Blog Layoffs

I have received quite a few emails asking me about the layoffs at MMARated. Other than "Post more!" emails, this has been the number one topic in my Inbox.

I can't say I have much first-hand knowledge of the situation other than what has been reported. Wasserman Media Group pays the bills for MMARated and they are feeling the financial pinch. They fired a bunch of people from their Sportnet division, which includes MMARated.

Running a blog is not as easy as most think. The problems come when it becomes a business. When blogs start worrying about their page views more than their content, they get into trouble.

This happens again and again. You can tell a blog from a business simply by how the front page is designed. If you see abstracts of stories that require you to needlessly click for content, you are on a business site. They need those clicks to survive and will not hesitate to force their readers to click endlessly for content. And don't even get me started on giant ads taking up more space than the actual content.

When blogs started getting big a lot of people saw it as an opportunity to make easy money (specifically "media groups" who pool blogs together to sell ad space at higher rates). The problem was no one knew what a successful business plan looked like for a blog. Most places hired way too many employees and now we are seeing the cuts. Even a wildly successful blog like Gizmodo is getting butchered. T

he only thing I can really say is if you like reading a blog, support them. Tell your friends about it. Post their content on places like Digg and message boards you frequent. And of course, click on the ads.