Archive for September, 2004

I won’t be able to keep doing this regularly, and I apologize if it seems like I’m blowing my own horn. I’m not. Loads of traffic is coming to Ensight, and it’s coming from links. So I figure the least I can do is point to some of the cool folk talking about this in different ways.

From Wayne:

A second reason, which is related to the first, is the simple fact that blogs are valued monetarily, and are therefore considered a legitimate business. Those blog critics who considered blogs to be a mere fad or hobby, and little more than an “online diary”, might have to dine on a certain black feathered bird.

Heh.

From Trudy:

I do expect to hear a howl of protest from the blog purists, those who insist the air of commerce should never defile any blog, but I figure blogs in general are well on the way toward defining the term, variety.

Yup. I’m not saying every blog needs to make money. I’m not even saying most blogs should make money. But many blogs are delivery systems for very high quality content. They are topical, they are recognized in their industry and they are authoritative. Those are the kinds of blogs which, to me, have solid and serious value. Most of them well beyond Ensight’s value.

Update: And, from ProBlogger:

In a sense what we’re talking about here is ‘blog farming’. Similarly to my grandfather who farmed cattle and sheep – he would breed them, fatten them up and then sell them at market – I wonder if we’ll start seeing more bloggers taking a similar approach with their blogs.

Could be fun. I used to “farm” websites as a part-time job. It was fun. A bit stressful, but fun.

From Scrivs:

Remember though that the deal includes monthly payments to Jeremy to continue writing, but seeing how the deal is limited to $15,000 then it seems Jeremy will only blog for a fixed amount of time. Not knowing the details of the complete deal makes this hard to tell whether if it was worthwhile for either party.

The value of the “deal” is based on a 1-year commitment. Beyond that it’ll depend how the relationship is going and what else is on the table. At that point I will have been writing Ensight for nearly 2.5 years. Which isn’t a bad time to re-evaluate where I’m at. If I’m still happy, I’m sure I’ll stay on.

This deal is worthwhile for me because it allows me to concentrate on writing and to help my family. The buyer feels it’s worthwhile for them. I guess ultimately time will tell :)

This should be an interesting week as blogs tend to pick up what the media does, and vice versa.

Hmm… Apparently the sale of Ensight is starting to heat up in terms of exposure. I’m still hoping for a Slashdotting at some point, but having 2 national Canadian newspapers contact you is cool. I’ll be doing interviews this week, to appear in their internal syndication networks this weekend. Hopefully a few of the papers pick it up as there is a real value proposition in blogs, and the only way to build awareness of blogs as business tools is to have these types of events get publicity.

I’ll also be interviewing for Blogosphere Radio sometime in the next couple of weeks. I’m actually quite looking forward to that, as their last episodes have been fun, wholesome and full of penguins. I like penguins.