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March 17, 2008

Blogger & Podcaster Magazine To Launch Blog Advertising Network, Provide Health Care To Solo Bloggers

Duncan Riley

19 comments »

blogger-podcaster.jpgTrade magazine Blogger & Podcaster Magazine is expanding into advertising with their own blog advertising network.

The Blogger & Podcaster Network (BPN) will target “the B,C,D & E listers who have smaller and often more niche audiences.” Blogger & Podcaster have retained investment bank The Riderwood Group to obtain expansion funding for the network.

Those signing up to BPN will get promotion in the mainstream media through The Blogger & Podcaster Guide and revenue from advertising and other revenue generating services.

The obvious comparison for the network is Technorati’s recently revealed advertising network. Although both target the long tail, BPN would be one of the most different pitches I’ve ever seen in 6 years covering this space. To be a part of BPN you have to be listed in The Blogger & Podcaster Guide which costs $5 a month due to a new deal with USA Today (it was previously $49.95/ month). On top of the advertising opportunities there is also an affiliate program for selling memberships to the guide, pretty standard fare. This is where it gets very interesting: members will have “access to healthcare.” Exactly what level of healthcare provided wasn’t specified, with Blogger & Podcaster simply saying that “this is a big issue for bloggers/podcasters looking to leave their day jobs and go full-time.” Ultimately the devil will be in the detail but immediately every US based blogger who blogs for a living is going to want to look at whatever they are offering; even if it’s a basic healthcare package it’s a whole lot better than having no healthcare coverage in country that (unlike most of the rest of the western world) does not provide universal healthcare.

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This entry was posted on Monday, March 17th, 2008 at 12:00 am and is filed under Company & Product Profiles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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Comments

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  1. Boring Market

    March 17th, 2008 at 12:28 am

    “the B,C,D & E listers who have smaller and often more niche audiences.”

    Who exactly are they talking about? How big does a blog have to be in order to qualify, subscriber count, unique visitors…do they matter? What does 60 dollars a year really buy a blogger?

  2. Biblinski

    March 17th, 2008 at 12:37 am

    The problem with offering health insurance on a nation-wide basis (much less an international basis) is that each state regulates the insurance offerings in that state. So what is acceptable in one state may be disallowed in another. Similar plans would certainly be available, but there are no plans that are exactly the same in every state with the exact same premiums. Residents of some states get more for their money than residents of other states.

    But, if contributions to a medical savings plan were the “access to healthcare” being offered, it would be another story. Not as interesting to most, but still one worth listening to.

  3. Mark Avey

    March 17th, 2008 at 12:53 am

    Where can you get a listing for $5? The cheapest I can see on the site is the “previous” price of $49.95 per month.

  4. Yakov

    March 17th, 2008 at 12:54 am

    How are they different from FM network, except for targeting mid-sized and small blogs? and this pay, will small bloggers pay to be listed if they don’t really earn real money now?

  5. Greg Brady

    March 17th, 2008 at 1:55 am

    haha. Nothing says third-world like a country that can’t provide healthcare for 20% of its population!

  6. Simon Ovidiu

    March 17th, 2008 at 2:12 am

    How big does a blog have to be in order to qualify, subscriber count, unique visitors???

  7. Accounting Journal

    March 17th, 2008 at 3:32 am

    a blogger magazine is going to provide medical care type insurance? i guess they are going to use big companies, because for a small company its really a risky business to enter.

  8. Larry Genkin - Publisher Blogger & Podcaster

    March 17th, 2008 at 7:03 am

    To clarify, all bloggers and podcasters will be eligible, regardless of audience size. Our objective is twofold: 1) To bring blogging and podcasting beyond the early adopters to the much larger group of mainstream consumers; 2) help all bloggers and podcasters to increase their ability to earn a significant income from their efforts by allowing them to expand their audience through promotion in USA TODAY and our rapidly expanding network of media partners (rolling out in the next couple weeks) that already includes 15 additional publications. To see all of the sites in our network and to be included all you need to do is go to http://www.bloggerandpodcaster.com/register when the page is up later today.

    Larry Genkin
    Publisher
    Blogger & Podcaster Magazine
    http://www.bloggerandpodcaster.com

  9. Andy Merrett

    March 17th, 2008 at 8:01 am

    Interesting thought - personally I’d rather set aside some of my income and invest specifically in health insurance / private medical insurance etc etc, rather than have it tied in with a blog network/organisation, but that’s just me. Sure it would work for some.

  10. Alex

    March 17th, 2008 at 8:26 am

    Are they going to run adify or actually use another ad serving technology?

  11. Larry Genkin - Publisher Blogger & Podcaster

    March 17th, 2008 at 10:03 am

    Alex, we’ve built our own ad serving technology called AdScape that will allow us to target ads based on a great variety of criteria, including geography.

  12. Jeremy Steele

    March 17th, 2008 at 12:24 pm

    Would be interesting to see what level of coverage they offer…

  13. Matt Sullivan

    March 18th, 2008 at 1:08 am

    I am all in…This is great. Thanks, Larry - What an inventive tool you have provided.

  14. Miles Arnone

    March 19th, 2008 at 3:18 am

    Universal health care is not the answer!

    TechChrunch does a good job dropping in an unabashed pitch for universal health care here, as in, “even if it’s a basic healthcare package it’s a whole lot better than having no healthcare coverage in country that (unlike most of the rest of the western world) does not provide universal healthcare”. Wake up! Healthcare in the so-called “rest of the western world” stinks. Any Canadian who can comes to the US for healthcare, and in the UK, anyone with cash uses a private system outside the government system. With universal health care the only losers will be the less fortunate. For a good discussion of why the health care system is so broken and what to do about it, go to the below link.

    http://theobjectivestandard.co.....h-care.asp

  15. Rick Calvert

    March 20th, 2008 at 8:07 am

    Just putting my two cents in, Larry is a good guy and doesn’t do things half way. The partnership with USA today alone brings bloggers exposure to millions of readers. He has several vertical publications involved in the B&P guide as well that should be very beneficial to bloggers in those markets.

    You can be sure that many more vertical print publications will be coming on-line.

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