Building a Business Out of Blogging (or any media company) Requires a Team - Part XVI

Darren Rowse has counterpointed my counterpoint to his counterpoint that was started here. As he said in an email, "this is fun". So, I am assuming that I am not offending anyone with my comments. I haven't had a back and forth like this in a long while. It is fun and healthy to engage people like this. So....

My main point was:

The key to building a business is building "processes" that are valuable, not "products" that are valuable.  And if you are blogging and selling ads and you don't have anyone helping you with anything, you have no processes. All you have is a product: your writing and your ability to sell. Jason Calacanis is building a business. Darren Rowse  is making a living.

Darren had a lot to say about this.  Here is how he agreed with me.

The only point I’ll really agree with for Pete is that a group approach increases the scale of the operations. If there were 10 of me blogging together we could build something significantly bigger and significantly faster than I currently have. It would make my business a bigger business and possibly increase the living I make off of it.

And also how he rationalized that a lone team is still better.

Of course with such an approach comes a variety of expenses, risks and logistical hurdles that to this point I’ve not been willing to move into (although as I’ve said before its something I’m hoping to explore this year). As Michael says in the comments of my previous post - to add more people into my operation would probably diminish the rate of return on what I do. It would probably increase overall earnings, but its something worth taking some time to weigh up before rushing into it.

This paragraph starts out strong and drifts into bias.  This thinking is what differentiates  Joe's Pizza in Hoboken, NJ from Pizza Hut.  Yes. Pizza Hut pizza sucks. But, if Pizza Hut (or some other chain) wanted to sell the business to someone else, they'd make lots of cash. If Joe's wanted to sell his pizza shop to someone else, he'd be selling  real estate.  Joe made a living from his store. Maybe he served the best pizza in  town and people thought he plated it with gold and paid him a lot for it.  But, when Joe leaves, all that is left is the building.  Which, since it is in Hoboken, probably isn't worth that much.

No offense to Darren. Darren has a good thing going for him.  Although Kottke is cool and maybe deserves donations for his talent, I like Darren's business model better.  Darren has figured out how to add financial value to other people. So, they pay him for it. It makes sense. But, without Darren, it is simply a weblog that catches search engine traffic, which is equivalent to dust in the blogosphere.

I wish Darren good luck. And I am sure there are lots of lone people out there that will generate successful livings from blogging. And already are. There are, of course, a lot of neighborhood pizza places that do well.  Just don't expect the NYT to knock on your door, and offer you $820,000.

SideNote: The best pizza in the world is from the New Haven, CT area. If you are ever there, stop in at a local pizza place and ask for a white, clam and garlic pizza. So good.

Comments

[Darren Rowse]

Let me clarify my comments here this time as its getting confusing having links all over the place. Here are a few thoughts that come to mind:

- I never said individual blogging was 'best' - rather I think its a viable alternative - as is team blogging.

- I've already had one offer on one of blogs - its not in the $820,000 region but someone was willing to pay a five (not too far away from six) figure amount for it despite it being just one blog. Must be doing something right.

- your original post was about team blogging versus individual blogging and you offered for people to join you team. I can see how this builds a process (and therefor business in your thinking) for you as the owner/controller of your team - but how does it build a process for those who join you? Who owns the content? Can you sell it? What benefits do those who join your team get from it if you do sell?

[Tim]

What Darren Rowse said and...

I still think my content website/blog is a business, not a product.

[peter caputa]

Darren... you are obviously doing a lot of things right. I am not criticizing you. Just sharing my different take on this subject.

I would have sold the blog. I see absolutely 0 barrier to entry in blogging as a business. Couldn't you have re-built something similar in less than a weekend? The infrastructure is practically free. You could duplicate the content or reprocess it. And you have a following of subscribers, they'd gladly follow you to a new blog. Why didn't you sell?

In your comment, you pose a lot of questions:
"your original post was about team blogging versus individual blogging and you offered for people to join you team. I can see how this builds a process (and therefor business in your thinking) for you as the owner/controller of your team - but how does it build a process for those who join you? Who owns the content? Can you sell it? What benefits do those who join your team get from it if you do sell?"

These are great questions. I am not building a blogging empire per se. So, I don't want to spend the time answering them in that respect. Understanding the different arrangements that gawker, weblogsinc, corante and creative-weblogging have, would go a long way in helping someone to evaluate different answers to those questions, though.

At the end of the day it is about control and equity. I'd give away as little as I needed to - to get the talent I needed.