Several weeks ago, The Blog Herald went up for auction for around 75,000 US dollars. Just yesterday, the press release was that BlogMedia Inc bought TBH.
My question is, what happens when a blog gets sold to someone else?
1. You say goodbye. Duncan does his farewell post, comparing the blogosphere to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything (for those of you Douglas Adams fans).
2. You mitigate weaknesses and highlight strengths. A question I’ve been asking myself when a blog get sold is that “are your readers sold along with the package?” By definition, blogs could be classified by their purpose – as an online journal that is read because of the person writing it, or because of the content espoused by the person(s) writing it. Or both. For instance, I highly doubt that Hugh McLeod would sell his blog to some network (yes, a really dumb idea) and have someone else take it over. That’s because people read Hugh to read Hugh’s ideas. To read Hugh’s comics. To read Hugh’s musings over the Hughtrain.
On the other hand, commercial blogs like TBH are like the daily paper with a mix of news, opinion and some gossip. You don’t need to put a face on the product.
3. You wonder why blogs get created in the first place. You wonder why some thrive. You wonder why some die. You wonder how Google became the measuring stick for blog popularity.
4. You go on a blogging cruise this October 2006.
Congratulations Duncan and enjoy the airconditioning!
