What Does the End of the Know More Media Blog Network Mean to You?
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Last week I heard that a couple of blog networks were about to shut their doors. Since I have a rather vested interest in what’s happening in the blog network industry, I was both sad and insanely curious. Who the heck could it have been?
Then I found out one of them is Know More Media. I’ve been friends with this team, Easton Ellsworth especially, since I started blogging over two years ago. I’m heartbroken to see this happen, mostly because I know that the KMM team invested their hearts and souls into growing their network and to lose that after so much time and work must be the hardest thing they have ever had to do.
The main reason for their closure is because of a stiff penalty that Google leveraged against their network. Google doesn’t like text links or paid reviews, and KMM found themselves between a rock and a hard place. Give up their revenue, or give up their Google traffic.
So what can we learn from the downfall of Know More Media?
You may be thinking to yourself - I don’t run a blog network, and I don’t sell text links or paid reviews, so this story has nothing to do with me or my business. And you’d be dead wrong.
The story of KMM isn’t about networks or selling page rank. It’s about having all of your eggs in one basket.
Even if you are a one-man or one-woman show, this is an absolutely critical lesson you must learn. My freelance business ended because of two reasons - lack of work-life balance and lack of diversification of my income. I started my business at the end of the dot-com heyday. 4 years later the market was so saturated with laid-off freelancers that I couldn’t find work at half of my old rate.
I was kind of surprised at the number of conversations I had at BlogHer with people who were struggling with this same issue - that the economy was starting to take a bite out of their income, and that it was getting harder and harder to find clients. These people were still thinking of how to grow their business by finding more clients. They are making the Know More Media mistake.
Let this be your wake up call
Blogging as a business is changing. Social media is changing. The economy is changing.
The way you make money today might not be there tomorrow - and here’s my own painful lesson as an example. When I launched my blog network last September, I knew I had one source of consistent income that would cover all of my expenses. So I ensured that I only hired as many bloggers as that source of income would cover. I also knew that as soon as I launched the network, that source of income could only grow, so I felt 100% safe in committing to moving forward under this budget.
Less than 45 days later, that income source was gone. As in, completely gone, never to return again.
I felt like a #$&* fool.
I’ve taken that lesson to heart - and since that time I’ve been working incredibly hard to ensure that no one source of income held my fate in its hands. I’ve significantly altered my advertising strategy, altered my content & production strategy, and now have diversified my business further by launching SparkplugU.
Can I say for sure that I will be in business 5 years from now? I hope so, but I can’t guarantee it. But I can guarantee that if I do go out of business, it won’t be because I relied on one revenue model.
My heart goes out to Know More Media and their team of extremely talented bloggers. I know that hindsight is probably a little painful to look at right now - but I can’t wait to see what you guys do next. You built a great empire - and your next empire will be even more impressive because of what you have done.
More from me on this subject:
Why you Will Always be Vulnerable to Recession with a “Dollars for Hours” Mindset
Diversify Your Income Workshop with Wendy Piersall & Marla Tabaka
(Starts tomorrow!)
Sparkplugging Founder Wendy Piersall is dang passionate about helping people start & grow a business while maintaining life balance (somehow). 
Dawud Miracle has one focus: to help you get it. The it? How your website, and blog, can change the way you do business. You can find out more at 
Teresa Morrow manages online book publicity and event promotion for authors, speakers and writers with her company 
Easton is a nice guy too…
How about Google stops with the power hulk thing?
I hate that google continues to control how we shape our blog businesses…
The fear of no google traffic should NOT be a reason adjust your revenue…google ads IMO should be abolished…you can’t run search engines and the revenue stream too.
Couldn’t agree more. Diversify.
I agree with every point you have made in this post…bravo! And thank you for sharing the example of your own life lesson experience. I intend to keep allof these lessons in mind as i continue to developmy own diversified business model.
Amy
Great post! Thanks!
Depending upon how diverse those multiple sources of income are - it can be really difficult to find time for all of them. At least that’s the problem I have.
If you hear more about those networks closing, please post more about it!
Hi Wendy,
Thanks for the kind words about Know More Media.
I appreciate your insights into diversifying your sources of income and would endorse your recommendations.
I wanted to let you know that we are not completely closing Know More Media. We are putting the network on hiatus, allowing us to take care of some of our liabilities, fix some of our search ranking issues, and regroup. Our hope is to later reawaken Know More Media, and relaunch at a later date.
We wish all of our amazing and talented authors well and hope they can continue to publish such outstanding content and make it worth their while.
Tim Stay
Co-Founder
Know More Media
You bring up something else that I’ve been sharing with my clients - really think twice before joining a blogging network and make sure if you leave or they shut down you can take your content with you.
When Clubmom.com shut down last year, they let us take our blogs with us if we so chose, and gave us two months severance pay. They also redirected traffic to new URLs. I think I was very lucky. Other blogs networks that I have worked for haven’t been that nice, or it was plainly understood that like magazine or newspaper writing, I was being paid for writing and that they owned the content.
With all that in mind, I warn clients to think twice about joining a network, really look over the contract, find out what happens if the network shuts down or they leave, etc. However, if a good network like yours or B5Media was hiring them, I’d tell them to do the same, but to go forth with my blessing.
Being on a blog network has many advantages, too. But for me, creating my own blogs and making my own money (not revenue share or a stipend) has been best for me. But blogging isn’t all I do. I teach, I consult, and work PT as a community moderator.
And like Crunchy Carpets says, I too hate the Google dance we’re all on. I do paid reviews (plainly marked). After the recent page rank shuffle, the most trafficked of my blogs shows No Rank (not zero but not ranked). I can’t figure it out for the life of me, but people do buy ads and reviews based on PR. Frustrating!
Anne-Marie | The Write Spots last blog post..My Home 2.0 and the Twittering Teddy Bear
This is great advice, and some I’ve taken to heart as a freelancer and blogger. In my freelance work, I definitely seek out clients in a variety of industries to make sure that I’m not affected by market changes in any one area. But, I’m still looking at ways to add income sources. Your case is a great example. Thanks for the reminder…
Sara Marianis last blog post..Twitter is My Watercooler
Thanks for this incredibly helpful post. I’m not really too sure about how I will work on diversifying my income (heck I’m just starting out - I don’t HAVE an income stream at all yet) but I know realize I’d better start making plans b and c and d…!
Laurie/Halo Secretarials last blog post..Dreams Can Change the World
Wendy, thank you so much for sharing these great thoughts.
Were it not for Know More Media, you and I would not have come into contact when we did. That alone is reason to thank my lucky stars I got to work there.
I’m glad Tim Stay responded above. He and the rest of the management team have been wonderful to me and to all the Know More Media authors.
I’ve had the privilege of being a part of KMM from the beginning, as an editor, trainer, promoter, ad salesman and writer. (Each of us on the full-time team wore a closetful of hats.)
In the end, we did depend too much on Google. You’re absolutely right, Wendy. It can be difficult to start from scratch like we did and *not* come to depend on Google for traffic and for ad revenue. Constant diversification and adaptation are crucial for online businesses.
I hope I can still help you teach your upcoming SparkPlugU class on blog networks.
If anyone reading this would like to pick my brain on what to do or not do with a network of blogs, feel free to contact me. I could talk your ear off.
Going forward I plan to keep posting at BusinessBlogWire.com (my Know More Media blog) and also at my own blog consulting website, VisionaryBlogging.com.
I will miss everyone at Know More Media a great deal but find it extremely comforting to hope that we will cross paths again in a brighter future.
Easton Ellsworths last blog post..Business Blog Wire Here to Stay
Being able to turn on a dime is critical in today’s business environment. I learned that lesson reeeeeal painful-like in the early 2000s….it’s something that definitely stays with you.
Data points, Barbara
Barbara Lings last blog post..SURVIVING the Circle of Love (and smashing your fears to teeny tiny bits)
This may seem a little oblique, but there’s a connection here between KMM’s situation (and I wish them the best with their retool and relaunch) and the economy in general.
Bad things can often end up being the best thing. Getting chicken pox sucks–but a century ago it meant you got a resistance to small pox. High gas prices suck, but it finally hurt enough financially that people are changing their consumption habits.
It sucks that blog networks and bloggers in general are having to rethink their business models–but I honestly believe it will result in better quality blogs and blog networks rising above (and getting even better), and some necessary weeding out within the blogosphere.
KatFrenchs last blog post..You are not behind.
The way you make money today might not be there tomorrow . . . If that’s all that people take from this, Wendy, you’ve saved their lives.
Liz Strausss last blog post..Attracting the Offline Customer: Why Do You Promote Your Blog Offline?
Hi,
I’m wondering what your thoughts are on joining other communities/blog networks just to get more exposure and not necessarily get paid? Do you think this is a good idea and could benefit a blogger in the future in the same way article marketing does?
Thanks for any comments/replies!
Pattys last blog post..A Place for Mom Bloggers to Socialize
Patty, joining a network to build exposure or boost your resume is one of the best reasons to do it. I saw many Know More Media bloggers go on to bigger and better gigs as a direct result of someone reading their KMM blogs.
Easton Ellsworths last blog post..Business Blog Tips: My 3 All-Time Favorites
Thanks a lot for writing about Know More Media. I used to write for SouthAsiaBiz.com and it received around 3.2 million page views (a bit more than 10% of the overall traffic of Know More Media Network) which was the second highest traffic for any blog in the network. Know More Media owners did everything right except the TLA and Sponsored review part. Well, I understand that it was a lucrative source of revenue for them. However, I just wish that they have not taken this decision that cost them and us (the bloggers) so badly in the end.
I am grateful to Know More Media for giving me an opportunity to blog for them. Thanks to them, I have an impressive profile as a Blogger. They invested a lot on me and other bloggers from the first day and that is why, many bloggers including I would love to join them again if they again open the door.
“What Does the End of the Know More Media Blog Network Mean to You?”
This was your question. Of course, it is depressing and heart breaking. On the other hand, I consider myself to be extremely lucky that I tried to learn a lot about blogging while I was in KMM. So, I have already joined another blog right away.
on the social network side, Thoof and
and Social.fm have closed too.
check out-
http://www.blogtogreat.com/2008/08/two-social-medi.html
Robs last blog post..Where Will Your Next Blog Post Come From- Some Tips