How to build a blog empire

I’ve posted recently about the rise of a second generation of blogpire entrepreneurs. The cover story on Business 2.0 now picks up the theme and provides some good stats on who’s who in the blogpire zoo and what they are making in terms of revenues. All relatively small potatoes at present, but like I’ve said before, blogpires are all about building big brands, and that’s when the true monetization can begin.

In line with Jeremy Wright’s point that Web 2.0 should be about “profitable online businesses”, Business 2.0 gloms onto this thought as well and describes these fledgling blogpire’s as:

Real businesses, with real revenue streams from real advertisers — not overhyped next big things with pick-a-number valuations based on selling out someday to some overenthusiastic big-media sugar daddy.

Web 2.0 Hangover

Phew, sounds like Jeremy Wright over at b5media ingested too much Web 2.0 diatribe at the Techcrunch party - result = instant hangover and a penchant to try and illuminate the pitfalls of treading an already sodden Web 1.0 path.

Jeremy blogs:

During the TechCrunch party I realized why the whole Web 2.0 think bugged me. It’s all so Web 1.0. Yeah, sure, greater interaction, new technologies, VCs with more knowledge, etc.

But something really irked me. In Web 1.0 the single biggest mistake was … businesses with no business plan, no sales path, no income, etc. The perception that if you worked your butt off you’d IPO and everything’d be fine.

To me, 2.0 of a product should fix the issues with 1.0 as well as adding new features. In Web 2.0 we definitely added new features… but did we solve the issues with 1.0?

Well at least here’s a lucid thought:

Web 2.0 should be “profitable online businesses”.

Indeed, tell that to Chad and Sequoia over at YouTube — I mean a channel for Paris Hilton… come on guys has the summer toasted your ability to think straight. Oh well, at least we know Marshall Kirkpatrick will be watching this development closely, ie it’s in safe hands.

Cisco gets consumers

With the recent acquisition of Arroyo, a video on demand software company, Cisco has lined up the three essential elements for a total video offering.

Om Malik explains the significance:

Arroyo, is the latest and perhaps the most crucial piece of the puzzle. Since Arroyo’s products allow carriers – wireless, wireline and cable operators – to deliver video on demand to any platform: television, computer of mobile phone, Cisco now has acquired three must-have features of any future video offering.