AJ Blog Network

Earlier this summer TIME Magazine posted its list of the Best Blogs of 2010. For the record, these blogs were already quite popular, without the help of TIME. For the sake of brevity I’m only going to include the ones that I personally have looked at more than three times (the full list is here), so let’s take a look at a few of these blogs and try to figure out why people love them so.

• Cake Wrecks
• Post Secret
• The Oatmeal
• Sh*t My Kids Ruined
• Deadline Hollywood
• The Daily Kitten
• Rogert Ebert’s Blog
• Pitchfork
• TechCrunch
• Gawker

Many of these blogs, like Cake Wrecks, Post Secret, The Oatmeal, Sh*t My Kids Ruined and The Daily Kitten have a pretty specific niche — there are a fair amount of blogs that showcase adorable animals, but they’re adorable animals, so all those blogs will probably be viewed like 80,000 times anyway — but more than that, they’re (for the most part) funny. People as a rule want to be entertained by the blogs they read. The Daily Kitten and Post Secret aren’t particularly funny, but again, adorable kittens, and as for PS, people as another rule like knowing weird things about other people as well as the idea of being able to anonymously bare their innermost secrets on the internet.

As for blogs like Deadline Hollywood, Pitchfork and Gawker, which are all one of many sites that deliver the same sort of news, they also are for the most part funny. Again, people want to be entertained, and all the better if they happen to be entertained and informed at the same time. TechCrunch isn’t really funny, but it gives easy-to-follow and relevant updates and stories about tech news that people would probably otherwise ignore.

Rogert Ebert’s in a whole other category. I personally haven’t been able to quite figure out the appeal, other than the fact that he’s a celebrated movie critic, but then again, my opinion of any Rogert E-bert online endeavor has been soured since I followed and unfollowed his Twitter (which he updates WAY too often).

Everyone knows that the internet’s growth has been exponential, and will continue to be that way until it takes over the world (if it hasn’t already). Blog networks also seem to follow this trend, and the blogging community is taking on the shape of a never-ending organism as more and more internet users are turned on to the exciting world of social blogging.

As a blog publisher, how do you make your blog network stand out amidst this screaming mass of independent organisms? It can be difficult, but there are some tricks which will attract attention to your site.

1.Design – Duh. Make your site look interesting, or nobody will even stick around long enough to read your text!

2. Useful Content – Posts about your cat’s birthday party, while interesting to you, are not what people are searching for on the internet.

3. Be Prolific – After that first visit, visitors to your blog aren’t going to stick around if you only update when the stars are aligned.

4. Love Your Readers to Death – Well, maybe not to death or they won’t keep reading your blog…

5. Develop a Unique Voice – Even if you have the secret to eternal life, no one will read your blog if it sounds like the dictionary.

You might not know someone with an iPad, but know this — iPad are out there, and people are using them. Apple sold as many iPads in the third quarter as it did regular computers (about 3 million), and the trend of portable tablets is only going to continue, as HP has announced an upcoming iPad-like device for Windows 7. The tablet revolution has huge implications for the digital world, including blog publishers and advertisers.

How? With an iPad, consumers can access blogs on the go, with a screen big enough to check out ads and browse multiple pages. Which means you’re not just targeting people in front of the computer — at work, at home, at the coffeehouse — but people everywhere. The park, the mall, everywhere.

The bottom line: blog advertisements just got a lot more accessible, as fewer readers are tethered by wires and wi-fi networks.

With all of these changes, online strategists have been having a ball talking about “social magazines” and other budding media opportunities, but it’s hard to tell at this point which of these outlets will stick. For now, it’s best to advertise on blogs — a medium we know will endure the transition from desktop and laptop to tablet.

What’s the number one benefit of investing in a blog network?

A blog network allows blog publishers to divide their content into separate sites for separate readers. This is a great way to sharpen writing focus — and reap the benefits of targeted advertising.

But all of this begs the question: Which demographics are the most valuable? Should businesses advertise on blogs targeting red-headed lacrosse players, antique radio collectors, or perhaps something more general, like students?

Read on four our list of the Top 3 Social Blogging Demographics:

1. Moms: Mothers, and particularly Stay at Home Moms, have been developing a strong online presence for the last decade or so. It’s probably because there’s so much that goes into being a mom — parenting tips, recipes, bargain-hunting ideas, home decor (barware, etc.) and, somewhere in there, finding that coveted “me time.”

2. Gossip hounds: Gossip lovers don’t have time to wait for the latest dirt to make its way into print, or even onto the television. Best of all, celebs are some of the easiest — and most entertaining — people to write about!

3. Geeks: Social blogging catches geeks in their native habitat: the internet. Geek blogs have a lot to discuss, from new software and devices to daily deals on electronics to sweet desktop setups and similar “life hacks.” Note: In the world of social blogging — and anywhere online — “geek” is a compliment.

Welcome to Blog Network Heroes, our semi-regular (and brand-new!) feature where we take a look at some of the most successful social blogging networks on the web. So pull up a chair and prepare to learn a bit about one of our favorite blog networks: Gawker Media.

Gawker Media’s flagship blog is Gawker.com, a pop cultural powerhouse known for its snarky perspective. Gawker is the brainchild of GM founder Nick Denton, a British journalist and Financial Times alum who launched the blog in 2003.

Other prominent Gawker Media blogs include:

• Jezebel: Founded in 2007, Jezebel is Gawker with a feminist edge, with features like “Photoshop of Horrors,” a regular look at over-airbrushed magazine covers and ads. Lately, Jezebel has been getting both cheers and jeers for attacking the sexist (allegedly) work environment of The Daily Show.
• Gizmodo: A go-to blog for techies and gadget lovers, Gizmodo has been around even longer than Gawker — since 2002! Gizmodo recently made some headlines for its examination of an iPhone prototype left in a bar by an Apple employee.
• Lifehacker: As the name might suggest, Lifehacker provides life hacks through social blogging — tips and tricks to make life a little easier, from sweet desktop setups to DIY solar chargers.

We like it, we love it, we want some more of it. Blog publishers are head over heals for Facebook’s “Like” button, a nifty tool you’ve probably seen at the bottom of articles on person blogs, CNN, and everything in between.

The like button allows users to instantly “Like” a blog post, thus creating a link to the post in their new feed, and sharing said link with all of these friends. That’s some good exposure.

And the numbers agree. According to Mashable.com, Typepad users that added a “Like” button to their blogs saw a 50% boost in referral traffic.

Some bloggers might be resistant to the idea of integrating a “Like” button — to them, the button comes off as desperate, allowing the want for traffic to undermine the content of their posts.

There is some validity to this point, but as the Facebook “Like” button becomes more widespread in social blogging, the tackiness will start to wear off. It’s already happened to a certain extent, with big-name blogs on CNN and NYT already taking the plunge. Besides, without traffic, blog posts are just trees falling in the forest — no one can hear them.

Are you looking to advertise on blogs to strengthen your business? If you’re on the fence, perhaps you just don’t know enough about how advertising on a blog network works.

Let’s take a look at four important benefits of advertising on blogs:

Blog advertising is targeted. Like TV shows, movies, books, etc., blogs have target audiences, based on age, lifestyle, hobbies, or a variety of other factors. Choose which blog(s) you want to advertise on, and you’re essentially choosing an audience.

Blog advertising is affordable. When you advertise on blogs, nothing has to be printed or aired, lowering the costs dramatically. Plus, most services will let you customize your advertising plan based on your specific budget.

Blog advertising is credible. Even though blog advertisements don’t actually say “These bloggers like this product,” visitors tend to make that connection mentally. When they an ad for a product on a blog they love, they’re often more willing to give it a click.

Blog advertising is flexible. A good blog network will cater its advertising to your specific business, whether that means banner ads, text ads, video ads, or anything in between.

While some people use the internet primarily for online shopping or to look up information, a market research firm called Nielsen recently released statistics showing that 22 percent of all time spent on the internet is spent on social activities — primarily, on social networking sites and social blogging.

Ah, social blogging. Unlike regular articles — or even formal blog posts — social blogs provide a two-way street. They rely as much on commenting and feedback than they do on their original content. (Sometimes, like in the Cheezburger Network, the visitors even submit the content themselves.) This collaborate realm of ideas is rewarding for both parties — and potentially lucrative for online advertisers.

How? Most social blogging settings have a relatively predictable visitor demographic. A blog about being a mom, for example, would be a great place to advertise products and services for mothers and children, but not necessarily those for young singles. It’s the same reason that different businesses advertise on different TV channels, but it’s much more affordable to advertise on blogs. Want to learn more? Visit AJBlogNetwork.com today.

If you’ve stumbled upon this little blog of ours, you might be wondering, “What is a blog network?” To answer that question, we’re going to follow that old English teacher axiom: show, don’t tell…

Ben Huh haz a cheezburger. Also, a blog empire.

Huh is the 32-year-old owner of the Cheezburger Network, a collection of 50+ blogs — and five books, one of them a NYT best-seller — which can all be traced back to a hungry kitty and some shrewd investing.

In 2007, Huh discovered I Can Has Cheezburger, the website with pictures of cats juxtaposed aside misspelled, irreverent text.

The site was already pretty popular, but would it stay popular? Huh thought so. He bought the site from its two Hawaiian owners with the help from investors and $10,000 of his own cash.

Over the years, Huh’s blogosphere has since expanded to include such popular destinations as Fail Blog, Daily Squee, and — of course — I Has a Hotdog, Cheezburger’s canine counterpart.

Huh’s Cheezburger Network makes all of its money from advertising, and the advertisers don’t come off bad either — the collection of sites saw 16 million unique visits in the month of May, a new record. Talk about exposure.

And really, that’s what blog networks are all about. They allow bloggers to express themselves (or fish for LOLz) in a specialized forum, while giving businesses the valuable opportunity to advertise on blogs with fairly predictable audiences.

Want to sell clothes? Advertise on a fashion blog. Video games? Choose an entertainment blog. As always, blogging is an exciting and ever-changing medium — why not come along for the ride?