Blogburst

I worked with the folks from Pluck back when they were launching their RSS Reader with an integration to eBay listings (before I started blogging on my own a year ago). Recently they launched Blogburst, a service aimed at providing traditional publishers (including SF Gate, Washington Post, Gannett, etc) access to pre-vetted blogs. I'm assuming the vetting process makes it easier for publishers to tap into 'the blogosphere' without combing through numerous individual posts. Meanwhile bloggers are provided an additional distribution channel for their content via these high-traffic publisher sites. Aligned with Pluck's SiteLife blogging tools, it's an interesting model for Pluck. They're charging publishers for this service (behold a revenue model!) but currently not sharing proceeds with bloggers directly. Dave Panos, Pluck's CEO, commented that they will provide a blogger compensation model after the beta period (check the comments on TechCrunch).

Should they generate material traffic from publishers to bloggers, I imagine they could build a similar model as John Battelle's Federated Media but on a broader basis - helping monetize the collective traffic of their vetted blog network while providing traffic to the blogs themselves. Pretty cool idea.

Today I got an invitation to join the Blogburst network. Looks like their vetting process needs some work ;) That aside, I'll comment on how this goes going forward.