So I don’t really read TechCrunch that often, however I got on twitter today and noticed that some of the old Weblogs Inc. blogs were going to be cut. So I followed the link and read the story, along with the comments from AOL bloggers.

Basically, the comments were about how blog networks are done and the bloggers are way over paid. Blog networks are done?! That’s shitty since I am trying to build one right now….

Anyways, the reason I wrote this post was because I do think “some” of the bloggers are over paid. I am NOT talking about the tech blogs, as those guys pump out tons of content and get blown away with emails and tips all day long. Being a tech blogger really is a full time job. What I am talking about is how AOL fucked themselves over, by making it seem like an article is worth $100 (So I read that is how much they pay, I might be wrong and if I am this post is pointless).

By no means is content worth that much, ever. I am not going to say that everyone should outsource their content writing to India or something, as I do admit I have bought some $5 articles on DigitalPoint before. Although half of the articles I bought that were written by non U.S. writers didn’t make any sense, a simple proof read and some verb changes cleaned them up nicely and made them into some super nice articles.

I think that blog networks have brought this upon themselves. Offering someone that much money to write in article is crazy, in my opinion. Blogging is relatively new, (compared to other ways we used to read news…like newspapers) and who were the ones to put a price on what an article is worth? The bigger blog networks who got tons of funding and investing only to blow it by over-paying their bloggers.

What I am trying to say is, those companies brought it upon themselves. You don’t need a college education to be a blogger. You don’t need a degree in journalism to be a blogger. All you need is to be passionate about a topic and enjoy writing about it. Wasn’t that the point of blogging before it went all commercial?

Popularity: 15% [?]

So like many others, I regged some .me’s, and then got the email saying I didn’t get the domain I wanted. A few I tried for that I really wanted were hire.me, ani.me(I don’t know anything about anime, just wanted to try and flip it if I got it) and ping.me. Didn’t get any of those, but got a few others. One of those is upp.me, and right now it is fully functional, so go check it out and submit all your links!

 Yes, it is a social bookmarking site. Yes, I know I will never get bigger than digg, but the thing is I don’t want to. Since I started building up a ton of blogs, I needed someplace to put all my links….so upp.me was created.

The concept behind the domain is “up” “me” (duh right?). Basically, instead of digging, you are upping. Hopefully it is remember-able, my seo efforts pay off, and it turns into a site in which people want to visit.

Just fyi, I added in a webmaster catagory.

Popularity: 15% [?]

Since I got started building blogs I now realize how much the design of the blog matters if you want readers to come back.  If you do not have a decent design, forget about getting any traffic!

Master wordpress designer Adii (I interviewedhim some time ago) has launched/re-branded his premium wordpress themes into WooThemes.com. WooThemes is compiled of a  team of some crazy good designers, and their most recent work really shows!

I couldn’t wait for Adii’s new themes to come out, and when I saw what he had released I was pretty excited. The two themes that were just released really made a few projects I was working on alot easier.

What I like best about this new program he has launched is the subscription package. You can pay $150 and get a single user license to all of his previous Premium News Themes, along with all new themes that come out over the three month period in which you subscribed.

The only gripe I have about the program is I think the themes are a little too in-expensive. Sure I like saving money, however a Mercedes costs what it does for a reason. That reason being that it is THE best, and if you want it you are going to have to pay for it. I feel that Adii and his crew make the best premium wordpress themes out there, so making them this cheap is nice however in my opinion hurts the premium wordpress theme market.

Either way, these themes are the best if you are not a programmer or don’t really know what you are doing. The backend for these themes is awesome, and makes adding things like Google analytics code, feedburner id, Flickr id and so on super easy and convenient.

Good luck to Adii and his team of designers with this new project. I can’t wait to see what else they come out with!

Popularity: 22% [?]

It seems now everyone is talking about Advaliant! And for good reason. They are quickly becoming one of the top affiliate networks in the affiliate marketing world.

What makes them so amazing? Besides their great AM’s? Besides their NET 10 payments from the start? Besides their top converting exclusives? Well they have some pretty cool contests…

Pretty cool right? Geoff usually makes updates on the contests via his blog, www.geofferson.com. However, to win the bike, you are going to have to pump out some serious volume! The winner of June’s contest did over 7000 leads for Ultra Green  Tea!

Good luck everyone, and happy 4th!

Popularity: 26% [?]