It’s Official BlogCatalog is Fried

Posted on April 10, 2010 by

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It’s official BlogCatalog and TweetFeed owners Tony Berkman and Angie Alaniz  have broken the eggs and fried them too. They have cooked up something new and I don’t mean HalfHour meals. So what’s the Broowhaha all about?

No more BlogCatalog profile pages for members. No more groups and no more  forum. The entire structure is being changed.

During the last 2 months the BlogCatalog team has experienced a number of major challenges that have resulted in decisions being made.

BlogCatalog experienced the loss of a substantial portion of our google traffic & revenue

[Oscar (aka. Nine) lead designer has left the BC  team and so has Daniel (aka. thegoodknife) lead programmer.]

We explored the site [BlogCatalog] and found that it’s got to go and be replaced by something that gets you more viewers and a much more valuable way to see what’s happening …

It’s being replaced with something that you choose how to use and who to follow. Talk to people you want to. It’s more of a connection and exposure area that includes discussions. — TonyB

So the news is a totally new site is being launched. The old site has been quietly dismantled over the course of the last 10 days to create a seamless process for members and guests. Guest accounts have been available at BlogCatalog for over two years now.

Non blogger readers however make up the majority of traffic that blogcatalog receives and sends to blogs. So if we were to make it a requirement that only bloggers could read and see what’s going on, most of the traffic to blogs from BlogCatalog would disappear. — 5/05/09 TonyB

BlogCatalog is launching a new platform for bloggers to get more readers, become better bloggers, and to use more opportunities to make more connections.

the discussions won’t “go”. They are being improved. We know what the problems are in the discussions. eg. some people want to drop links, others don’t want links dropped. Some members want to talk politics, other members don’t. The new discussions will enable you to do exactly what you do now, will remove features that aren’t used, and add features that give you the ability to talk about what you want, with who you want. You get to decide. — TonyB

Current members’ content and contacts will remain and options to use a new set of tools and analytics will be provided. Thumbshots of blogs will remain, messages will be slightly different, recent viewers will be made more interesting, and profiles will be dramatically improved. The new site released in beta to premium members first.

Our goal is to create an environment where:

1. our first value is to be a member driven community

2. to be the hub for “quality” bloggers on the web. Specifically, a place that where bloggers connect more effectively with each other, with their readers, and a place where they can elegantly and effectively promote their blogs; and discover what they do well and feedback about what they can improve.

In essence, we want our members to have more control over their “own” experience — without admins having to say “no” (you never see a twitter admin saying no).

The future for quality bloggers, whether personal blogs or bloggers who make a living from writing, reporting, investigating, etc. is extremely bright.  … TonyB > read more here

friedeggs logo Premium members are also  signing up for a the side project called Friedeggs, and reputed to be a Twitter killer.  The 140 character restriction doesn’t exist On Friedeggs. It provides the ability to post media (image uploads, video uploads) and provides the ability to follow and converse only with people you choose to. Moreover, your microblog content there will be pushed out to update your Twitter and Facebook accounts for you.

Read more about the BlogCatalog crack up in: If you’re not growing, guess what? You’re dying. Add to FacebookAdd to DiggAdd to Del.icio.usAdd to StumbleuponAdd to RedditAdd to BlinklistAdd to TwitterAdd to TechnoratiAdd to Yahoo BuzzAdd to Newsvine

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