Domain Blogs
November 20th 2006 05:25
We have made a fairly major change to the way Domain blogs are going to work.
From now on new writers will have the choice of buying a domain blog for $95 (USD) pa. In exchange they will own the domain name, the copyright on any content, and will not have to give Orble any commission from advertising revenue. Regular Orble blogs will remain free.
The main reason we are making the change is the high number of domain bloggers which start a blog, but stop writing after a week or two. It costs us a fair amount in terms of time and money to set up a new blog and I was getting tired of doing it for people who did not end up blogging for that long. I imagine it won't change the financials of the company that much, but it should help sort the more serious bloggers from the rest.
Another big advantage is giving the writer more control over the ads shown on their blog, including where they get them from, what kind of ads they show, or even if they show any ads at all.
Current bloggers will not be affected in any way. If you already have an Orble domain blog you can just continue as you are with the usual commission structure. We will allow current commission bloggers to buy out their blog if they have at no point been paid by Orble (apart from commission payments) for their work.
As always comments, thoughts, and suggestions are most welcome.
Thanks,
Jon.
From now on new writers will have the choice of buying a domain blog for $95 (USD) pa. In exchange they will own the domain name, the copyright on any content, and will not have to give Orble any commission from advertising revenue. Regular Orble blogs will remain free.
The main reason we are making the change is the high number of domain bloggers which start a blog, but stop writing after a week or two. It costs us a fair amount in terms of time and money to set up a new blog and I was getting tired of doing it for people who did not end up blogging for that long. I imagine it won't change the financials of the company that much, but it should help sort the more serious bloggers from the rest.
Another big advantage is giving the writer more control over the ads shown on their blog, including where they get them from, what kind of ads they show, or even if they show any ads at all.
Current bloggers will not be affected in any way. If you already have an Orble domain blog you can just continue as you are with the usual commission structure. We will allow current commission bloggers to buy out their blog if they have at no point been paid by Orble (apart from commission payments) for their work.
As always comments, thoughts, and suggestions are most welcome.
Thanks,
Jon.
| 108 |
| Vote |
Subscribe to this blog
Comment by Patrick
Consumption Malfunction
Equal and Opposite
Arses and Elbows
Footy Power
I have on issue that may be off the track, a bit, but if I was to buy the domain I'd like to have the ability to tinker with the HTML and have a bit more flexibility with the templates. Is this a possibility?
Comment by jon
Orble News
Urban Hint
Blog Adviser
Jon's Bookmarks
Debate Battle
Orblepedia
Orble Notes
Sydney WeekendNotes
It is already possible to do templates at the moment, it's just that I have to set them up manually so it's a bit of a pain.
It will probably be another month before templates are up and running properly.
Comment by Cibbuano
20/20 Filmsight
Science News
Hunt Famous
Orble Post of the Day
Fat Cult
Techbreak
How many dead blogs are in the cemetery?
Comment by jon
Orble News
Urban Hint
Blog Adviser
Jon's Bookmarks
Debate Battle
Orblepedia
Orble Notes
Sydney WeekendNotes
I think there is probably 100 blogs in the cemetary and around 170 active ones. So compared to the industry average we actually do very well.
Comment by Adele
Lost Fanatic
Day Break TV
Comment by Adrienne
Celebrity Fox
Comment by Kams
Geek Metro
Bloggers Tips
Why not Jon recycle some of those dead blog. There are some wonderful bloggers here, if they agree & have time (i am sure you will find few of them) why not just let them blog on those. In business sense i think that will be better, since those domains are already well indexed by search engines.
Well just a thought
Comment by Adele
Lost Fanatic
Day Break TV
I already see one blog with zero posts that I wouldn't mind having.
Comment by jon
Orble News
Urban Hint
Blog Adviser
Jon's Bookmarks
Debate Battle
Orblepedia
Orble Notes
Sydney WeekendNotes
Comment by Kams
Geek Metro
Bloggers Tips
Comment by Adrian
Philosophy Blog
Another question: are you locked in to having to pay $95 a year for the rest of your life if you want to maintain copyright control over your work?
Comment by jon
Orble News
Urban Hint
Blog Adviser
Jon's Bookmarks
Debate Battle
Orblepedia
Orble Notes
Sydney WeekendNotes
If you paid the $95 you would have copyright control over your work for ever -- it would not revert back to Orble. You would also own the domain so if at the end of the year if you thought that you were not getting value for money at Orble you could either let the blog shut down/revert to a free (non-domain) blog/move the whole shooting match somewhere else.
I'm open to sensible suggestions as always.
Jon.
Comment by jon
Orble News
Urban Hint
Blog Adviser
Jon's Bookmarks
Debate Battle
Orblepedia
Orble Notes
Sydney WeekendNotes
Comment by Kams
Geek Metro
Bloggers Tips
But jon in my opinion for old blogs, recycle would be best idea(since well indexed). We can have forum which will list all the blog you have in cemetery, existing bloggers can pick their choice and ask you, if you think he/she is good enough why not.
Comment by jon
Orble News
Urban Hint
Blog Adviser
Jon's Bookmarks
Debate Battle
Orblepedia
Orble Notes
Sydney WeekendNotes
I also agree with going for quality rather than content. The problem really is recruiting bloggers. If you have any ideas let me know.
Jasmine is going to put together a list of dormant domain blogs on Monday and then I'll post it somewhere.
Jon.
Comment by Adrian
Philosophy Blog
Where do we sign?
Comment by Kams
Geek Metro
Bloggers Tips
1st step- they write in normal blog (multi-author blog separated by subject class) where all new test blogger will blog. Then orble choose from there who to go next round rather then everybody. (I am saying orble will become selective to preserve and uplift quality). in b5 they invite bloggers mostly, when they recruit they recruit a blogger who has already existing blog and gain qualities.
Some restriction can be applied too, 15 days inactivity blog goes to someone else hand(which will make sure they blog regularly). Rather then opening new domain using same old domains for new blogger when old blogger leaves.
Comment by jon
Orble News
Urban Hint
Blog Adviser
Jon's Bookmarks
Debate Battle
Orblepedia
Orble Notes
Sydney WeekendNotes
Comment by Kams
Geek Metro
Bloggers Tips
What else we can buy jon?
Comment by jon
Orble News
Urban Hint
Blog Adviser
Jon's Bookmarks
Debate Battle
Orblepedia
Orble Notes
Sydney WeekendNotes
Comment by Kams
Geek Metro
Bloggers Tips
Thinking about your foresight on Orble, we may turn into a virtual city
Comment by Eric
Mal Gadget
I could go get a domain and world class wordpress hosting for $60.00 USD a year, have full control over EVERYTHING, and have my content be my content.
So while I understand where you're coming from, I must admit that I find this to be a bit of a shock. When I joined Orble I was comfortable because it all seemed to be a "you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours" kind of relationship. But this sounds like you want to make a few bucks up front, plus benefit from user created content and blog sidebar links.
And I would add that having some database/php/css experience would say that setting up a new blog shouldn't be difficult at all. In fact, it should almost be a few clicks of a process and you're done.
So I have to ask myself... who exactly would find value in doing this over just going with a real host?
I'm not trying to be a pain, but I personally don't see it being worth $95.00 when I have no control over what links display on the site (sidebar/footer/etc) nor do I control where my content is being displayed.
For that kind of price the user should be 100% in control of everything or it just isn't worth it.
My two cents...
Comment by jon
Orble News
Urban Hint
Blog Adviser
Jon's Bookmarks
Debate Battle
Orblepedia
Orble Notes
Sydney WeekendNotes
Orble has to charge something for the domain blogs because we have no way of telling if someone will blog for a day or for a year and we lose money on those who only blog for a short time. The google ads on Orble itself make very very little, hardly worth mentioning in fact. The only thing Orble.com itself is really useful for is to distrubute traffic between the member blogs.
So we had two options:
1) Let people register their own domain name, point it to our servers, and charge a small about to cover the expense of a unique IP address (around $12 USD per year) and take a cut of the ad revenue. We could also offer the option of having non-unique IP address for no cost, although the received wisdom is that this compromises search engine traffic.
2) Charge more and take no cut in ad revenue, also giving people the option to have no ads at all on their site.
Would you be happier with the first option? I went with the second because it gives people more flexibility. With the first option we have to insist on links and ads being shown on the blog, with the second option people can do whatever they like. We could offer the second option at a cheaper price -- say $30 USD -- and then charge for ad-ons like members, classifieds, and shops, although I don't like complicating things too much.
To answer your other points:
I don't think $95 dollars is too much. For the extra money you get to post on Orble (which we are starting to advertise around the place) and participate in traffic sharing and linking which helps attract search engine traffic. You will also soon get blog-shops and paid classifieds (you can do this already). We are working on templates and other features. I think within 6 months we should have a blogging system which compares well with any other and then some.
We are also moving towards giving everyone copyright over anything they write. I don't think who owns the copyright makes any difference in the long run anyway.
We are working on templates at the moment which will give you full control over everything, including the links in the sidebar. However if you opt out of the sidebar links you won't be linked-to from other blogs.
Perhaps we should offer both options?
I am very keen to get everyone's opinion on this. What does everything think would be the best option, or should Orble offer a number of different options?
Jon.
Comment by Eric
Mal Gadget
Thanks for explaining your thoughts. Much appreciated.
Personally I wouldn't at all mind going to buy my own domain at GD or someplace like that, and then pointing it to the subdomain or extended URL within Orble.
I would choose option one because that is what a community should be. Everyone shares everything. We share knowledge, traffic, links, ideas, profit, content, etc. Orble shares just like us bloggers share. Or at least, that's the way it seemed when I first came on board.
I guess my opinion on the $95.00 stems from an increasingly cheaper Internet. Everyone wants FREE and NOW! I don't like it, but it's the way things are. And I see you having problems in the long run trying to build a "family" if you will, but at a much higher price than anyone else. Kind of like having to pay to be adopted...
"I don't think $95 dollars is too much. For the extra money you get to post on Orble (which we are starting to advertise around the place) and participate in traffic sharing and linking which helps attract search engine traffic."
That's a good point, but does it not benefit Orble as well? While I can profit from my one blog, Orble can profit from the entire network. So it makes sense for you to advertise, but it doesn't make sense to pass that cost on to those who provide the content.
Does that make sense at all?
-Eric
Comment by jon
Orble News
Urban Hint
Blog Adviser
Jon's Bookmarks
Debate Battle
Orblepedia
Orble Notes
Sydney WeekendNotes
"That's a good point, but does it not benefit Orble as well? While I can profit from my one blog, Orble can profit from the entire network. So it makes sense for you to advertise, but it doesn't make sense to pass that cost on to those who provide the content."
Under option 2 Orble would not profit from paid-for domain blogs (apart from the purchase price) as we would not take any cut in ad revenue. As I said before, Orble.com itself makes next to nothing in ad revenue, so for the second option the purchase price of a domain blog would be our only source of revenue. We can't live on air
I think after this discussion I'm leaning towards option 1 with perhaps a "I don't want any ads on my blog" version of option 2.
Comment by Eric
Mal Gadget
*sigh*
Without knowing company details, understandably so, it would be hard for me to comment any further.
Perhaps I should just hope that we as a community can soon break into a new realm of traffic in certain areas of discussion. More traffic would certainly make things run better financially, one would think.
Either way, I fully support whatever it is you need to do.
I think most of us will.
Comment by Trina
Hiphop
Confessions of a Serial Dancer
Competitions
Clubbing
I support thee, Jon
Comment by jon
Orble News
Urban Hint
Blog Adviser
Jon's Bookmarks
Debate Battle
Orblepedia
Orble Notes
Sydney WeekendNotes
Jon.