There are all kinds of problems with blogging monetization, but no problem getting bloggers to sign up for tools to try and monetize their traffic and/or data mine their traffic.
In the nine months I have been blogging, I have experimented with many tools, they include:
BlogFlux
MyBlogLog
Sitemeter
BlogBeat
Feedburner andf many more.
Today, Feedburner bought BlogBeat . Smart move for Feedburner to get deeper into blog stats and data mining. The combined entity will be a force. Feedburner won’t last much longer without a bid from a bigger media player. Brad blogs here about the acquisition by Feedburner -one of his portfolio companies.
I really like MyBlogLog and check in often. They have a cool networking and community set of features they just launched and Fred Wilson , Brad Feld and Trader Mike (at my nudging) are trying it out on their sites. I think it is cool to see who is on or just visited. Like a local coffee store feeling.
Here is the thing about a good network. Feedburner has a great USER BASE of LOYAL FOLLOWERS. Adding the community makes sense. They are not starting a community as the model. It is an extension OF the model. WINNER!
Same goes for MyBlogLog . Killer service with a new community built on top of a solid user community. WINNER. I will be shocked if they do not announce being acquired SOON, or have a VC funding to announce. If they don’t – or even DO – I hope they call me to get in on it.
This space is small, from a venture standpoint, but HOT.
MyBlogLog is interesting. I just use it for the data mining parts really – outgoing link tracking. I have full log data for everything else on my own.
Not so thrilled about the ‘yet another online community’ stuff, though.
Howard —
Thanks for the kind words. I definitely owe you a phone call.
Candice —
I’d like to clarify a bit about what we’re doing. MyBlogLog hasn’t added online community functionality because it’s the latest trend or in order to lock users in. Our mission statement is to enable authors to become more intimate with their readers. We’re taking the next logical step from tracking what links are clicked to who’s clicking those links. And because we are already on 20,000+ blogs and sites, we can start to create some very compelling data for you to mine about what your users are clicking elsewhere. Does that ring true to you?
sounds like my post and I didnt write yor mission. well done. My personal opinion :)
Eric… Now that third part sounds interesting.
I already have a good handle on where a lot of my readers come from – I’m one of those sysadmin nerds who runs apache and has full logs. Where else they’ve been recently, now that has potential.