Big Indian based blog network Instablogs is coping it in every direction like many in the blog industry at the moment, but the test of any network is how they react to it.

Instablogs Ankit Maheshwari posts on his own blog the wise steps the company has made in response to the downturn, including details of the problems they faced and the changes they’ve taken. I won’t rehash all the points (the short version is cut and change,) you can read the full post here.

The interesting takeaway is the confirmation of what many have been talking about privately, and I’ve been saying publicly for a couple of months: these so-called analyst charts showing growth in online advertising in the first quarter are mostly complete bollocks. The ad market, particularly around blogging has taken a big hit since October/ November last year.

CPM rates
Most of the Ad networks saw CPM dropped to 30-40% of their pre-recession prices. And a few networks who refused to lower their CPM, saw their unsold inventories going up to 60% in many cases.

The only note of difference I’d make: some of the non-premium ad networks have managed to maintain CPM rates and increase inventory; there’s still advertisers, but they’re looking for better value.

(via TDH @ The Blog Herald)

Instablogs shows how to deal with the Great Recession is a post from: The Inquisitr

New SezWho functionality includes four new profile templates, including support for popular threaded discussion formats. More importantly for site owners, SezWho now offers support for local CSS and JavaScript. Other new features include Thumbs Up and Thumbs Down ratings for posts, configurable pop-ups, improved support for filtering, support for multiple WordPress installations in a single database, and easier upgrading.

SezWho has also announced a new partnership with Instablogs, that will see SezWho bring reputation management and universal profiles and content to Instablog readers. Instablogs’ readers can now rate posts and user-generated content on Instablogs and across other SezWho-enabled social media sites, including blogs, discussion forums, and bulletin boards.

The new features will be a welcome addition to SezWho users, and help the service define itself in a competitive space. The deal with Instablogs sees SezWho now powering a number of leading blog networks, including Creative Webloging.

SezWho announces enhanced features, new partnership with Instablogs is a post from: The Inquisitr