Why would I believe that the people participating will be that interesting?

IF I were only going to be posting 1-2x per week, and I'd be confident that the other people would be pretty good, I'd be interested.  :)

No.  I'm writing plenty myself, and I have a business model worked out.  It's not compatible with what you describe.  Not at all.

 

Your monetization model would be ad-driven, which is just about the worst model there is for income.  I wouldn't be happy with $1-15/1000 for Adsense or up to $25/1000 or so for private CPM.  It's just not worth it.

 

There are people doing what I describe pulling in of 6 figures a month.  What about that isn't worth it?

Your monetization model would be ad-driven, which is just about the worst model there is for income.  I wouldn't be happy with $1-15/1000 for Adsense or up to $25/1000 or so for private CPM.  It's just not worth it.

Edward Antrobus said:

I know a woman who is doing this. She was featured on NPR a few months ago for something unrelated and then I discovered that she was actually a friend of a friend. You can find more on hers at http://thescoopblogs.com/

Personally, I think it's a great idea if you have the marketing ability to get it off the ground. You get a lot of authors who write a lot of content and then Google starts to like you a lot. Then you pay the authors a percentage of ad revenue and pocket the rest as passive-income. Just look at how big ehow.com is. When I do a search on Google, it's not uncommon to see as many as three ehow articles on the first page of results.

Great - but why would you, or would you not join such a network?

Me, personally? No, because I am stretched rather too thin right now as it is. I'm already part of a similar project at Penny Thots. But if I had time to write more, sure. It is a workable model.

Thanks for your reply, your response appears to come down to trust issues with the person running the site not being honest about the transaction.

Is that any different from trusting your affiliate program that your 60 clicks = zero conversions this month?

 

What could the owner of the site do to make you feel more comfortable about this trust issue?

The reason I don't enter into direct/private CPA relationships.  What would make me comfortable? If you were already successful with multiple bloggers but that is a whole chicken and egg problem.  Like I have to have blind faith that flexoffers and CJ aren't ripping me off b/c it would destroy their revenue model. Could they be? 100%

It is more than Trust though – I really don't see the value statement other than you are going to do the back work.  I can hire a freelancer for that.  I am positive I can find a personal finance blogger for 25 bucks a week to comb through posts for affiliate links.

It is all good – I don't get it all

MyJourneytoMillions said:

I agree with Edward it isn't a bad idea but it will never get off the ground with Yakezie members (maybe challengers).  Not a prediction but a guarantee. If you are going to get this idea going you need a site with more than just a thousand visitors a day.  If a site with a couple hundred thousand eyeballs a month offered this it may be worth it for someone established. 

 

1)  Yakezie members have been blogging for 6 months most people quit within days they aren't just going to turn everything over.

2)  Even if they could have their own site and then you just republish their feed you could be doing both sites a disservice with duplicate content issues. 

3)  If they make no money on your site how long till they realize they can just go back to their own site and still make no money but at least it is their corner of the internet.

 

Again, I don't think it is necessarily a bad idea I just don't think you are going to get any traction here.  No need to debate just create a forum post, or a yakezie blog post and see how many people sign up. 

I think you misunderstand.  I don't necessarily want anyone from Yakezie, I am just asking people here what their objections would be.  So I can understand gaps in my value prop for the people I do want.  That is the purpose of debate in the forum.  I don't want a mass of signups, I want to cherry pick the best, and make an offer so good that they think it makes sense.

Understood, but you are asking bloggers from Yakezie as your sample group to answer these questions, therefore it only makes sense to answer from this perspective.  In fact, I agree that you would come here if you wanted a robust audience with finance blogs and a good knowledge base...and to me I think they are saying it wouldn't be worth it for them.  Again, I think if you had a a ton of traffic then you would have the ability to cherry pick people, but I think it's going to take some work for you to build the traffic first and then get sites later. 

Is that any different from trusting your affiliate program that your 60 clicks = zero conversions this month?

What could the owner of the site do to make you feel more comfortable about this trust issue?

I think you misunderstand.  I don't necessarily want anyone from Yakezie, I am just asking people here what their objections would be.  So I can understand gaps in my value prop for the people I do want.  That is the purpose of debate in the forum.  I don't want a mass of signups, I want to cherry pick the best, and make an offer so good that they think it makes sense.

Why I wouldn't?

1)  I wouldn't trust that I won't be doing most of the work.  Why would I continuously post 3 times or 5 times a week if no one else in the network is. 

2)  If I am anti-the tech side of it I can just start a wordpress.com site.  But then I don't have a domain? But I don't have a domain with you either I am working off of yours with no ownership.

3)  If we are talking outside the yakezie world - For the most part how would I find you? Are you going to just email people with blogs asking them if they want to give up their little corner of the internet to come join you on your network?  They are going to ask you the same questions

4)  I wouldn't trust that I am getting my fair share of revenue.  Again, without a relationship (see number 3) how would that trust be built. 

For me, it doesn't seem like you are trying to build a network.  It sounds like you want staff writers without having to pay them for the possibility that there is ad revenue to share afterwards.  Not a bad model I just don't think it is going to work out all that well with the people you have here (although you say this isn't your market). 

Untemplater did that when it first came out (before it was purchased).  It was 5 or 6 pretty big bloggers  (like each with 50K+ PV per month) and they came together all each owning the site, not one person owning.  It went dormant for a while probably because of the reasons above...and then it was sold each getting their equal share.   

I know a woman who is doing this. She was featured on NPR a few months ago for something unrelated and then I discovered that she was actually a friend of a friend. You can find more on hers at http://thescoopblogs.com/

Personally, I think it's a great idea if you have the marketing ability to get it off the ground. You get a lot of authors who write a lot of content and then Google starts to like you a lot. Then you pay the authors a percentage of ad revenue and pocket the rest as passive-income. Just look at how big ehow.com is. When I do a search on Google, it's not uncommon to see as many as three ehow articles on the first page of results.

Great - but why would you, or would you not join such a network?

MyJourneytoMillions said:

I agree with Edward it isn't a bad idea but it will never get off the ground with Yakezie members (maybe challengers).  Not a prediction but a guarantee. If you are going to get this idea going you need a site with more than just a thousand visitors a day.  If a site with a couple hundred thousand eyeballs a month offered this it may be worth it for someone established. 

 

1)  Yakezie members have been blogging for 6 months most people quit within days they aren't just going to turn everything over.

2)  Even if they could have their own site and then you just republish their feed you could be doing both sites a disservice with duplicate content issues. 

3)  If they make no money on your site how long till they realize they can just go back to their own site and still make no money but at least it is their corner of the internet.

 

Again, I don't think it is necessarily a bad idea I just don't think you are going to get any traction here.  No need to debate just create a forum post, or a yakezie blog post and see how many people sign up. 

I have to agree with Evan on this one... if you have the traffic to support it then you will have people signing up in droves, without the traffic I dont see it happening for the established members.

I don't want droves - I want a select number, operating at a similar level to myself who can then grow our readership and affiliate buying power at an exponential rate.  That is why this thread makes a good place to ask the question as there are challengers and full members here.

I agree with Edward it isn't a bad idea but it will never get off the ground with Yakezie members (maybe challengers).  Not a prediction but a guarantee. If you are going to get this idea going you need a site with more than just a thousand visitors a day.  If a site with a couple hundred thousand eyeballs a month offered this it may be worth it for someone established. 

 

1)  Yakezie members have been blogging for 6 months most people quit within days they aren't just going to turn everything over.

2)  Even if they could have their own site and then you just republish their feed you could be doing both sites a disservice with duplicate content issues. 

3)  If they make no money on your site how long till they realize they can just go back to their own site and still make no money but at least it is their corner of the internet.

 

Again, I don't think it is necessarily a bad idea I just don't think you are going to get any traction here.  No need to debate just create a forum post, or a yakezie blog post and see how many people sign up. 

I think you misunderstand.  I don't necessarily want anyone from Yakezie, I am just asking people here what their objections would be.  So I can understand gaps in my value prop for the people I do want.  That is the purpose of debate in the forum.  I don't want a mass of signups, I want to cherry pick the best, and make an offer so good that they think it makes sense.

I agree with Edward it isn't a bad idea but it will never get off the ground with Yakezie members (maybe challengers).  Not a prediction but a guarantee. If you are going to get this idea going you need a site with more than just a thousand visitors a day.  If a site with a couple hundred thousand eyeballs a month offered this it may be worth it for someone established. 

 

1)  Yakezie members have been blogging for 6 months most people quit within days they aren't just going to turn everything over.

2)  Even if they could have their own site and then you just republish their feed you could be doing both sites a disservice with duplicate content issues. 

3)  If they make no money on your site how long till they realize they can just go back to their own site and still make no money but at least it is their corner of the internet.

 

Again, I don't think it is necessarily a bad idea I just don't think you are going to get any traction here.  No need to debate just create a forum post, or a yakezie blog post and see how many people sign up. 

I have to agree with Evan on this one... if you have the traffic to support it then you will have people signing up in droves, without the traffic I dont see it happening for the established members.

1)  Yakezie members have been blogging for 6 months most people quit within days they aren't just going to turn everything over.

2)  Even if they could have their own site and then you just republish their feed you could be doing both sites a disservice with duplicate content issues. 

3)  If they make no money on your site how long till they realize they can just go back to their own site and still make no money but at least it is their corner of the internet.

Again, I don't think it is necessarily a bad idea I just don't think you are going to get any traction here.  No need to debate just create a forum post, or a yakezie blog post and see how many people sign up. 

Personally, I think it's a great idea if you have the marketing ability to get it off the ground. You get a lot of authors who write a lot of content and then Google starts to like you a lot. Then you pay the authors a percentage of ad revenue and pocket the rest as passive-income. Just look at how big ehow.com is. When I do a search on Google, it's not uncommon to see as many as three ehow articles on the first page of results.

I wouldn't take the time to build something like this.  It is probably going to be a headache.  You become responsible for everyone's stuff.  You become responsible for the content put on your domain.  I wouldn't want that responsibility.  If your server (or servers) go down, you are responsible for getting them back up.

As already said, your only value proposition is just getting new bloggers.  I don't know of any existing blogger that would dump their site that they have complete control over to move to your service.  Don't all bloggers move away from services that you want to set up because they want more control?

I do think it could work if you bring on some newer bloggers that want to succeed.  You will need to work hard on marketing the service and proving its value.  It will take time to create and grow the site, so you might not get many visitors for some time and your users might notice.

I see more risk than reward, personally.

Thanks for your input - don't take this the wrong way, but I would rather hear more about why you would or wouldn't join, than why you would or wouldn't want to set this up yourself.

Its already built.

I'm now looking to make it attractive.  I think I already have because I have taken in all the info from competitors and can offer a better deal than they do, but I want to see what I have missed beyond that.