I also have to take you to task about pageranking. That is only one small part of the equation for getting a good search listing. I recommend that you read Googlebot’s faq files if you haven’t already, and you will see that linking by authority is only a part of the algorithm equation.

Cheers!

If by joining a network you get real world experience, don’t you think its real worth of your money and time. And if a network is able to provide you a steady income in addition to it, you can call it a bonus too.

>> I don’t know what SE’s you use naveen but stuffing certain keywords into blog and page titles really does influence the search engines. In fact it is still common practice and I’m not knocking that either.

I totally agree with you, stuffing keywords in page Title, page URL is a Common practice, and since it’s a common practice it’s no longer an effective practice. Today the most effective way to get high rankings is getting linked by authority sites. Age of domains also play an important part.

>> However, as a former writer for Blogcritics it has also been my unfortunate experience

I really feel sorry for your “unfortunate experience”. But, I am more than lucky enough to be a part of Instablogs Community. While joining a blog network, you should check a network’s background, people associated with it.

In my view that offers little or no value to anyone except to the network owner who is skimming from the proceeds.

Nor am I really discussing the value of content or the use of canned templates.

I was just using a little tongue-in-cheek humor there to make a point (sorry for the warped sense of humor ;-).

It is some of the network’s hypocrisy and their writer’s general lack of real world experience that I am ranting about.

Don’t you think that if you are going to pass yourself off as an expert in a niche market you should at least have some real world experience besides just having a passion for the topic? That is what I am saying.

I don’t know what SE’s you use naveen but stuffing certain keywords into blog and page titles really does influence the search engines. In fact it is still common practice and I’m not knocking that either.

I’m just pointing out that it isn’t rocket science propelling oneself to the top of the list, but that doesn’t necessarily reflect true value of a blog.

I will admit however that is one advantage that the networks do have. The blogger needn’t worry so much about SEO techniques to drive traffic and to make money. And isn’t making money really the bottom line with networks?

However, as a former writer for Blogcritics it has also been my unfortunate experience that at the end of the day it is the network that gains most of the traffic and the value (and the money) — not the individual writers.

Cheers and thanks for the comment.

…BB

You second point of being good at SEO, might hold true for an amateur blogger. But today search engines are way too smart to get fooled by stuffed keywords in title. Good ol’ days are long gone.

Venture capitalist might be gullible to fall into blog networks trap, but a common reader doesn’t care if any blog is a part of a blog network or not. This is one of the biggest flaws of current blog networks model. Currently they offer no incentive to the readers. But coming to VCs again, most of the blog networks who have been funded recently have shown great growth in past few months, whether its b5media or Popsugar network.