Bloguin's History

Bloguin was started by Derek Hanson, founder of DeROK.Net.  For over six years I had made a hobby out of working on my website and tinkering with its design.  Early on in its history, DeROK.Net became mildly popular and different advertising opportunities began to spring up. While the goal of the site was never to make money, there was no denying that earning some extra cash from doing something that I enjoyed was a pretty sweet deal.  Eventually as my web development and design skills improved, I not only saw a further increase in my site's traffic but an increase in the number of advertising agencies looking to partner with me as well.  In fact, a lot of these ad agencies were the same people providing revenue for big-time sites like ESPN.com and Yahoo!  It was then that I realized that I'd accidentally stumbled onto something big...

If hI was able to take DeROK.Net and turn it into a fairly profitable asset, why couldn't I do the same for others?  After all, there were thousands of bloggers out there toiling away on free blog hosts and not seeing a cent from it.  Wouldn't lots of them be thrilled to have a fully-functional website to call their own and actually make some money from it?  After a lot of planning and strategizing, I came up with a way to create a lot of high-quality sites very quickly and set to work on building the Bloguin network.  As an avid Minnesota Timberwolves fan, I had made a lot of blogging contacts through my other website, TWolves Blog.  I sent out a ton of emails describing my idea and asked my fellow NBA bloggers if they'd be interested in being a part of my blog network.  While a lot of people were understandably hesitant of turning over their blogs, site unseen, I did manage to find four partners who were willing to embark on this journey with him: Rob Mahoney of Upside and Motor, Mark Schiralli of A Stern Warning, and Chip Crain and Joshua Coleman of 3 Shades of Blue. Together we set out to create the web's most innovative blog network, designed specifically to help bloggers get the most out of their websites.

The Bloguin Network has certainly come a long way since its infancy.  What started out as four basketball blogs and a dream has grown to over 50 sites with over 1 million visitors each month.  Bloguin still has a long way to go before we reach our goal of being a comprehensive blog network spanning a multitude of topics, but day by day we'll get there.  Until then, we hope you enjoy surfing our various websites and continue to help Bloguin grow through your participation.