Posted on April 13, 2005 by Shanti Braford

Work Boxers has a great piece on the Weblogs Inc. vs Gawker models:

Here we have two successful blog network, with two different methods of building their network. Which one is best for anyone else looking to go this route? Let’s discuss.

On the Gawker Model:

Gawker doesn’t release a million sites like Weblogs Inc., but instead takes its time to find what niche they want to tackle and also who they want to write for that site. Currently they are up to 12 sites (11 blogs since Kinja isn’t a blog, but a RSS aggregator), but don’t let the smaller number of blogs fool you. These sites make some money.

On the Weblogs Inc Model:

This is the model that most blog networks will tackle, because to me it’s just a safer route to take due to its diversity of content. Weblogs, Inc. (WIN) now has 75 blogs covering a range of topics. Some are really successful (Engdaget), while others aren’t even on the radar, but with so many sites it doesn’t matter since every little bit counts in the stat charts. The reason for this is because WIN tries to sell advertising across the whole network so having 10 blogs with 100,000 pageviews per month is going to be harder to sell than 75 blogs with 500,000 pageviews per month (made up numbers).

Hey Scrivs – what about the Niner Niner model? J/k

A few of the comments on the thread mentioned the Long Tail… Heh.

My response:

Long tail… that’s our business model all the way. (niner niner)

As a tiny upstart, we could never compete with Engadget, etc.

That’s why we’re starting off with High Heels and Medical Privacy. Just random Long Tail niches.

So far, we’re doing alright. It just takes time.