I'm with 6A

There's news today in the Web world that Six Apart has acquired Apperceptive, a blog services company that helped create the Huffington Post and other big blogs. This is another big shift in the vision for Six Apart, a company I've followed for a long time and one that is also featured a bit in my book.

I should emphasize that I'm not only a TypePad customer but also planning on using some of the monetization and marketing services Six Apart is getting as a part of this deal. Michael Arrington almost described it as bloggers picking teams, so I guess I'm team 6A. From a business standpoint the real uniqueness of the move is the possibility to bring monetization and other services to any blogger who wants it, not just the top 100 or so that John Battelle's Federated Media cherry picks. But I'm betting that even top tier bloggers will get better service out of it too. Why? Six Apart has something to prove. In short, that it's as relevant to what blogging as become, as it was to blogging's birth.

Six Apart started when blogging was a nascent phenomenon-- not to mention other Web 2.0 trends like user generated content or social networking. They wrote some of the first tools for professional, serious bloggers, giving the fledgling industry what it needed back then. But then they veered into Web 2.0-territory with a purchase of Live Journal and development of free blogging tool Vox, and some people would say it split the company's focus without giving it much bang.

Enter Chris Alden as CEO. Alden had been in charge of Moveable Type-- the core and beginning of the company-- and successfully presided over a new version that breathed a lot of life into the brand. He's also a content guy, as the former publisher of the first Red Herring. As blogging has grown up, and it's no longer just a hobby, bloggers' needs have changed. They need more than a good WYSIWYG editing tool, they need business services. First he sold off LJ (for a profit) to focus the company. Now, this shift to services is a bold move to make sure Six Apart doesn't get left behind-- or worse, just become relegated to a sub $100 million in revenue a year software business. A "nice, little" software business, versus a high growth startup. I wrote in a Valley Girl column at the time of the LJ sale that this was Alden's year to transform Six Apart into one of the premier Web 2.0 contenders or sell it.

"No pressure or anything" I wrote to Alden at the time of that column. Granted, I've got a tiny audience, compared to BusinessWeek, but I plan to heap more pressure on Six Apart to live up to its potential, now that I'm a customer. (At the risk of Alden Flickring pictures of my husband getting a manicure...San Francisco can be too small of a city sometimes...)

From my point of view, I've long put off starting my own blog, instead mostly blogging for others (which I still do for Yahoo and on occasion Silicon Alley Insider because somehow I can't say no to Henry Blodget.) I've wrestled with the commitment of writing a blog (especially if you're like me and have three other jobs already!) and I think there's the question of what are you adding that's new. I'm not particularly interested in trying to outdo blogs like I read daily like TechCrunch or Silicon Alley Insider, and I definitely don't want to veer into the world of gossip. After a decade as a beat reporter, I'm not interested in playing the draining and increasingly meaningless game of recording "scoops." It was fun in a world where you could at least have bragging rights for 24 hours. Now, you kill yourself to have something for a few moments. What I've always been better at is melding the business and cultural worlds into compelling narrative and people stories. I hope to bring some of that in bite-sized chunks, along with more stories of other centers of entrepreneurship and innovation around the world. That's an area that I almost never see covered well.

So I'm trying several things with this blog and open to hearing what readers think works or doesn't. But I'm also glad that I have a strong partner in Six Apart now. I know a lot of bloggers are in my position, so I'll bring you guys the unvarnished truth on how it goes along the way. (HEAR THAT SIX APART!? START SELLING ME SOME ADS!)

Comments

[Andrew Anker]

Sarah... welcome to team 6a!

[Andy Wibbels]

Thanks so much for the shout-out!

[Gals'Guide]

Hey Sarah,
I'm with you. I was thinking about going to Wordpress for some time (their .net version), but keep coming back to 6A.

I've always liked their interface, but moreso, their customer service. The releases the team continues to add also shows me that they are dedicated to improving their products.

Your post was a nice breakdown of the whys/why nots and I laughed out loud about your 'personal' blogging. I just finished piecing together my personal site last weekend.

Cheers from Chicago!

[Hans-Joerg (ME)]

I would love if all this Blogging could be a real service some day and my content easily follows me to whatever provider i want. This is something for the future. But until then I'm on typepad right now, not on wordpress, and this is because of one or two things: the service and the people behind it. The everything-typepad site. The featured widgets that constantly give me new ideas. I am thinking of ShareIt-Integration. Of Blog It. Of this Paypal Thingie.

I might have less space in Typepad than on Wordpress.com. I have to pay 15 Bugs a month for a Pro Account. But then... i also use a macbook instead of a pc. Yes, it's more expensive. But i love the service. The Software. And i feel i get a quality product ... the themes alone are worth it.

I save a lot of time. Work. And worries. Wordpress.com is great. But i feel safer where i am and will stay there. I have a feeling that 6A does R&D and the thinking for me. And I can simply concentrate on Content.

Liked your posting :-)

[Hans-Joerg (ME)]

Make the bugs == bucks *g* Typo. :-) It's by far "less 'bugs' a month" than that *g*