Performancing has verified reports with multiple sources that there is rapidly increasing tension between b5 media’s management and its bloggers. As more details emerge, we will bring them to you here.

Two months ago b5 cut over 80 blogs from its networks citing poor performance. Now there appears to be dissension among the ranks as people in the know are reporting the likelihood of a major pay cut coming for almost all b5 bloggers.

As this news spreads, we’re hearing reports of a planned mass exodus coming up among b5Media editors and bloggers which will only get worse once news goes fully public.

We’ll keep you posted as we learn more. Pretty ironic when you consider b5’s very public plea to save KnowMoreMedia a couple of months back. The real question: Who will save b5?

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A Note of Clarification: My primary motivation in posting this news was to protect blogger interests. In my world, the two most important things are human beings and the truth. If bloggers are going to get shafted, then I wanted to do what I can to affect change. However, it has come to my attention that the new payment model coming out of b5 Media is designed to more accurately reward performance. If this is the case, and if it is a fair model, then I would heartily endorse the new system. I have always believed that there needs to be a delicate balance between sustainable business policies and worker interests. b5 should be able to modify their business model so that it rewards good workers. My only remaining concern is this: the new system should enable the best bloggers to make more money rather than exclusively rewarding management with the high-life.

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Full Disclosure for the interest of Jeremy Wright of b5 Media

Since Jeremy pointed it out, I’ll make the supposed conflict of interest very clear: b5 sells advertising on one of my sites, PopCrunch.

Big freakin’ deal. It has absolutely nothing to do with the news I reported. A classic case of obfuscation.

Six Apart, the creators of the publishing tool MoveableType have recently relaunched their domain, Blogs.com. Blogs.com is labeled by Six Apart as "The Best In Blogs". Asides from having a killer domain name, especially in this day in age, Blogs.com serves as a human edited blog directory with one large post a day dedicated to the hot topic of discussion. The directory contains around 1,200 different blogs from which to search for content.

You may remember when I reported on Rojo, a free RSS and Atom Feed reader went belly up, only to be replaced by something else in the future. That ‘something else‘ is Blogs.com. Rojo was acquired by Six Apart in 2006 and much of the team as well as their ideas for Rojo have been implemented into the site.

Right now, Blogs.com contains a directory filled with blogging celebrities such as Marc Andreessen and Chris Anderson. In my opinion, the bloggers who don’t make much noise won’t see much benefit from being listed within the Blogs.com directory, at least not yet. Anil Dash claims that:

celebrity Top Ten lists let some of the best-known bloggers on the web guide us through the sites that influence them, helping dig up some undiscovered gems you might have missed.

That may be true, but in all honesty, the big boys and girls in the blogosphere all seem to follow each other in their feed readers so I’m not sure how helpful it will be to publish top ten lists from these people. A better alternative would be to publish top 10 lists from those bloggers who never appear on the radar. This would really give visitors a chance to check out some gems. Thankfully, Six Apart plans on rapidly introducing new blogs into the index and even provides bloggers an opportunity to submit their site to them. I’ve already taken them up on their offer and if you blog, I encourage you to do the same by filling out their simple submission form.

As a side note, if you are looking for ideas on top 10 posts, Blogs.com has an entire section on their site for recent top ten lists.

Blogs.com is no Technorati and they don’t rely on any algorithms to determine which content is highlighted on the front page of the site. However, how can you display hidden gems in the blogosphere without looking like you are irrelevant. There always seems to be a group of stories which make the rounds from one blog to the next, if Blogs.com doesn’t publish blog posts highlighting these stories, why will anyone care about the directory in the first place?

Last but not least, there appears to be a few bugs circulating their MovableType Pro installation. As I was searching for more blog posts on the topic of Web 2.0, I received this error:

Overall, I think Blogs.com is just another place for popular bloggers to become even more popular while lesser known bloggers are thrown into the rubble. Considering Six Apart plans on adding new blogs into the directory, I hope this becomes less of an issue and provides lesser known bloggers the chance to appear on the podium. I like the idea that the directory is human edited by a staff of people which will cut down on just about any spam. As for discovering gems and getting the best out of blogs, I think bloggers who know how to use RSS/FeedReaders do a good job of this on their own. With algorithms on Technorati, POPurls, and other popular data aggregation points, why bother with a hand edited directory in the first place? Are these algorithms not doing a good enough job in presenting the webs best content?

It will be interesting to see where the directory stands six months from now. I’ll be interested in the total amount of blogs within the directory as well as the different categories covered. If you have given Blogs.com a look through, please leave a comment and let me know what you thought. Do you think being accepted into this directory will gain you much in the way of traffic?

BloggerTalks.com, headed by Thord Hedengren has published an inteview featuring our one and only Ryan Caldwell. The interview covers PerformancingAds, the redesign of Performancing.com, the Hive and much more. Here is a sample taken from the interview:

Selling ads is hard, most bloggers have understood that by now. Why will Performancing Ads bring in more money than, say, Google Adsense or Text-Link-Ads?

I think that the question goes in the wrong direction. It should be “How will PerformancingAds compliment and possibly exceed AdSense and TextLinkAds?” The fact of the matter is that we didn’t want to compete with current sources of income, but provide an additional stream that was substantial.

Two of the benefits of being part of PerformancingAds as a publisher is that 1) you get exposure in our marketplace and 2) we have a direct ad sales team working to sell ads for your site.

Be sure to check out the interview and let us know what you think.

Twitter is great, don’t get me wrong, but FriendFeed is a whole new beast that has quickly established its importance to the blogosphere. My first reaction when playing around with FriendFeed was that it was a source of information overload to the extreme, and that was pretty much the case for the first few months, but after I got involved, again, and mastered the “hide” functionality, I was quickly able to view FriendFeed as a much more valuable tool than I had once given credit to. FriendFeed has helped my blog to grow more rapidly, but Twitter just hasn’t been nearly as effective in that regard.

Social networking has quickly become one of the more important factors of the blogosphere. It has brought upon much change, and it is vital that successful bloggers be more social. It almost goes hand in hand. Tools like Twitter and FriendFeed have made it easier than ever to be social from the comfort of your own domicile.

Previously, I have stated that Twitter was my favorite obsession, and for quite a time, that was absolutely true; however, FriendFeed has quickly become something that I appreciate even more than Twitter now, and therefore, it has rendered the previous statement as false. There are some very important reasons as to why things have changed.

Twitter vs. FriendFeed

Twitter’s focus is on micro blogging—it is all about what you are doing right now. It is focused on you and your activities. Twitter’s strengths lie with the fact that many third-party services can find ways to make use of Twitter’s data, and there are plenty of applications that interact with Twitter. It is a solid and efficient way to communicate, and, for the most part, it has replaced instant messaging, at least in my case. It is excellent for these purposes and a lot more.

I would sum it up as a life streaming service without the extra fluff. It is a valuable communication tool. Twitter can also be a great compliment to a blog, and I won’t argue that.

Regardless of what I believe of FriendFeed, Twitter’s value to me remains unchanged, but FriendFeed has a purpose that I believe is much more valuable to bloggers.

FriendFeed, on the other hand, makes both you and your content the primary focus. It allows you to aggregate your activity from various sites across the web. If there is a feed, FriendFeed, in most cases, can put it to good use.

People are free to comment and “like” the content, and this is where the true value of FriendFeed comes into play. It adds a new layer of communication, and the focus revolves around content itself, as opposed to what you ate for breakfast. I think of it as one of the best tools for communicating about events, stories, articles, pictures, videos, and other various types of content.

Used correctly—meaning that you participate in conversations and interact with friends)—FriendFeed can act as a great promotional tool for you and your content, and it is vastly more effective at getting input from any particular item than Twitter because each item holds its own mini forum-like discussion. Conversations about specific units of content can continue on without the fear of it becoming lost or confusing to outsiders who might have missed out on the initial conversation.

So, what does this mean to you and your blog? Good question!

Exposure

To put this into perspective, lets say we have a person who posts a picture—I think is absolutely phenomenal. Let’s assume that this person has only around 5 friends on FriendFeed while I have 100 friends on FriendFeed. If I “like” or comment on that item, my 100 friends will see that I have commented or “liked” that particular picture, and it will be displayed on their FriendFeed account.

I have instantly promoted that person’s picture, and exposed it at least 100 times. That is 100 potential views, subscribers, backlinks, and comments. This is only the beginning though.

An even more impressive thing to consider is the fact that one of the FriendFeed power users could, perhaps, leave a comment, and that picture might now have well over a thousand people seeing it. Not only will my friends see it, but their friends can see it as well if they happen to “like” or comment on that item as well. If I am friends with people who have a lot of friends, you should quickly realize where I am going with this.

Friends of friends would continually comment and, sooner or later, you have traffic that is as good if not better than StumbleUpon, Digg, or Reddit. It is the domino effect in action, but I believe that FriendFeed is an even easier method to spread the word about great content.

If something generates a lot of discussion, you can be sure that soon Robert Scoble, Dave Winer, Chris Pirillo, Duncan Riley, and other web celebs will be commenting as well.

This is where being socially active can be extremely effective in garnering quality traffic to your blog.

Quality Readership

FriendFeed, as mentioned before, can generate an impressive amount of traffic for your blog, but it also has the added benefit of having genuinely interested people wanting to read the content in question as well. There is an incentive for that friends of friends to read content if any friend has commented. It promotes commenting, but to comment, many people will read the post. It is just a win-win situation.

These people might be inclined to subscribe to your blog as well. My friends on FriendFeed constantly influence the content that I read, and when I have someone tell me about this amazing blog, I am more inclined to read and subscribe than otherwise possible.

The fact of the matter is that FriendFeed is almost like an alternative to Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon, and Delicious; FriendFeed, howerever, has the added benefit of having a community focus. It is much more personal, and it is constantly growing. While Twitter is something that many bloggers feel that they must have, I think FriendFeed is something that might not be that must-have material, but those who know how to use FriendFeed will certainly benefit from it.

Great Discussions

Finally, FriendFeed is a great place to learn about great content on the web. Twitter is definitely capable of this—I’m not taking anything away from Twitter in this regard— but FriendFeed takes it to a whole new dimension that has no competitive equivalent on such a personal level.

I have previously stated that I’ve used my feed reader less after discovering Twitter, but now I rarely need to bother with it as I know my friends are subscribed to similar content. They usually find it faster than I can.

It really is impressive to me, and I wrote an article on my personal blog that goes a little bit more in-depth with my feelings about FriendFeed.

Recap

FriendFeed will not replace feed readers, and I think feed reading technology is still in its infancy when considering what is possible in the future; however, I believe that FriendFeed is another level of filtering that allows me to find great content to write about and discuss with friends, and I believe that this is a step in the right direction.

What does this mean for me? Well, I will continue to use both Twitter and FriendFeed, but I will be using FriendFeed as a platform to communicate about content and Twitter as a platform to communicate about my life and with friends.

What does this mean for you? I would suggest that you spend some time using FriendFeed: add some friends to get the communication going, master the “hide” functionality so you only get relevant content (e.g. you can block all “tweets” from Twitter), and promote the content you create in a new way.

I can be found as JMowery on FriendFeed. If you have a FriendFeed account, let us know in the comments section. Also, let us know of any ways you utilize FriendFeed for blogging. Also, if you liked this post, consider subscribing to Performancing.

How do you manage your bloggers? Does the network run under a ‘produce or your gone‘ mentality or do you allow your bloggers to be free and open? Perhaps you pay your bloggers per word?

I don’t manage a blog but if I did, I would hire writers who were passionate about the content that will be published onto the blog. Common sense right? Thankfully, I’ve landed a job writing for Performancing where there is no quota. I’m given a set of priorities and a suggested set of topics to write about. As a blogger, I take it from there. Because there is no quota, I don’t have to worry about publishing poor content just to get something published. I can take my time which allows me to do my research, create longer posts, and produce something of much higher quality which will end up providing more traffic.

I’ve been reading up on some of the most successful bloggers around and they all have a few things in common. One of them happens to be the fact that they let their writers do what they have to do just as long as they produce results. I think that is a great way to go about managing your writers. Not only does this take some of the stress off of the writer, but it also gives the writer a chance to write at their leisure which usually produces better results than by giving them a deadline.

So the question is, how do you manage your writers? Do you impose strict guidelines? Are you only concerned with obtaining results without caring how they are achieved? If you have a tip, suggestion or comment on the best way to manage writers or even guest posters on your blog, be sure to share it with us in the comments.

The blogosphere has brought us some amazing bloggers who have been able to captivate readership that even some magazines and newspapers would be jealous of. There are your Scobles, Arringtons, Rileys, and Chows, but even more people are getting in on the action. People who were once nobodies are now some-bodies. The question is simple: who are the three bloggers that you would want to sit down and have dinner with?

My Picks

Louis Grey

Louis Gray is a name I only recently heard of through FriendFeed, and it quickly dawned on me that Louis is going to be a success. I don’t know what it is about him, but I just have that feeling that his social expertise and writing ability is something to watch out for, and I only wish I could figure out what it is that he is doing.

Sitting down for dinner with Louis Gray would prompt me to ask many questions about how he approaches the social aspect of blogging—how he is able to communicate so well with the blogosphere. This is an area that I am very poor at (that is a future article), but I would hope that with an hour or two with Louis, I could take a different and more bold approach to how I represent myself throughout the blogosphere.

John Gruber

John Gruber—this man has played a significant role in my writing, and what better way to improve that than to talk to him. Mr. Gruber is a technical writer who is the author of DaringFireball.net. He approaches his blog with a unique style that even I have been asked to replicate at another site. (When you have your own style, it must mean you are good!) No problem though, I already try my best to one up that style.

John seems like the kind of guy that would just hammer me with inspiration. I believe he has a unique work ethic. Considering that he is a success in the blogging world and technology industry is also a bonus.

Darren Rowse

The quintessential blogger—Darren Rowse is a name that every professional blogger should have already heard of. He is part of a success story that we all could hope to experience. Darren Rowse created ProBlogger.net, and that is where he experienced his success that forever changed his life and the lives of others.

Even 10 minutes of one-on-one conversation with this man could probably change my entire perspective of the blogosphere and how I represent myself within it. What else is there to say? It couldn’t get much better than that!

What About You?

If you could have dinner with any three bloggers, who would they be and why? Feel free to share your thoughts and link to their blog in the comments section so we can learn more about your influences.

Many new and upcoming bloggers have false assumptions when they come into the blogging world. It gets even worse when that blogger expects to make money (or an entire living) while blogging. It requires much work, consistency, and dedication to become a real success, but it can be done. If you are a new blogger, you might want to avoid these following assumptions.

1. You Must Write on a Daily Basis to Succeed

You probably need to write on a daily basis to get anywhere blogging, right? Oh, but how wrong a person would be to assume such a thing, and yet so many people, unfortunately, do. I recently touched on this entire issue, but to sum it up, there are many successful bloggers who only write a few times per month. Personally, I’d love to see a well thought-out post any day over the alternative.

2. You Must Have Many Subscribers to Succeed

People associate a high subscriber count with success. If you were in the magazine or newspaper business, I’d agree, but this is not. As a matter of fact, many sites have hundreds of thousands of subscribers, but a nice chunk of those subscribers are never going to actively contribute or visit that site again. I think of that subscriber number as a way to market yourself. But, just like Alexa, it could be manipulated. In other words, views are more important than subscribers, but advertisers might like to know that you have a lot of subscribers.

3. You Must Use WordPress to Succeed

Many new bloggers I have talked to assume that WordPress is equivalent to instant success. While WordPress is one of the most popular content management systems, it has little to no impact on the amount of success a blogger will experience. John Gruber, author of DaringFireball.net, uses MovableType for his blog, and he is doing quite fine for himself. There are plenty of other sites utilizing other CMSs as well, but take a look for yourself.

4. You Must Use Your Own Server to Succeed

Robert Scoble made his way to fame using WordPress.com. I also know quite a few bloggers that use the Blogger and TypePad services. I’d say that a new blogger would have an easier time by using a service like WordPress.com, Blogger, or TypePad for their blog—he or she wouldn’t have to worry about site administration or downtime. Also, for many of these hosted services, a domain name can point directly to that blog. You get more control if you have your own server, but it is absolutely possible to be successful without one.

5. You Must Write Linkbait to Succeed

Linkbait is an article that was created to, obviously, attract links. They are also assumed to be a hit with readers and usually do very well on social sites like Digg and Reddit. All this is true. However, people do not have to write linkbaits in order to be successful. A blogger could write quality and useful content instead, which everyone should be doing every time they post to their blog. Linkbait is great, but try to have substance as well.

6. You Must Be an Expert to Blog About A Subject

Let’s clear something up right now: in my opinion, there is no such thing as an “expert.” There are only people who make themselves to be as such. When it comes down to it, my opinions are just as valid as everyone else’s. If someone is willing do the hard work required, he or she will likely be successful. An “expert” is nothing more than a title people give themselves to sound more authoritative—I don’t buy it, and neither should anyone else.

7. You Can Use Any Image on the Internet

There is this vast and confusing thing called copyright law, and it is important. Many photographers have been fed up with bloogers who use their photographs without permission (even worse—without credit), and everyone should put themselves in their shoes to understand why they have every right to feel that way. I am in no position to give legal advise, but I feel obligated to tell everyone that if you want to avoid being sued, ask before using something that isn’t yours.

8. You Can Use an Image As Long As You Give Credit

To expand on the previously mentioned issue over copyright, just because a blogger gives credit to the photographer, it doesn’t mean that any particular photo can be used. It is not fair use if a particular piece of content is used in a way to increase the production value of a post. It could, however, be considered fair use if the image itself is the topic of discussion. Someone would, therefore, be using it for review purposes. However, this is a gray area, and if a blogger upsets the wrong person, it might be bad for that person’s reputation—I’ve seen this happen to several other bloggers. (Hundreds, if not thousands, of photographers would love nothing more than to spread the word about how someone is illegally using one of their friend’s pictures—it would be justice.)

9. I Will Probably Make Plenty of Money Blogging!

Are you kidding me?

10. You Must Use Photoshop to Succeed

Like WordPress, many people assume that Photoshop should be used to create great graphics and pictures for a blog. This is hardly true. As a matter of fact, not too long ago, I wrote a post where I mentioned several great Photoshop alternatives.

11. You Must Know HTML to Succeed

No, you don’t, but, even if you did, I could teach almost anyone the basics of HTML within a few minutes. Well, since I have the time, I might as well go ahead with that:

Huge text

Little smaller, but still pretty big text

A medium sized text

Still smaller

You get the idea...

Whatever text you want to be linked

Be bold
Be emphatic
Be corrective

For those long quotes

There are more things like ordered/unordered lists and CSS that a new blogger should consider learning, but the above list is a good starting point. Of couse, if you are seriously interested in learning HTML, you should check out a dedicated tutorial instead. Check out this site for more information.

12. You Can Say Whatever You Want

Defamation is a very bad thing. Bloggers can’t say whatever they want. If someone states that company XYZ is releasing product ABC tomorrow on a blog, and that company notices that, the blogger in question might be in a bunch of legal trouble. But it can get worse: what happens if their statements make it on the front page of sites like Digg and Reddit? Everyone is going to know about this. The company might be entitled to damages due to that person’s false statements (the stock market reacts to everything these days). If someone is the voice of lies, that person will likely pay the price.

13. You Must Already Be Successful to Succeed

If everyone had that attitude, there would be no successful people to speak of. Any single person who is reading this blog, right now, might be the next Robert Scoble or Michael Arrington of the blogosphere. The only problem is that many of the people reading this very article are not willing to put in the effort that such an accomplishment would require.

14. You Must Display Advertisements to Make Money

Since I just mentioned Robert Scoble, I might as well bring up the fact that Robert does not, from what I have seen, display advertisements on his blog, and he is one of the most respected people within the blogosphere. Many of us will need to use advertising, but there is the potential to be a success without it.

15. AdSense Is the Only Way to Make Money While Advertising

AdSense, for most bloggers, could be a way to make a low to decent amount of money. The effectiveness of AdSense depends on the niche, and the subject being written about. Just keep in mind that there are many other alternatives available. PerformancingAds, for example, is a way for you to set your own rates for advertising.

16. You Need a Great Domain Name to Be Successful

I have seen some of the most awkward and unbelievable domain names receive a ton of readership and success. However, I will say that it is in the blogger’s best interest to pick a name that is easily memorized instead of something that is cute or creative. Although, I am shocked that http://www.iamthebestbloggerintheworld.com/ is still available for purchase. Maybe I should snatch that up?

17. You Can’t Make Money Writing About _________

Anything, and I really mean anything, can be monetized. People are clever, and they will find a way. Bloggers are making money writing about technology, video games, travels, pets, celebrities, photography, and a myriad of other subjects as well. A blogger might actually benefit from picking a topic that few others are writing about. If that topic has growth potential, you could be setting yourself up for success.

18. You Must Know How to Write Well to Succeed

I only wish I could say yes to this (I think that many bloggers have horrible writing skills), but it would be far from the truth. Even bloggers who work for major publications, like Wired.com, seem to screw up the simplest rules of the English language, and, strangely enough, it feels embarrassing to me (probably more than them). I almost take it as an insult at times. I respect those who take the time to learn how to write well, and I’m not saying that a blogger needs to have pinpoint precision with regard to writing abilities, but knowing the difference between “it’s” and “its” would be a great start. If a new blogger wants to be seen as professional, learn the language.

19. You Must Be Controversial to Succeed

Controversy, as I discussed before, can be a great way to bring a lot of traffic to a blog, but it does have its disadvantages. The blogger’s reputation will be on the line, and that blogger could easily upset their current readers with mindless drama. I will admit that it is important to make an impact when a new blogger begins blogging, and he or she should try to constantly maintain that; however, instead of focusing on creating or discussing controversy, that person could opt to create mind-blowing content.

20. Blogging Is Easy!

Blogging can be very easy. When you think about it, the cost to start a blog could considered free. All you have to do is find an internet connection, create a free blog, and write to your heart’s content. It is definitely easy. However, if we are talking about making a decent amount of cash while blogging, well, that is a different article all in itself.

Photo by gregwestfall

In today’s blogosphere, creativity is a great asset to have. There’s even a book that says right-brainers will rule the future. Great book, by the way.

The internet is getting more and more crowded with webmasters and bloggers looking to make money with their site.

To stand out from the crowd, you’ll need creative ideas. But what about writer’s block? It seems to come a worst times, right? The bloggers in your niche are publishing creative posts while you can only think of stuff to say that bloggers have already said many times over.

You want to come up with something conceptually new. You want to come up with something people don’t expect.

Here is a simple tip for lazy bloggers looking for a creative spark:

Think of another niche that people can relate to and connect it with your niche.

Examples

Have a car blog? Connect your niche with Hollywood and write “The 10 Most Famous Cars in TV and Movies”.

Are you in the saturated metablogging niche? This blogger connected blogging with haikus.

Do you blog about personal finance? Connect finance with travel and you can publish “25 Creative Ways to Save Money for your Next Winter Vacation”.

Got a celebrity blog? Ryan, owner of a celebrity blog, wrote about his most successful linkbait. He connected his niche with sports and The 50 Hottest Women of Sports got over 1.4 million pageviews.

Why This Tip Works

The reason this tip works is because there’s nothing really new under the sun. My theory about creativity is that most things we consider creative are basically connections that weren’t seen before by the general public. Someone came around and said “what if we connected these things?”

Think about the sandwich. There was a time in history when the sandwich didn’t exist. But someone saw the connection between bread, vegetables, and meat. And voila! Something creative that has brought a smile to the world 🙂

The guitar is an amazing instrument. Think about the connections someone had to make to create the first guitar. And then in the 21st century, you add electricity and you’ve got the rock and roll movement.

The Risk in Being Creative

There will always be risk in being creative, in making connections other people don’t see. In your attempt to be creative, some of your posts will fall flat. However, the alternative to not risking out is being boring. Boring gets lost in the blogosphere.

Bonus Benefit

Because you’re targeting another niche, these type of posts can get you links that you would not get otherwise.

Your Turn

What post will you publish that will relate to another niche?