DogTime: the largest blog network you’ve probably never heard of
The DogTime Blog Network from DogTime Media is a blog network many may have never have heard of, but you’ll be wagging your tail in surprise at the stats.
The blog network is run alongside the general pet information DogTime.com site, and operates in a similar way to Glam Media. The network owns a number of sites, but primarily acts as a ad provider for a network of other blogs. The DogTime Blog network boasts of 320 pet blogs reaching a very impressive 9.6 million unique viewers a month, making them the largest pet entity online according to comScore.
Along with ads, network bloggers get access to content tools and cross promotion. Current and previous advertisers include Purina, Pedigree, Eukanuba, Frontline, Del Monte, AKC, Hill’s Science Diet, Iams, Wal-Mart, Bissell, Eureka, Dyson, Harper Collins, Paramount Pictures, Bush’s Baked Beans and Toyota.
The cross promotional aspect is a little strange. Instead of directing traffic from the DogTime site directly to network blogs, the company reposts part or full content on dogtime.com in a sub-blog (complete with the same name as the original blog) with a link back to the original post. These sub-blogs also include comments and sharing tools, so in some ways the original site may miss out on traffic and comments. However, the value proposition may be the ads; it’s not clear whether the cross posting is conditional of access to the ads, but everything has a price.
With numbers like these, I can say with some confidence that blogging has gone to the dogs.
(in part via Blog Herald)
