Calacanis: “I’ve made major errors”
Jason McCabe Calacanis has posted that he has made a number of major errors in his first year developing Weblogsinc, that includes advice for any would-be blog mogul:
1. One domain name (i.e. www.weblogsinc.com) with sub-domain names (i.e. http://apple.weblogsinc.com) is better then multiple unique domain names (like http://wwwEngadget.com, http://www.autoblog.com, or http://www.tuaw.com). WRONG! Stand-alone domains do better.
2.One common design for all blogs is more appealing to advertisers and users because it builds trust and familiarity. WRONG! People love a unique look and feel above the benefits of a standard design.
Its good advice and Jason has learnt the hard way, but as he says in the post: “the team learned hundreds of details of WHY those decisions were wrong and why other ideas were better.”
The open, transparent dialogue he continues to have with other bloggers about the internal workings of the company, as well as the general observations he makes, continue to be a shining light of customer relationship building on the Blogosphere.