giving up the same amount of earnings, because since they are still the owner of the network, they’d recieve their 40% as a blogger, plus the percentage that they would normally get as part owner of the other 60%, which I assume would be something substantially smaller than 33% as some of the proceeds would necessarily stay with the network to finance operations, etc. Obviously, I don’t know how they’ve arranged for the internal finances of the network, and I wouldn’t expect Darren to divulge all of that.
But joining all of those other streams of income with the network, to me, and giving up individual ownership would speak huge volumes to the blogging community.
Can I ask why this wasn’t done in the beginning as I am sure the idea was brought up and why would a new agreement be brought up after the fact you 3 put your blogs in instead of having it from the beginning?
No sneaky ulterior motives here – I guess we were so busy adding new blogs that we didn’t think much about the older established ones. We also had to discuss what it meant in terms of the business model to add established blogs to a network of new ones.
The new agreement has nothing to do with our blogs coming into the system and everything to do with:
1. what our bloggers have been asking for since we started. We always said our initial agreement was a draft that we’d tweak as we learned what worked and what didn’t for all concerned.
2. merging with another network that has a different system.