Why MyBlogLog Was a Winner
For of those of you who maybe don’t spend as much time on the web as I do, you’re probably wondering what MyBlogLog is? It’s a small, bootstrapped, social network for bloggers. They recently had a win by selling to Yahoo for $10 - $12 mil.
So the reason they won? In two words, their widget. The whole success of that company was because of their widget. Without the widget they would have never grown they way they did. And fortunately for them they were the first ones to think of it. Other social networks could’ve made the exact same type of widget and it probably would’ve worked really well. The whole blogging connection didn’t hurt either.
Hell, other social sites could probably still create a similar widget that would work. Lets take Digg for example; if they created a widget where you could see which diggers were visiting your site it would probably work. Not only would it increase the user base but it would also strengthen the core of the overall community.
Overall MyBlogLog was a great idea that was properly executed, but it also makes for a great widget marketing example.
PS - Here is my MyBlogLog page, but I don’t use the widget.
Cameron Olthuis is the Founder of
I like it. Spent some time yesterday with a few VC’s and one of them just sold another widget-producing company to Yahoo. So, immediately my mind is trying to cash in on the next big widget.
Can you imagine what would happen to a Digg widget when the site hit the homepage? Like 500 faces cycling through a myBlogLog style UI?
Hmmmm…I was skeptical of widgets until now. An interesting thing is that it is like a free advertising program, one in which the person adding the widget isn’t paid (a la an affiliate program, etc.).
So C-man where’s your blog in there? You gottta get in there, I know people would like it and join your community.
David, Its in there but someone else claimed it before I did and so far MyBlogLog has not responded to any of my email requests to get it back.
That’s cool. Widgets do sell. I tried MyBlogLog once or twice, I like it on other’s blogs though.
There are already calling 2007 “The Year of the Widget”. I can see it quickly becoming annoying if pages are filled up full of widgets.