Mr. Duncan Riley surprised the blog world last week when he announced the sale of The Blog Herald for $72,000. As a result, he found himself answering several questions from bloggers around the world.

Mr. Riley is one of the most quoted bloggers in the blog world. As he noted in his blog: “I tend to get quoted a fair bit in the press as well (email works for this, plus MSM are happy to quote stuff directly from posts) 2 weeks ago I made the New York Times and the Guardian all in one day.”

In the past, he added, he was also quoted by “WSJ, CNN, Washington Post, Sydney Morning Herald…to name but a few.”

To us, there was something in Mr. Riley’s sale of The Blog Herald more than the money that Mr. Riley earned. We believe that the sale has opened a new door of opportunities in the blog world and has redefined blogging itself as a money-making venture, not just a hobby or a pastime.

Through the VOIP facilities of Bitstop Computers (and the incessant prodding of Mr. Wilson Chua), we were fortunate to interview Mr. Riley. This is my first international interview in my experience as a journalist.

Following is the transcript of the interview:

First of all we would like to thank you for granting us this interview. I have been going over your blog and well, I was impressed with its sale, can you please tell us: Is this the first sale in the blog world?

No, it’s actually been (inaudible) all over the world (inaudible). Probably (Inaudible)

Could you tell us who the buyers are, now?

The buyers wish to remain anonymous for now.

What do you think what could have attracted buyers to your blog?

I would hope it would be an attractive thing to site to buy, but looking at it from an overall picture, I think, it’s the time its been there, the money it makes, the potential money it can make in the future for its new owner, it’s influence, and it’s position in the blogosphere as well, in terms of linking and traffic, that sort of consideration.

How was the negotiation, was it difficult?

I purposely didn’t get involved in it. I actually handed that part over to a guy by the name of Jeremy Wright. He probably knows more about this.

What will be your role in the Blog Herald after the sale? Do you continue to have a role? Maybe as a writer?

At full short term, yes! I’m part of (Inaudible), so I’m involved now in company by the name of B5 media, a large blogging network. One of things about selling Blog Herald that I’m developing and could be stable in a couple of months (Inaudible). I’m still settling in, and getting the hang of things, (inaudible) and then I’ll be moving on, to focus primarily in B5.

Do you have plan to create another blog maybe?

I already basically got, through my integral part ownership of B5 media, about 80 blogs. And I’ve also my personal blog and I’ve got a head full of other blogs (inaudible) as well. But we are working with great, famous people, and a couple of people in the Philippines, a guy named Danny Cerdeno (inaudible) Philippines. I’m working with a great team of people day in and day out, I’m helping them run their blogs.

Now tell me, what do think is the significance or implication of the blog sale in the blog world? Do you think it signals a race for blogging excellence or maybe for a better market price in the future?

I think the market forces are about right. However, a better market price in the future — I don’t know, I mean certainly day to day use (inaudible), a larger blog, which has done before. But I think overall, the market is starting to mature. It’s gone from being a hobby with not a lot of people involved in it to hundreds and millions of bloggers out there today. It’s part of a maturing market. Hopefully, when people read about this, hear about this sale, they’ll actually see that the blogosphy is a serious industry, and (inaudible)

I just like to ask some backgrounders, can you please give us a short history on how Blog Herald started?

Okay. It came about in 2002. I’ve been reading blogs for sometime. I’ve been on the Internet for way, way too long. Started actually reading some of the new bloggers, that first started to come on then, thought I like to have a part of that, and couldn’t actually work at what to write about. It actually one day dawned on me that the thing I liked about the blogs and the blogosphy, was the actual, the process itself, the news bullets, I actually sort of like collectively liked all blogs.

So that’s how it basically came in, and it wasn’t any other site, at that site, and it still isn’t really — I mean, it’s a couple of smaller blogs, but nothing really dedicated and used within that… within the blogosphy, so that’s how it came about. I sort of ‘niched’ there. I enjoyed reading various things about what other bloggers were doing and the emotional link.

We are just beginners in the blog world, Mr. Riley can you give us some words of wisdom? What can you tell us?

What would I say to any blogger is to ‘have’ it. (Inaudible) I’ve seen far, far so often, will come into blogging and will give up because of (Inaudible) hard, to keep up the writing. But honestly it takes probably good 6 to 9 months for any blog to get established and get up the traffic. It’s not a (inaudible) You are doing it for fun. But certainly, if you are looking at traffic or making some money out of it, you’ve got to be at it day in and day out, regular contact and honestly be yourself. Trying to be somebody you are not. Your own natural style of writing –the more natural you are, the better you go.

Thank you very Mr. Riley, thank you very much for your time and for sharing your wisdom, today. Thank you so much.

No worries. A pleasure.


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