Being involved with a blog media network for nearly two years now I was wondering about some of the industry myths:

The Domain Name thingWe always thought topic specific domains that reveal the topic and the form of publication are the best way to go for us. Consequently we named our new babies Gadgets Weblog or VOIP Weblog.

While it is a simple and scalable concept it is simply not the best model. We realized bloggers find it much easier to stick to their brand and not to the rather generic name. Also our readers found it much easier to remember some of the brands instead of the topical name.

So the myth is true, indeed.

Revenue Share or not?So starting a site with implied revenue share makes sense for everybody you think. Starting a blog is something our bloggers know for good. We add nicer layouts, easy affiliate options, great tech for statistics, creative reporters and professional sales to the package. Also we build traffic together with them. So securing the upside of some thousand dollars a month potentially is worth more than some hundreds in your Paypal account every month securely.

Myth? We realized this assumption was mostly right. Out of 45 bloggers that work with us more than 95% work on a revenue share. They enjoy the upside (and many a full Paypal account every month already) more than anything else.

Install a self fulfilling prophecyBlog Media Networks are obviously all about media and have to find and establish themselves within the media landscape. However we have not followed the path to highjack every trend and make promises we could never fulfill. We have tried to build this company with a serious commitment to deliver and less about hype.

I think over-hyping and wishful thinking can be dangerous for a company.

No Barriers of entryBlog networks pose a relatively small barrier of entry many argue (not to say none as some people argue).

I think this is a myth nowadays - the infrastructure to run a company and market several dozen or several hundred sites is no hacker's night job anymore but takes careful planning and improvement over time. Also monetizing the site effectively is more than just putting Google Adsense on it. While we all admire the spectacular payouts WeblogsInc claims with the program it is not the industry standard as far as I can tell.

While I acknowledge there are harder jobs out there (like the business process improvement company from Brazil that sells software to US clients - what a though job) I also think that there is a good amount of investment and dedication needed to make a blog network work.

So I'm curiously looking into the future to find out what it has in stock for us.