Fodder Thoughts: The Five Biggest Blog Mistakes I've Made
I'm a year into the development of The Fodder Network and over the last 365-plus days I've learned an enormous amount about my own capabilities and the fickle nature of the blog business. I've also confronted a slew of mistakes that, hopefully, I won't keep repeating.In an effort to keep these errors burned into my consciousness, I've opted to write down my top five mistakes from the last year.
Mistake No. 1: Underestimating the Time Commitment
I've been managing and developing my own sites for six years, so I'm not a noob at this game. Nonetheless, I definitely underestimated the time it takes to develop my own blog business. Each site is like an infant -- it needs constant care, constant updates and you cannot turn your attention away for a second, less it wander off into the road and eat a dead squirrel (or something like that).
Mistake No. 2: Forgetting About the Exponential Nature of Tweaks
When the Network reached 10 blogs or so, the workload suddenly became enormous. Previous to the 10th blog, I was able to roll out improvements and design changes with relative ease. But after No. 10, the tasks became almost unbearable. A simple decision -- such as adding "Post to Del.icio.us" links to all the blogs -- required hours of grunt work.
It reminds me of the days before server-side includes when innocuous tweaks, like changing the copyright, would suck away half the day.
Mistake No. 3: Building Single Sites instead of Deep Sites
This, by far, was my biggest error. In the early days of the Network (way back in June, July and August 2005), I aimed to expand the network as quickly as possible by launching a slew of standalone blogs. At the time it seemed reasonable, and I had hoped that my grassroots publicity efforts would soon lead to slow and steady traffic growth.
But I screwed this one up. What I should have done -- and what I'm doing now -- is build new blogs under existing sites. I've been using this technique on TV Fodder and Filmfodder and I'm very pleased with the results. Each of these sites now feels deeper and broader, and because the sites themselves already have built-in publicity mechanisms, the new blogs beneath these sites are catching on faster.
Mistake No. 4: Managing Expectation Levels
The Fodder Network depends on contributors to write and post content on specific blogs. I think I've done a fair job recruiting and working with contributors (it's one of my favorite aspects of this job). However, the biggest contributor-related mistake I've made is not managing the contributors' early expectations.
In my defense, when I started the Network I had no idea what sort of revenue individual blogs would bring in. But after a full year of running this business I now know that most blogs in this sphere (entertainment/pop culture) take at least a year to catch on. That first year can be arduous, and often it feels like you're writing in a vacuum. Worse still, the money just isn't there.
These days, when I recruit new bloggers in the Network I go out of my way to keep expectation levels low. Ideally, I'm looking for people who simply enjoy their topic and get satisfaction out of writing and collaborating with an audience. The money should be a nice side effect.
So far, this revised message seems to be working.
Mistake No. 5: Naivete About Advertising
Having worked as a Web editor/writer/producer for 10 years (good lord that's a long time), I'm pretty knowledgeable about the content side of things, but up until a year ago I was an advertising moron.
Oh sure, I knew the ins and outs of CPC and CPM campaigns and ad networks, but when it came to big advertising and big money, I was a babe in the woods. Fortunately, I've got some friends with knowledge of the ad industry, and they've helped me examine my business from an advertiser's perspective.
I think many blogs -- particularly those that want to reach higher levels of revenue -- need to take a long hard look at their overall product. I realized that by going for a broad-based network I was limiting my ability to land an ad rep. See, ad reps need a market to target; they can't be asked to serve clients in a variety of spheres because it takes time to cultivate contacts.
The Network still isn't where I want it to be from an ad perspective, but I feel better knowing there's a game plan.
That's it for now! I'm sure I'll be adding to this list as I screw up in the future! -- Mac
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