It's been a while since you posted this. People keep commenting here, but no update from you in a while.

Should we start panicking yet?

Thanks.

Most of us are pretty poor, or at least no in a place to pay to blog. How do you get this linked up with all the search engines? It doesn't show up. I think that possibly changing the name could actually invite more people and maybe have areas for teens if you want a younger crowd. I don't know. I like what whereabouts said. I think this needs to be accessible. I have told many people about it. I hate blogster with a passion. (yes I will use the word). It became a giant pain. Here we are an international neighborhood and I love it.

Hi Eddie,
I'm am so sorry to hear things are not going so well for mybloggers. I really enjoy it here, and have a lot of friends here.
As a businessman myself, I truly believe that if you charge per post, you will lose your blogger base here.
I also believe that the same will happen if you make it into a niche site. When you limit the topics that can be written about, you also limit your contributors AND your audience.
There's got to be other ways to raise revenues.

Merry Christmas boss

Merry Christmas Eddie!

hi eddie
i left blogster to and came here i love this site and have quite a few friends i cant think of any ideas as long as you keep what ever you do simple n take care

and have a very very merry xmas and a safe and happy new year
cath

I stopped by today to thank you for making me a featured blogger, then I saw this post. Darn, I wish I knew enough about how these things work to make a worthwhile suggestion, but I do not think porn is the answer. When I Google free blog sites, I don't see MyBloggers, and there are no direct links from here to Picturetrail or Flikr content or any of the other photo posting sites. It is also impossible to use different page lay-outs or 'skins'- not that I know how to use them on the other blog sites. I am also agree with some of the folks who think "MyBloggers" sounds more like a roadside diner and does not attract people looking for a place to call home. While I have a page on both MySpace and Facebook, I only use this one because this is 'home'. By all means, invite advertisers, but pop-ups? Mine get blocked as do most people's so they would be a waste of money. Just my opinion...
P.S.: Is there a way to have private pages that only friends can see/ comment on? I wanted to start a blog for Public Affairs and Publications officers within the USCGAUX, but I can only use a private page for that.

It seemed slow around here, but hadn't contemplated the numbers. I understand the situation better now, but don't have anything new to add.

My stupid opinions....

1) Everyone left Blogster, cause they liked "YOU".. We are here cause we love ya.. Friends stick to friends...

2) Eddie, you don't have the "most eloborate" blog site.. many exceed that.. but you have a community we all like

3) Eddie, you have maintained a "personal" site. We feel we can talk to you, and that's important. You have maintained a "personal level", and it will grow.

4) Eddie, I know you want to make money (of course), but to really make it you should stay on track (my opinion)... Be friends with the "MyBloggers Blogsters first", they will bring in friends..

5) I am here (on your site) cause I feel it's the coolest. How many people left "Blogster" and came here? I don't know either, but was alot... We ALL did cause we see your vision...

Night Eddie... must get a beer...

Just had the opportunity to peek at the new blogster and I don't like it! Look at my main page! ugh. It's snazzy looking but...well, so far I can tell, that's it!

Wow... Have you seen Blogster lately???

Porn

Thanks for all the great comments and suggestions. Still not sure of the direction. No immediate plans though...so don't panic.

BTW, Please do not just click on ads in an effort to bolster revenue. It does very little and is not fair to the advertisers that pay per click.

Nov.24
Since you know how blogster worked, have you seen their new changes as of 11/22/08?
I've kept blogster and also blog here. I consistently get 100-200 hits a day at blogster, and here 30-40 a day, why the difference? I'll even do the same post..inspirational w/photos at both, to check what people want to read. At blogster, I'll maybe get 3-4 comments on posts a day, yet hundreds of hits/ So folks are coming reading and that's great. So you figure out how and why that happens and you'll make some changes.
I would not pay to post.

Here's my take:

Community and Communities. Capitalize on each community attached to each individual blogger by appropriate links and information so that when one does a google search for anything in Lockport, IL, my blog would show up. It seems to me that that would be relatively simple to implement, without a major overhaul.

Have an internal and/or external collection of data that supports each locale of the individual blogger and have it all cross linked to pump up the google ratings.

Capitalize on other's info just like Topix does with the news but don't just use news, also include city and village info, county info, state info, just tons of relative info to the particular community associated with the individual blogger, and links to those websites to capitalize on the content provided by those sites and that info.

Take the focus OFF "mybloggers" and put the focus on the individual blog and relative content. So, the title tag for each page should include the name of the community such as, "Lockport, IL: Whereabouts Social Blog on MyBloggers" (or whatever). Then have a default of relative 3rd party sites that support "Lockport, IL" that is in the blog frame. Provide footer links that tag "Lockport, IL" to "mybloggers.com/whereabouts".

Topix capitalizes on the news printed by others; mybloggers can capitalize on community content provided by others just as well but simply for another purpose.

I got to thinking about it, and have you considered that the name MyBloggers doesn't exactly make people think of blogging? When I was looking to start blogging two years ago I googled Free Blog and a bunch of sites came up including Blogster because that is part of the name. I just randomly picked that one from those links that came up. But I just now googled Free Blog and MyBloggers doesn't come up. So how would new people find it, and even if it came up in a found list would the name sound like a blog group they would want to join? I understand that you had this domain name lying around, and I don't know what you had in mind when you registered it, but it doesn't sound like blogging to me, it sounds more like car mechanics or hamburger joints.

Eddie, do you know what might help? If we could put in more fancy backgrounds and had more decorating options... like MySpace. (Although I have no idea how MySpace works.) It is kind of boring to have just a choice of plain blue, pink, and olive as backgrounds. I know a lot of places are spicing up their sites... just recently gmail added a lot of new stuff -- backgrounds, new smilies, and I don't know what. It does make it more appealing.... The smilies were bad, though. They were like Blogster's, even though they had 100 of them.

I wouldn't mind paying a yearly fee,. It might encourage people to blog just to get their money's worth... but there are some hhere that might stop blogging here and go to a "free" blogging space (like the old Blogster). which is upgrading... I think. Well, we'll keep thinking, I know, because we need to keep MyBloggers going.

Maybe people could be encouraged to click on the ads every time they visit someone's site. I know I did for awhile today, but then I forgot after awhile. There could be a reminder on each page... or maybe not... I'm not sure what is possible.

One of my friends who is an author set up an account on MyBloggers but never uses it because her website designer wanted a direct link from the blog to the webpage and somehow Wordpress fit that requirement - or so I was told.

How does Blogster make money? You must have built that into it since you used to own it - or did you sell it because it was losing money too? I never understood the inflated Blog Traffic stats over there and figured the ones we see for our individual blogs on MyBloggers are more realistic (exception is knittineedles - her knitting info must bring in the hits). To be brutally honest, I would not be here if there were popups or a fee for use, since there are other free sites out there; I would miss my fellow MyBloggers bloggers but would probably get over it. It seems like if it was a niche site, you might spend a lot of time enforcing the rules. I appreciate you providing this platform for us to express ourselves and hope you come up with a workable solution. All these photos and playlists probably take up a lot of server space.

OMG I am starting to sound like Fredo.

I like Holly's idea.She is a smart cookie.

I agree with the "banner ad" idea. Like Marty(greatmartin) I am also on a fixed income(they fixed it good)and could not afford a "pay per post" kinda deal. I am waaay too chatty. A one time yearly fee might work, kinda like a subscription. About how much would you have to charge per year based on the users you have now in order for you to make a profit? I dearly love MyBloggerstown and have many terrific blog pals. My experience at MyBloggers has been wonderful and is a part of my life that I would not want to loose. Thanks for keeping us informed and asking for our opinions. As my old friend Tony S. sez, it shows respect.

reguards
yer constant pal
bugg

I have no problem with more banner ads. I think the pop-up ads would be a waste since everybody uses a pop-up blocker now. I hope MyBloggers doesn't disappear.

Okay Eddie you have peaked my interest here. I have tried many times to talk to you but my poor fingers cannot take all the damn typing I have to do already. We are all adults here right? Yeah, okay, I thought so.

First confession time, I love Blogster. I am sorry you sold it in a way, that way being because I like you but I am glad to have you alone here without your jerk side-kick. I like you a lot and always have. I like the new people at blogster a lot and always will. I say this first and foremost because I do not see these two blog-sites as competitors and do not compare the two anymore. They are different and offer their users different things. I wanted to say that because I wanted everyone to know I have no split loyalties, this is not about loyalties it is about business.

I do not blog here a lot because of all the reasons you mentioned above. My number one priority is to get my blog read by as many people who care to read it and get to know me on a personal or professional level. I do not get enough hits here for me to blog here everyday in addition to my other blogs I must write and that number is not small and I will not double post that is bad for traffic. Any site I publish at will only get original content from me.

Me personally, I would like you to do a sponsorship. Where people could pay for ad space, personally through you or what ever payment processor you choose so long as it is a reasonable amount and you may have others who have professional interests who may want to do the same thing. Your sponsors would need to be listed on the front page with there logo, maybe limit the size banner you allow or text ad.

I have suggested before that perhaps you charge a subscription fee that allows bells and whistles for your account if you re like a “gold member” say 30-50 bucks a year and those blogs have their own most popular list on the front page.

What about Joint ownership? I do not know how you would work that out but X amount of people willing to share the cost and you vote on decisions made concerning the site, then if you wanted to quit they could buy you out? I s’pose it would be kinda like share holders and the people with the most shares have more clout/votes.

I would also go with the contests maybe an amazon gift card that way it can be anonymous that would be something that would draw traffic but not pay the bills and you need both.

I know there are sites like adbrite where you can have people pay you to be advertised on your site. Usually it begins as a small amount but can quickly become larger and lager amounts. https://www.adbrite.com/ or avn ads. https://www.avnads.com I bet you could defiantly cover all of the costs with those and make a profit! (I do)

I would not go adult all the way because you will lose the people that are here but perhaps allow adult with no nudity and if someone wants to out and out advertise they need to pay you to do so. Like if I just said , “Call me lets………………….” I would need to pay for that and have a auto mailer tell the those folks their commercial blogs are welcome but they gotta pay to post them. That should either get you some cash or get rid of them

I would seriously do ad brite and avn and sell ad space. You get enough traffic and hits to make good $$ doing that and then you could keep it all free but you do need to ad for more users. You need to get more people here and you might wanna try advertising on one of those yourself though I once gave you a whole list of free ways to market this place for traffic, traffic is money if people are paying to ad here. It is not like google ads, try it please (and give me the link to sign up)

Also make it more user friendly here. We need to know when people comment on our blogs and we need to be able to search the site those are the big pitfalls for me here. The only way I know if someone has commented is to go look and that is time consuming and then if I want to visit someone’s blog it is way hard to find them. Search would make my life so much easier. Please Eddie.


I hope all of this helps.

Thanx!

Holly

MiNe? All miNe?

I wondered why you were not using banners and more ad content. Go for it, Eddie.

My cat Hobbie wants to thank you for using his name as one of the possible niches... "Hobbies."

I personally like the idea of banner ads. Popups would just annoy people. I like this site because it is user friendly and (not to sound like el cheapo)free. There is a great community here and more people should know about it. If you charge to post here you would lose more than you gain. I just love to sound off and hope to continue to do so.

Perhaps it is our demographics. You described us as being "older." Maybe we should be more friendly to a younger more energetic audience. Controversy always draws a larger audience. I know that there's more argument on Blogster and they are doing pretty well. I know many people are here because they dislike the nastiness of controversy, but if it means the difference betwen existence or non-existence...

Another area that people like is humor. If we look at the television shows that are popular, we might get more ideas. Reality shows are popular. Wonder what we could do with that?

Well, we do need many ideas. I know that I am on and off and perhaps we need more people who are more substantial. We have many here, but not enough.

The idea of a monthly (or so... maybe quarterly) reward seems like a good idea to me. Maybe depending on traffic... Well, that might mean the same people would win every period...

Is there any way you could sticky this post so you'd get more ideas?

Unfortunately I am too poor to pay to post--how poor am I? I use dial up and only have one phone line!!!! LOL
If you go the niche route would it just be one subject or 1/2 dozen?
I don't know if charging for blogging would work as there are too many free blogging web sites plus competiting with myspace, etc.
I wouldn't mind banner ads say at top or bottom of screen so they don't interfere with blog area but not pop ups.
How about having 2 levels--one of general subjects like now and then a paying level for adult subjects or religious topics or politics or whatever so that maybe you can attract another kind of clientele--the paying kind --and still retain the rest of us???
Now the other site is doing all sorts of changes but I don't think it will add to it's 'fan' base and as it is it seems to be attracting many kids and 'fanatics' of all kinds--will it make them more money?? I don't know as I don't know or understand the web business.
Obviously your deal with google isn't paying or least not paying enough--any other sponsors you could talk to that would bring in money enough to show a profit and yet keep mybloggers as great as it is?

I know contest are ALWAYS a good way to get readers. The second you start giving away something as little as a 10 dollar gift card you will have TONS of hits. Maybe you could incorporate that in somewhere.

Personally, I enjoy debating and arguing (blogging about) the issues of politics and/or religion.

Pay per post would seem to be self defeating. I think it might actually kill MyBloggers. Now, a monthly fee might be okay. On my example below, that was a monthly fee and I would have paid if I had enjoyed the experience and stayed. How much would you need to charge per month to put this blog back in the black?

well,Eddie not sure what to say.But I will go along with the others
whatever they decided to do.Cannot offer you any suggestion as I am not
too swift on these things.Not sure what to say Eddie.
Go along with the flow?

I too prefer substantive to diary-like blogs, and tend to read the former over the latter. But I fear most are more diary than substance, not that there's anything wrong with that. A niche blog would be attractive but mybloggers currently couldn't fill any niche with its current bloggers. I consider my own blog substantive, yet good luck finding a common thread, as I'm all over the place in terms of what I choose to write about. So are others. None of this is helping you, of course. Wish I could provide a solution, as I really enjoy coming here.

bummer. If we paid per post what would it be? Although people would prolly go back to Blogster - we'd have lots to b@tch about there!
I totally understand if ya hafta let this go though... that would in part resolve my google issue though...

Guess it just seems slow at times. That's what I get for spending half my nights on here.

If your seriously thinking about standing out from any other site, why not try the Music/film/ringtone download methods etc. This could cover the looses maybe. Most sites like these have blogs aswell so mybloggers is safe

Sorry to hear it is loosing money. I've thought it wasn't growing as it should. I noted the same faces every day and not many new bloggers. I also notice that there aren't a lot of blogs going up. Sometimes only 5 or 6 blogs all day long. You can see that I spend too much time on here since I have noticed all of those things.

It is a difficult decision for you. Personally, I hate pop up ad's. I remember when Blogster had them. They popped up right in the place I had to click to create a new post and I couldn't get around them or out of them. How frustrating. But, I hate the niche idea, too. Some of those categories would put me right out of the conversation and I think it would make it more boring. Example: I joined a Christian blog that only allowed discussion of Bible scripture and theology. No political stuff was allowed. No personal stuff, except for prayer requests. I stayed two weeks and was so bored, I left. But, if you go the niche route, I am a car enthusiast. I really think the niche concept, although the easiest, is too constricting.

I know this is a long comment. Sorry about that. You do have a big decision and I will be checking in to see what others say.

Happy at MyBloggers - Annie :o)

I'm sorry you're losing so much $$.

Ouch! That totally stinks that you are losing money. It is not a huge amount, but it is also WAY more than I would want to sacrifice each month. Like Kristilyn, I appreciate that you are asking us.
By adult, do you mean that we would be talking about the various aspects of being adults or that OTHER definition of "adult". If that is the case, than the niche thing could work.
AJ

How cool that you ask us!
I am poor so paying would suck and pop ups are tres annoying but I totally understand that ya need to not LOSE money at least... would the pop up ad's make it balance out?