TechSuave

Few weeks back, I wrote a post on 5 reasons to join a Blog network. Now everything you do online has 2 faces. What if joining a Blog Network is not a smart move?

Joining a Blog Network has its benefits, but for everything we do in life, there are always gains and losses. The idea is to minimize your losses and be more efficient enough to move ahead. There are certain things which can hinder your blog’s progress and if your having the aim of Making Money Online, joining a blog network might be a dent in your road.

Few reasons why I feel joining a Blog Network might not prove useful to you in anyway.

1. Restrictions - Once you join a blog network, you will be forced to follow certain rules and norms which you may not be familiar with or not comfortable with. Few examples would be having the whole network’s blog url’s on your blog, having the network name in prominent positions on your site. All this will not be possible, if your cramped up for space and you would be forced to removing certain important widgets or plugins from your blog.

2. Shared Earnings - Most Blog networks work on a shared ad revenue system. What it means is that if they get an advertiser to sell a spot on your blog, they keep 25-30% of the money you were supposed to get in full. Example, if you normally sell 125×125 for $15 per month, your network might get an advertiser to buy that spot for $20 per month which is good but they would eat up 5-7$ and you will earn a bit less. As the Ad spot price gets higher for good blogs, how much you make remains either the same or less, but the network is the one who gains the most from this process.

3. Blog Marketing - One of the most important ploys a blog network uses to get hold of good bloggers is that they lure you into believing that they will do all that it takes to market your blog. That statement does promise a lot but in reality, they not only market your blog but 50-100 blogs on their network, so unless your blog is really a gem, there is no way you are going to be noticed.

4. Force-Field Effect - Whatever happens on your blog will go through the blog network, so its more or less answering to your boss. The more good your blog is the more stronger the Force Field will be on your blog. But, if you think your blog is not as good as the other blogs on the network, then I guess theres no point in hanging around.

5. Quality Control - Blog networks want you to do well. If you have to do well, you have to write quality articles. If they think your not doing a good job, they might hire writers to write on your own blog to maintain the quality of their blog network. This in most cases will not be liked by you and might lead to differences.

6. Be in Control - A big mistake what some bloggers have done is that some blog networks say that they would host the blogs on their server. Bloggers have fallen into this trap and having got their blogs hosted, the blog network would have full command over the blog and you cannot do nothing to revert the decision.

7. Recognition - If your blog does become famous, all the credit will goto your blog network more than to you, as people will think it was their efforts and not yours that the blog has done well. Now why would you have to give credit to someone else.

Never lose your control over your own blog. After all, its your creation and no one would like their blog to be controlled by someone else.

So, Has anyone ever joined a Blog Network? What was the experience? Are you still in the Network or not?