BlogHer Energy is High

Right now, I am attending the BlogHer conference right now. I had a chance to sit down and talk with Jory Des Jardins, one of the founders of BlogHer and all around smart person. As you might guess BlogHer grew from a small idea into a not-so-fledgling media entity. This is the second year of the conference. 700 women bloggers will be in attendance. And they have launched a pretty cool ad network to benefit members. A few attendees have commented on the superior ad deal vs.the pennies offered via Blogads.

I am impressed by Jory's smart yet friendly approach to applying the media company model to consumer generated content without changing the nature of that beast. They have even gone so far as to start to develop the equivalent of an editorial calendar that will allow them to proactively plan for and attract advertisers. While entrepeneurs and established business people alike are wondering how to replicate the My Space phenomena (you can't) and create communities for other "types", BlogHer has grown organically with a true comraderie of the bloggers, themselves. Many of them arrived today to hug friends they had only known as photos or voices in blog posts.

I only hope they can be very inventive with the sponsorship model. Jory seems to have a great perspective on that.