I've been wanting to write about the 9 Rules Network for sometime now. They've got a good looking design, they link to some well-known (and little-known bloggers) and have a Web 2.0ey (just coined that adjective) feel that is backed up by their enormous popularity.
However... I had set aside 30 minutes today to do some reporting on them and came up with bupkiss. I went digging through entry after entry from the member sites and came up with exceptionally dissapointing results. Not one to make assumptions based on such an unrepresentative sampling of data, I started digging through old posts of their featured members in different categories (design, marketing, entrepreneurship, web 2.0, etc.) and came away equally unimpressed.
What can I say - there may well be nuggets of gold buried in the posts of 9Rules' members, but I'm not seeing it. Perhaps I've become jaded or simply bored with the same old "how to X", "ten rules for Y" posts that carry little unique information. It's also possible that these sites are geared towards a less web-savvy audience in general, which is why someone in our industry might find them wanting.
If you decide to jump around 9Rules and do find something that's stellar, please post it below. I'm anxious to be proven wrong.
Mike -
Thanks a ton for dropping by. I'm excited by what I see you guys doing and I'll certainly continue visiting. I was just hoping to find some great posts to link to today and must have hit a string of bad luck.
I do read Om Malik (and occassionally post in his comments), and I'm familiar with Particle Tree as well. They're both good bloggers, I agree.
I'll be excited to see what you come up with in January - do drop me a line when it happens.
Hey randfish, my name is Mike Rundle and I'm one of the guys who runs 9rules. I thought that I might be able to answer some questions for you, and maybe help you find some of the good content that you're looking for.
We have 110+ English and Spanish members in 9rules (it grows every week, we just had a submission round where 509 blogs wanted to join!) writing on 43 different topics, and although not every single category is interesting for every reader, we only pick the very best weblogs in the world to join. Of the hundreds and hundreds who have submitted their websites for review, we've only let in about 10-15%.
The websites in our Web 2.0, Design, and CSS categories do not usually write for non tech-savvy readers, and are actually considered the top weblogs in their industries. Take a look at Gigaom.com (senior writer at Business 2.0 magazine), Particle Tree (up-and-coming design firm, their blog was Slashdotted 5 times in the first 4 months it was up), or Read Write Web (extremely popular web 2.0 blog) to find some good articles. I won't go out on a limb to say that every weblog entry our members write is a killer, but for the most part, they write entries that talk about the most cutting-edge information out there today. We only let blogs into 9rules if they consistently write quality articles, and we believe that our members all do that.
Right now our homepage doesn't do a good job with showcasing past content like you were looking for -- many of our 9rules readers are very familiar with the blogs we bring in, so they don't normally go into the archives to find new information. I'm actually pretty surprised you don't read many of our members already!
In January we're unveiling some new functionality that will let you see the best-of-the-best from any category you're interested in. I can't get too much into it, but hopefully this will help you find the golden content you're looking for.
Feel free to hit me up with any more questions you might have over email: mike at 9rules dot com.
Very best, Mike Rundle 9rules
>It's also possible that these sites are geared towards a less web-savvy audience in general, which is why someone in our industry might find them wanting.
Sounds like a nail just got hit on the head