The title of this post may be seen akin to shooting oneself in the foot, but hear me out.
Quite a few bloggers today are envious of the “A-Listers” – the high life, the thousands of RSS subscribers, the millions of pageviews yearly. For me, I’m not jealous at all – in fact, the only thing I’d like to emulate are the earnings.
I’ll be honest with you – I’m quite happy with this blog size at the moment, and it is growing a bit too quickly. Why? Well, this blog has always been a strong community – look at most blogs that are bigger and you’ll see that posts on here tend to get far more discussion than even blogs that have 10x the RSS subscriber amount – that’s pretty cool, and that’s because my readers kick ass.
I’d love to retain that community aspect, but as a blog grows bigger, that’s harder and harder – at the very beginning, I could write page-long replies to comments left, now it’s getting difficult to even reply to them; this will only decrease should TUK grow. One of the best things about small-medium blogs is the personal touch – for example, I have most of my readers on instant messenger, and the ones that I don’t I usually check out their blogs. Can you imagine someone with 1,000+ RSS subscribers having them all on MSN? Insanity.
There is a catch-22 though.
Eventually I will sell this blog – I hope I’ve been transparent about that. Although I turned down a sizable amount a short while ago, something in the five figure range would be near impossible to, unless this blog was earning a lot more than that – the thing is, this blog will not be worth five figures unless I increase earnings (and the easiest way to increase earnings is to increase traffic and readers).
Does making it big really mean one has to start losing the personal touch?
Something I’ve been wondering about – I guess the only way I’ll find out is if (when?) TUK grows into a dominant force in the blogosphere. What do you think?
Blog Forum
The blogging forum should pass 300 posts (from 30+ members) today. Make sure you join if you haven’t, as there is quite a bit of interesting debate (and I’ll be sharing some tips for earning from your blog too, so all benefit. I’m also giving away a eBook that I wrote for free, which normally costs an insane amount of money 
Advertising Updates
I rewrote my advertising page, as it was a little bit unprofessional before – anyways, I’ve added statistics. For a limited time only, you can buy links in the sidebar (nofollow) for just $10.00 a month… put up the right CPA offer and you’ll make much more than that. I also have one 125 x 125 available, feel free to contact me.
I am using the OIO Publisher plugin for Wordpress – although it costs $37, it is has a fair amount of options for the price. Due to me being a cheap bastard I managed to knick a hugely discounted (ie, free ) copy off the owner, and anyways – thirty seconds after installing it I sold one of the ads in the sidebar, making that an instant return on investment (had I bought it).
I will be reviewing it soon as they seem to have a good idea and unlike other ad selling services, you keep 100% – will let you guys know how I find it. To buy a link in the sidebar, use the link under Featured Sites (it’s automated) and to buy a banner, email me.
Contest
As you guys hopefully know, the contest is getting over tomorrow – I’ve been tallying the entries and there are already over 600, not including the RSS subscribers. With the RSS subscribers, there are well over 1,000 entries – luckily, most of the hard work is done. Would you guys like to see a live draw tomorrow at say… 5PM GMT, or should I do it the boring way?
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April 4th, 2008 at 9:56 am
A live draw would be very cool, and I understand what you mean about losing the personal touch, but how are you going to curb it’s growth? It’s near impossible if you’re writing good stuff, and if you write rubbish, you just lose people
Catch 22 indeed
George’s last blog post..Adii’s Premium Wordpress Theme Contest..
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April 4th, 2008 at 10:55 am
I would say at this point the growth is inevitable. If you were to try and stop it now then you might as well literally shoot yourself in the foot (it would probably cost you somewhere around the same amount of money!). The community base seems pretty solid so if you did sell the site everyone would probably just follow you somewhere else. Just don’t let the buyer know that! I think you just opened yourself up to bunch of sale inquiries and questions!
Live draw sounds cool, unfortunately won’t be able to make that time.
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April 4th, 2008 at 11:25 am
The blog can become bigger than life and will drive the price up. You will be bigger than Chow.
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April 4th, 2008 at 11:46 am
If you want to get really ambitious Jason you should be aiming to really top the A-List. With the amount of work and effort you put in this is very possible and you can still keep the blog personal when it’s big.
William Montanaro’s last blog post..Welcome To Ideamix 2.0
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April 4th, 2008 at 11:52 am
It’s definitely a dilemma in blogging. We crave more visitors and more comments with the conflict that part of us wants to get bigger and the other part enjoys the benefits of a smaller blog. It’s not something I think I’ll ever need to worry about but I can understand the cross-roads you find yourself at. Congrats on your success though.
Lightening’s last blog post..April Fools Abound In Lightening’s Blogworld This Week
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April 4th, 2008 at 12:02 pm
Congrats that the blog is growing.
I am sure you will get a good money for this blog.
And dont worry, let it grow.
Tech blog’s last blog post..Technology and Travel
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April 4th, 2008 at 12:09 pm
Nothing but your aim of having newer projects always have made you think to make this blog limited. Is there a not need to think far right now.. Although you are king of your thoughts. I still think that this blog can make wonders if you continue developing it in the present way.
Chetan’s last blog post..Download youtube videos
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April 4th, 2008 at 1:21 pm
Live draw sounds like a great idea. I don’t think this blog could ever grow as big as the A-Listers until you do in fact change around the way you write posts… you’re on to something there. Still, I’d like to see the attempt
Jim’s last blog post..Retire At 21 – A Young Entrepreneur’s Guide
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April 4th, 2008 at 1:38 pm
People always want what they don’t have. Nothing bad, that’s just in human nature.
Aleks’s last blog post..Joke – Bride and groom
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April 4th, 2008 at 2:38 pm
Live draw would be cool. Where would it be done?
Can anyone tell me what time Central it would be?
E-Shireen’s last blog post..News From The Blogosphere
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April 4th, 2008 at 3:31 pm
I don’t have anything against selling websites, but if you can grow your earnings and create a consistent income from this site, why sell it? Consider your blog as an asset for the long term. If future projects don’t work out, then at least you know your still making money off this blog. Just my opinion.
Ivan
IMRookie.com/blog
Ivan’s last blog post..SEO Rapper on the Rise!
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April 4th, 2008 at 4:32 pm
If you become an A-Lister, I will shoot you in the foot.
Living on Adsense’s last blog post..Being a Dork Pays Off: Cashing In On Uncool!
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April 4th, 2008 at 4:48 pm
You can still have a personal touch by writing posts just the way you are. Your readers will have the feeling that you post personally for each of them. No matter how big your readers base is, beiing yourself is what makes your readers stay yours.
Louis Liem’s last blog post..PageRank Update – HomeBiz Resource Rakes 4 from N/A!
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April 4th, 2008 at 6:34 pm
A live draw would be interesting!
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April 4th, 2008 at 7:47 pm
@ George,
Two ways – Either 1) post sh!t or 2) Market less.
I obviously don’t want to do the former, but I will not be holding a contest next month – if people subscribe, I want them to do so because they are genuinely interested in what I have to say, not because I throw a couple hundred dollar bills in front of them
@ EGK, i’ve already had someone approach me through MSN with a sale offer. Considerably less then last time, so I had to decline. Ah well, eh!
@ Homebiz, I doubt that, in fact, I hope that’s not the case. Can you imagine replying to so many emails?
@ William, the only thing that is good about the “A-List” is the revenue. To be honest I don’t really care for the high life, or the insane exposure – I get the former here, and as for the latter I’m a shy chap
@ Lightening, have faith. Your worries will come soon enough
@ Tech blog, five figures for the win.
@ Chetan, too many ideas, too little time. Hehe.
@ Jim, I think I need to post more pictures of my food.
@ Aleks, that it is.
@ Shireen, through meebo I think. As for the time, 5PM GMT is about 20 hours from now
@ Ivan, the thing is, this blog makes $500 a month give or take a bit at the moment. With a sale for $1,000, I could invest half back into a new blog (my expenditure for marketing for this one is far less than one tenth of that) and bank the rest or use it for projects. With a 5k budget, I do not think it would be difficult to get a blog up to this level.
@ LoA, aim higher man, jeez
@ Louis, perhaps… but things like replying to emails, responding to comments it out of the question when you have a 1,000+ readership.
@ Susan, you staying around to watch?
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April 4th, 2008 at 10:21 pm
Ahoy with the live draw!! Please don’t go boring.. are you going for it?
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April 4th, 2008 at 11:06 pm
I would HATE to be an A-lister too. But I would enjoy more traffic so I could earn something. It’ll be sad to see you sell this blog though, but it will be a profit to the person who buys it.
Nathaniel’s last blog post..A New Theme
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April 4th, 2008 at 11:09 pm
The day you sell this blog is the day I stop reading it, lol.
Collin LaHay’s last blog post..Link Building with Unasked
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April 5th, 2008 at 2:31 am
Jason– So how did you manage to steadily grow your site? Your layout is very nice and clean.
Chris’s last blog post..Smiley Face
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April 5th, 2008 at 3:49 am
I am a feed subscriber of this book using bloglines. nice post!
Glenn’s last blog post..$0.99 .info domains and domain coupon codes!
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April 5th, 2008 at 3:52 am
There seems to be a tapering off in terms of increasing traffic and participation. So as traffic increases the relative amount of participation decreases.
Like you said though, the bottom line is what counts ultimately.
Tom Beaton’s last blog post..The importance of analytics
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April 5th, 2008 at 6:28 am
@ ChiQ, check out the latest post
@ Nathaniel, what I’m thinking is with five figures I could get a blog to the same level of traffic and subscribers within a week. Don’t worry, I’ll be around even if this goes – and if it goes, it won’t be for quite some time
@ Colin, stay subscribed, that day is a while away yet
@ Chris, just produce content that your readers like, and throw in a couple contests every so often
@ Glenn, glad you like the blog
@ Tom, the problem is that the bigger you grow, the bigger idiot you seem to attract – ie those that just want to suck up and don’t offer anything useful. If I get to posts where I have hundreds of people saying “Great Post, Wow, Super!” etc (see John Chow’s food posts – there are quite a few of them this will be sold instantly.
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April 9th, 2008 at 3:04 am
How much you want to earn?If you are thinking not to expand,then i will suggest stop posting every day instead.TIPS not to expand:
1)Post in weekly basis
2)Not active in Forum
3)Don’t organize contest again
4)Tell every readers that you are going to retire and wan to enjoy yourlife-such as “this is my last posting,you won’t see any new post again.Thanks for reading my post and support me all the time”
5)Don’t involve in any blog activities and social media.
There are many more TIPS not to expand your blog community.
Felex Tan’s last blog post..300 Entrecard in 2 hours!!!
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July 21st, 2008 at 2:40 am
Wow,
How did you manage to get a free version. I would love to get a free version for my site
Ryan McLean’s last blog post..Smarter Wealth – Not Just Another Financial Blog
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