Expect an announcement this week on the public release. Here’s a quick preview of our rankings of blogs within the network…

Our midweek interview this week is with Nick Aziz of Leftlane News, a new member of the 9rules Network.



Tell us briefly about yourself

I’m a fulltime blogger/entreprenur and a part-time university student. I work as Managing Editor for MacNN, a massive Apple news website. My main focus, however, is my new blog called Leftlane News, a website for car enthusiasts.

What motivated you to start blogging?

It’s a long story. I really began “blogging” over four years ago with my work for MacNN. And even before that, I helped launch some small Mac-related blog-like websites. I’ve always been highly ambitious, and I got involved with these projects mainly for the fun of it. When I first got involved with MacNN, I wasn’t looking for a job, but that’s what it became. I’ve been a paid employee of MacNN since 2001. Four years later, in September of this year, I decided I wanted to create my own website. This time it was more of a business venture than any of my past projects. Being a big car enthusiast, it wasn’t hard for me to pick a topic I wanted to write about.

Tell us about your blog

Leftlane News is an automotive weblog that caters directly to car enthusiasts. We try to pick the content carefully, and not post anything that is nonsensical filler. I also try to be the first to report on the most interesting stories. You can’t always be the one to break a story, but we’ve had our fair share of scoops in the last two months.

Your traffic is pretty impressive, especially considering that you’ve done this on your own without the support of a company or large blog network (until joining 9rules in the last week) – what do you attribute this success to?

Well let me clarify one thing. On the first day we did have a good boost from a little mention on MacNN. But that only brought in a few hundred readers directly. After that, I was pretty much on my own to promote the site. In the end, content is what will make a site popular. In the first few days, we had several important scoops that got us on the other major car blogs. Later, we also got cited by larger publications for some stories, further adding to our readership. Getting referrals is great, but you also need to have great content to retain readers. Another important factor is a blog’s design. Leftlane News was designed by a good friend of mine named Frank Gutfleisch (his design company is called Gesamtbild). A good design makes it easy for readers to find content on your site. If a blog is horribly confusing or ugly, it’s very unlikely that referred readers will get ‘hooked’ on the site after the first visit.

You’ve recently joined 9rules. Two questions – why did you choose to join them? What is your impression of their business model?

The greatest draw for me was the fact that all the 9rules sites are independently owned. By joining 9rules, you can promote your blog, while simultaneously helping promote other bloggers — all while retaining control of your site. I have been asked to join a number of other blog networks, but I was not willing to give up a significant share of my site to someone else. It’s important to realize not everyone has your best interest in mind when they come to you with a proposal.

Tell us about being a Professional Blogger – how did you get into this lifestyle? Do you think it’s a viable career option for the long-term?

I don’t think any type of entrepreneurial venture is necessarily a life-long career. Frankly I have a problem with the concept of a “long-term” career. In any business, success is never final — just look at the state of the once-triumphant U.S. automakers today. What’s important is being able to adapt as new trends emerge. Will any of us be doing the exact same thing in 30 years? No. Will I get up in the morning to create new WordPress entry on December 1st, 2035? Not likely. As technology changes, blogging — and the Internet as a whole — will likely evolve into something different. I do, however, believe citizen journalism — whatever form it takes — is here to stay.

What do you do when you’re not blogging?

Work out, ride my bike, go for a drive, shop, go to school, enjoy the nightlife, listen to music (I’m a big music fan), go to the beach — basically the same stuff most other people with their free time. The difference with blogging, however, is that you never have set work hours. Some days you have lots of freedom, other days you have none. That’s what working for yourself is all about.

Your computer & OS of choice? Why?

Mac OS X. I’ve used Macs all my life. They’re what got me interested in the Internet in the first place, which eventually lead to blogging. When Mac OS X came out, it really reaffirmed my commitment to the Mac platform, because it was just so good.

Software that you use each day?

The following apps run 24/7 on my machines: Apple’s Mail.app, Text Edit, Transmit (for FTP), iTunes, Photoshop, TextWrangler, and Adium for AIM/MSN.

Websites you visit each day?

Aside from all the car- and Mac-related sites I must visit to do my job, I read Drudge Report, The Superficial, and Google News quite a bit.

What advice would you give someone who is new to blogging and looking to increase their traffic?

Create exclusive content. You need to differentiate yourself and give other bloggers a reason to link to you. Try to find scoops, try to get something no one else has. Also, try to come up with some content that will interest people on more generalized sites. The most interesting story in your blog is not necessarily the best thing to send to bloggers outside of your niche. You need to find items with mass appeal.

What’s next for Left Lane News in next 12 months?

Hopefully continued growth. The formula for Leftlane News will not change. However, that doesn’t mean there won’t be some exiting developments involving Leftlane News in the next year. I’m currently in talks with some publishers about partnerships, and maybe even a network of some premier blogs.

Our thanks to Nick for taking the time to do this interview! Check out Leftlane News for more from Nick’s world.

Interested in your fifteen minutes of fame?

We’re always looking for bloggers and others involved in the blog network world to participate in interviews. Drop us a line at interviews [at] blogmedia [dot] biz if you’re interested in your own fifteen minutes of fame.

Pajamas Media has begun serving ads:

I’m sure everyone has noted that Pajamas Media-served ads are now appearing on this site, as they are on Instapundit today. The other blogs in our group will soon be serving PJ ads as well (as quickly as we can get to them all). I would like to echo Glenn’s gracious comments about Henry Copeland’s BlogAds, which also used to appear here. They are a fine system. We’re going in a different direction. It’s a big… scratch that… a huge and growing blogosphere, plenty of room for different models to exist side-by-side.

Performancing takes a good hard look at Weblogs, Inc.’s PSP Fan Boy. Many good ideas there.

If you have some spare change laying about…

Popular site Threadwatch has been sold to Aaron Wall of SEOBook.

Update: Jack of all Blogs, as usual, has a few toilet appropriate comments.

Jack of All Blogs has some thoughts on hanging onto your Pajamas and building a weblog network:

Now all of these plans have their benefits. What made Gawker successful is in my opinion the same thing that made Weblogs Inc successful. The growth models are different and I respect Nick Denton for growing around quality rather than quantity. He isn’t afraid of shedding sites that just aren’t cutting it. While Calacanis wants to hang on to every last piece of crap left in the network as long as its making over 1 cent a day. Both have their reasons. Both equally genius.

Jason Calacanis’s comments from yesterday continue to make a stir in the blogosphere, some remarks, starting with the Read/Write Web:

Personally I like Om’s numbers better, because it makes me a multimillionaire on paper. But I suspect Jason’s figures tell a few home truths about what it takes to actually do a deal. On the other hand, eyeballs still seems to be the currency of choice in the Web world – bubble or not. How many current Web 2.0 companies are earning decent revenue? Perhaps that only goes to prove Jason’s point, that it’s all bubble talk.

I’ll stop now before I get totally out of my depth – financial analysis not being my forte. But I’m interested in what people have to say about it. Who do you think is closer to the mark – Om (eyeballs, $34M for BB) or Jason (revenue, earnings, 500k-$3M for BB)?

Jason wonders if the bubble is coming:

Why do I think today was the day? The day that things could start coming apart?

First, I read Om’s insane $38 for a pair of eyeballs article, but more importantly some folks actually defended those numbers!

The Business2 Blog doesn’t like Jason’s thinking:

So apparently Calcanis thinks it is absurd to value his former company based on eyeballs (rather than the “amazing management” and the skyrocketing revenue growth, sillies), but it’s okay to do so for a competitor.

I don’t want to speak for Om since this is his story, but obviously the value of an advertising-based Website is directly related to the size and quality of the audience it can attract. And barring the Weblogs of the world and other private companies giving us their revenue figures, we are stuck with measuring what we can: eyeballs and acquisition prices.

Finally, don’t get too hung up on that $38-per-eyeball figure. It is just an average based on a few recent deals, meant to serve as a reference point and to spark further discussion (which is what it is doing). Take out the $80 outlier (MarketWatch) and you’d get a $28 average. Put in a few other deals, and you’d get a different figure. Not every eyball is worth the same. Some sites attract millionaire investors, others attract bargain hunters. The $38 figure is just a starting point to see where a site fits in.

Memorandum has more.

Corante launches Corante Hubs:

Today we go live with a major new initiative and important new direction from Corante that has us reimagining what Corante is and will be. Months in the making and informed by years spent playing and working in this space, the Corante Hubs and the corollary Corante Network have Corante partnering with scores (and eventually hundreds) of the blogosphere’s most interesting and insightful commentators on specific topics in a loosely joined editorial offering (and business model) we believe will keep readers up to date and ahead of the curve while saving them the time we all find so scarce these days. Our first areas of coverage: web, media, and marketing.

As we all know the media industry is experiencing disruptive change that is eroding existing business models and requiring rethinking about how existing and emerging media companies can grow, build and retain trust, and make money. So as much as these hub pages are designed as an editorial product, they and the Corante Network and the complementary lines of business we’re rolling out have also been devised as part of our response to the factors and forces impacting media companies and the organizational, operational, and economic dynamics we think the future holds in store for them and us.

Business Blog Wire has a couple comments about our current beta of Blog Network List.