Open Salon is out in beta, and it appears to be a pretty decent idea at first. Basically, it is an opportunity for you to get a hosted blog, much like WordPress.com or Blogger (should you still want to use that one), but with two nice little extra features:

• More coverage, both on the Open Salon front page, which updates with a new “issue” daily, being selected stories from the bloggers, and in the future, from Salon.com itself.
• You can earn tips, being money paid by generous readers of your excellent posts.

The latter is interesting, but also a bit scary. read more

With recent events around blogging for networks, you could be forgiven for thinking this kind of deal is souring. How bad are these signs for the future of network blogging? read more

We’ve written about Collis Ta’eed’s ambitious Tuts network before, and now one of their heavier titles are expanding. PSDTuts, focusing on Photoshop tutorials, have added a Photoshop Wiki, which is a sound addition to the core PSDTuts blog, I think. They’re promoting it with a launch contest, so if you know anything about Photoshop then you might want to check this out.

Know More Media will be closing its doors as of August 1, according to editor Easton Ellsworth, who confirmed the open letter from b5media’s Jeremy Wright to the KMM bloggers. Still no official announcement on the Know More Media blog though.

Jeremy pitches the KMM bloggers, asking them to join b5media by buying their blogs. It is all very tactful, I think. He also has an offer to the founders. read more

TechCrunch reports that AOL has been making big budget cuts across its blogs. We’re not talking small stuff here, serious cuts up to 25%, which will almost certainly effect the writers the most.

The cuts range up to 25% of each properties total budget, which falls mostly on personnel costs - bloggers are simply being told to take a couple of weeks off for now, and there may or may not be work for them later in August.

The tech blogs, with Engadget being the most prominent one, is not affected, the sources say.

While this should be treated as a rumor for now, it is something that will and should rattle the blogosphere.
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9rules is getting ready for Round 7, where bloggers can attempt to get in the popular blog network by submitting their blogs for review. August 6 is the date you need to mark in your calendar if you want in. As they did the previous time, a special page will be available, open to submissions for 24 hours.

Om Malik of GigaOm fame has announced that his company, Giga Omni Media, have acquired mobile gadgets blog jkOnTheRun. No amount have been specified.

The reason for buying the blog is of course that it is a great one, filling an empty space in the GigaOm network. The choice was to either build a blog in this niche from scratch, or buying one. With that in mind, the deal was and is probably a no-brainer. read more

Good news for aviation geeks, b5media is resurrecting an old blog called the Flightnest, with Mr. Plane (or Jarkko) in the cockpit. This from the launch post:

My name is Jarkko and I am a total plane grazy. I started to turn my head up in the sky about 20 years ago and after many neck pains :) I ended up here.

Among the things covered so far are pilotless airliners, the PiperJet, and today’s airports.

Another two b5media blogs launched recently. Marye Audet edits Simply Home Remedies, which is about just that. This from the launch post:

For the past 20 years or so my family has lived without the assistance of commercial medicines or doctors, except for things like broken arms and emergency surgeries on retro-pharyngeal abscesses. You know, the stuff I can’t butterfly bandage, make a tea for, or put a poultice on! Six of our eight children have been born at home. My nickname around here is Dr.Mom, Medicine Woman.

In the b5media post, Marye Audet is described/hyped like this:

I’ve often joked that Marye is Martha Stewart meets MacGyver.

I’ve personally called on Marye for a few tips and am 100% sold after seeing the quick successes of her suggestions.

The other blog is Canadian Music News, which surprisingly enough isn’t all Celine Dion and Bryan Adams, if you believed it would be. Jeanne Dupuis edits.

Back when I was still managing a blog network I sat down with a piece of paper and mapped out my strategic growth plan. I failed miserably. Largely because I set my goals way to high. But looking at a more realistic approach. I’m going to show the readers here at The Blog Herald what it takes to grow a blog simply and easily.

1. Build Flagship Content
Chris Garrett has long been the king of content online. Check out his great free ebook by subscribing to his blog online. More from Chris at Performancing.

2. Build Flagship Links
Building a core group of links early on in a blogs history is essential to long term success. Authority links will only increase in strength with age and will determine a blogs success in the long run.

3. Build A Flagship Network
Build a strong network of followers is also key. Use social media tools like Twitter,Friendfeed,Facebook and other networks to market your blog, not spam and create communities around your blog. Don’t be afraid that the conversation is going on behind the scenes and not on your blog.

In conclusion,
Track your growth using tools like PMetrics,Google Analytics, and Google Trends, and Alexa and watch your earnings grow by slowly and persistently following steps 1 through 3. It’s as simple as that.