More Bloggers Needed

Blogging networks grow like mushrooms...I expect to see a spectacular hypergrowth- peak-crash-burn cycle in this segment. The barrier of entry is low, and I suspect this will be just like the day-trading phenomenon: with news like Jason Calacanis hitting $1M or "ProBlogger" Darren's record Adsense check sooner or later many in corporate America will see blogging as a way to get out of the cubicle and make easy money, then ... well, we know what happened to daytraders.
More on this here: http://www.zoliblog.com/blog/_archives/2005/7/23/1063525.html

Heather-

How many bloggers are professionally trained and seasoned as reporters? And of them, how many have mastered the blogging form (ie, capture responsibly, within minutes of occurrance, and in about 100 words something worthy about a relevant event)? Anyone can type some stuff, but talent isn't skill and there's really no substitute for training and experience when it comes to consistently producing writing that a broad swath of people can profitably consume. At the same time, I'm sure the blogging form is a mountainous challenge for reporters used to ink-on-paper. A
writer has to really be internally connected to his or her senses and sensibilities to put just the right words on what has been, seconds ago, seen or heard, and do it over and over, every single time, a bunch of times in a row.

I don't think this is such an easy combination to
find right now, do you?

Pete Z.

Hey Zoli, thanks for the link. Will take a look at it after I get off deadline today. You have to bet that with the likes of Calacanis talking about this, it grabs more people's attention, in some cases for the wrong reasons...

And Peter,
I think that's intriguing, about whether many people have experience right now and whether it's iin the right areas. I guess afterall, David Sifry says that a year ago Technorati tracked around 3 million blogs a year ago, and now there are 13.3. So lots of blogs with newer experience. Still, it's incredible how quickly some people find their voice.

All the positions are now filled, Heather. Lots of bloggers want to do this network lark, it seems.

Ugh @ not getting a trackback to this. Ah well. Thankfully, this isn't a new network, so no worries on that front Heather :)

dealma, dealma, dealma, dealma

Jeremy,

Really surprised a trackback didn't go through because I put it in. I was actually worried I was spamming you with trackbacks because I corrected a couple of typos once and added an update once.

Sorry it didn't ping you. Will try again!

I suspect there's plenty of room for growth yet. Remember that many of those 13.3 million bloggers are diarists or only post occasionally. Some of them don't really write at all, they just log where they go on the web. Imagine that on a weblog! But even for those serious enough to actually write and write regularly on topics of interest beyond their friends and family, there are lots of niches yet unfilled.

Two things: Tom, there are a lot more than 13.3 million bloggers, again your relying on Technorati tracking at not looking outside the United States.

But back to the cluter argument, I think with so many blogs and so many people that there is going to be a clutter issue, but I think that networks make finding quality more easy amongst the clutter. And lets look at the figures, they would be no more than say a thousand or maybe 2000 blogs tied into networks of the 70 million odd blogs in existence, so there is still plenty of room to move.