Blog Networks, Web Rings and Weblogs Inc.'s Blog Count

Posted on October 10, 2005

Some bloggers are trying to do a price per blog analysis based on the Weblogs, Inc. sale to AOL. But that doesn't really work too well because several Weblogs, Inc. blogs, like Engadget, have very high traffic. Paul Kedrosky at Infectious Greed points out that one "anomalous purchase does not make a market." Another blog measured the dollar amount per inbound link but inbound links from other blogs are not necessarily an accurate measure of web traffic.

One blog has downsized the number of blogs at Weblogs, Inc. from 85 to 31. The Weblogs, Inc. Xbox 2 blog is used as an example of a Weblogs, Inc. blog that is no longer updated. Despite some inactive blogs most of the Weblogs, Inc. blogs that are active have very heavy traffic -- such as Engadget, Blogging Baby and Joystiq.

Blog networks remind Lisa at Sharp Corners of web rings. She writes, "Well, to me, niche blog networks are just a variation on the old "web-rings" many of us used to join as personal bloggers. Remember those? You found a web-ring filled with like minded people, dropped a little code into your site and, with any luck, readers of other blogs would come find you that way."

That's an interesting comparison. Web rings may have some similarities with blogrolls but not as much with a blog network like Weblogs, Inc. The company known for webrings, called Starseed, Inc., was acquired by GeoCities in 1998 and GeoCities was later acquired by Yahoo. Now it appears that WebRing is no longer part of Yahoo.

Weblogs Inc. had high profile blogs in major categories as well as smaller, but popular blogs in niche categories. This combination is likely what made it interesting acquisition target to AOL.