AOL Possibly Acquiring Popular Social Networking Blog

AOL is apparently in discussions with Mashable, possibly to complement Seed.com?

Gordon MacMillan, from Tag republic, reports that, “Credence was given to rumours that claim some kind of deal was in the offing. Tech blogger Robert Scobble tweeted that his sources had confirmed “that Mashable is being sold to AOL.”

However, later reports from various sources suggested that Mashable and AOL might not be in talks about a sale but about an advertising partnership instead. Mashable’s current ad network deal with Federated Media is due to demolish in a couple of months.

What is Mashable?

According to Wikipedia, “Mashable is an Internet news blog, started by Pete Cashmore in July 2005. With a reported 7+ million monthly pageviews, and an Alexa ranking just over 400, it ranks as one of the largest blogs on the Internet. Mashable regularly writes about YouTube, Facebook, Google, Twitter, MySpace, Apple and startups, but it also reports on less high-profile social networking and social media sites. Mashable is popular on many social networks. As of December 21, 2009, it has over 1.8 million Twitter followers, over 90,000 fans on Facebook, and over 330,000 RSS subscribers.

Who is Pete Cashmore and what kind of money is he making by blogging?

From Pete’s contain position, we learn:
Revenue: Estimated $166,000 a month based on ad rates and self-reported traffic data

Pete Cashmore started Mashable two years ago, to write about the emerging trend of mashups, which he defines as “the fusing of multiple Web services.” Now it’s more than a full-time job. “Bloggers don’t get much sleep,” he says. Mashable, a Technorati common focuses on social networking and other online trends. He didn’t expect to compose a living from it when he began. “The idea that top bloggers would be making large sums was laughable,” Cashmore says. “The folks who held on, however, are doing pretty well these days.” Mashable uses Federated Media for its ad sales. Text ads originate at $100 per week, banners at $2,000.

What is Seed.com?

Says Larry Dignan, “Seed.com is AOL’s secret weapon, now overseen by Unique York Times extinct, Saul Hansell.

Seed.com is a assure management system designed to game search engine optimization. In a nutshell, Seed.com is AOL’s spin on what Demand Media does. Judging from Seed.com’s “academy” it’s clear that the goal is to game the hot search stories of the day.

What does it all mean Alfie?

At this point, it is all speculation, but it looks like AOL is trying to procure back in the game of social networking by using the things people are searching on, and developing content to match advertising campaigns. They may also decide to place ads within blogs that have large followings, or network for blog writers to specialize against a specific audience in a joint venture type of deal.

As someone who dabbles with writing, I have submitted work with Seed.com but they are slow at responding compared to other companies such as constant content and associated reveal. It looks like the market is getting hotter with many worn newspapers and magazines going out of business, and many people looking for work, the industry is bound to change.

Sources:

http://digg.com/d31EqVS

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mashable

http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/? p=28349

http://www.seed.com

http://www.brandrepublic.com/News/976148/Mashable-talks-AOL/