The wrong way about it
Who sets up a network of for-profit blogs that all share the same design? Maybe someone who never had a weblog until his company launched?
There are a few more things that bother me about Weblogs Inc.:
- They re-invented the wheel (wrote a CMS) but launched without RSS. You’re lucky I’m even writing about this. Who launches a weblog network without RSS?! Maybe someone who never had a weblog until his company launched?
- Sub-domains… Tough to share. “Check out social software dot weblogs inc dot com for info on what Friendster employees are having for lunch!”
- Typso. (Ed. note: Yes, I know that’s a typo. That’s the whole point.) I don’t know who they have posting, but they aren’t the best. A few posts even have multiple errors!
- Hype. If you’re planning on a lot of advertising money (the plan is over a $1000 for each subdomain), you’re going to need a lot of traffic (over 200,000 pages at $5CPM). That’s real hard to do with cookie cutter sites that have no marketing budgets. Even at a million pages a month and no cost filling every impression (from a broker or credit card provider), you’re looking at only $2000 in pocket before expenses (server space and such). Gawker doesn’t even do a million pages a month and it lives in the media.
Have you seen Polywogg? It looks interesting, but I don’t think I’d write in yet another place (my livejournal is pretty dead) with something that requires proprietary software.
Weblogs Inc. is lame. Plain and simple.
Polywogg is the best. I’ve tried blogging with iBlogg, Blogger, BlogSpot, and Live Journal (didn’t get very far with that one).
With the others, it took me some time to figure out and get into the rhythm of using them.
Polywogg had me productive out of the chute. It IS a proprietary solution but the ease of use and sense of community are spectacular. Mac users only, as far as I know. (Finally.)
I’m one of their biggest supporters — because it works. Try it.
Check out my blog, El Gancho; I write about “Life, Love, Art, & Tango.” http://www.polywogg.com/journal/327