ProBlogger.Com Launches – A Paid Community For Bloggers

Today saw Darren Rowse launch a very interesting concept, Problogger.com, which is essentially a paid forum for bloggers to communicate, collaborate and improve their blogs together. There are of course 100s of similar forums and resources for budding bloggers on the web but this one differs slightly in that it charges you $1.95 per month to access this walled garden of content and as the video below explains the main justification for this is the need to hire paid moderators and the “small” fee is simpy to keep out spam and ensure that it is a professional forum where bloggers can learn and where people won’t be pushing their content. Problogger.net the site that Rowse has been building up for 5 years now has been a runaway success with nearly half a million unique visitors per month as you can see from the graph below…

The idea is certainly a noble one and there is certainly always a great need for bloggers to find places to hang out and talk about their content without being bombarded by spam but you really have to look at the real motives behind this move and they are plain and simple…to make money from the forum. $1.95 is a small amount of money but it does amount to $23 per year and with Rowse claiming to have 800 bloggers already signed up on the “introductory offer” that equates to $1500 in revenue per month before any publicity or promoting has started. There is nothing wrong with this whatsoever. It is a service that they think people need and they are charging for it accordingly. You only have to look at the numbers above and take even a tiny 1 or 2% conversion rate and start doing the maths yourself to see where this is going revenue wise.

It will be interesting to follow this and see how it progresses and what the feedback is on the service. At the end of the day two bucks a month is nothing to pay if you are getting a great service and improving your blog and you can opt out at any time but it will be interesting to see where this goes? Are there room for more forums like this? Can more people make a living like this and increase their revenues? Do you agree with people making money like this from their blog?

Here is the video explaining the logic behind launching the service