I’m reading a great post on one of our own KMM blogs, in fact, our flagship blog, KnowMoreMedia regarding The Truth about Blog Networks by Jeremy Wright who is the president of b5media.   Here’s some points that struck me and I had not thought about them as clearly as Jeremy has:

..After all, while blog networks are businesses, and places to help writers earn money, the truth is that every blog network will (to me, the addict) survive or fail based on the strength of its community.

Whether you are looking at blog networks as a business play, as a blogger or even as an advertiser or investor, you really need to pull a Capital One and ask: “what’s in your wallet?” Because without a solid community and a solid foundation behind it, the blog network you are looking at could easily be just another carcass on the sludge floor of the Internet (and Web 2.0). specifically).

That’s saying it very descriptively - KMM will succeed because we foster a sense of community among our bloggers and readers.

There’s also alot to think about here - I don’t post that often on KMM’s internal blog …. but maybe I should.    And I have no idea of what percentage of KMM’s blog income comes from the top KMM Blogs because I don’t run the blog network - but it’s a interesting question to ask.

….It is simply impossible to have more than 5 blogs and not have some that are bigger than others. Bigger is fine. What you are trying to find out with this question is realistically how much a smaller or mid size blog makes and how much traffic it gets. Be prepared to be understanding, though. It often takes 6-12 months for a blog to really find its legs, so if the blog network owners couch a little it can be fine. On the other hand, it could be bad news. Either way, get the facts before you sign the contract.

Interesting …. so a blog can take up to a year to build it’s subscriber base up.

Also, the idea of writing for a blog network and licensing the content vs giving up ownership of it is area I find interesting as I haven’t really paid attention to it.  It’s so easy for me to write up things, think up of new things and comment on everything - I haven’t really worried about who owns the content….but that’s just me.

Jeremy brings up the idea that every blog network wants to be bought out …  perhaps - he must know as he’s been running blog networks for a while - while I would not necessary think in terms of creating a network with the idea of developing and selling it, Jeremy does and has.