MyDD :: Liberal Blog Advertising Network Membership Criteria

1. The website must be considered a blog, as defined by general community standards of the term. Thus, only the blog section of news sites like Alternet and community sites like Democratic Underground are allowed into the network.
2. Blogads must be the primary advertising service on the blog. We need to grow this company if we are going to succeed.
3. The blog must focus on American politics above all other topics. Having politics be one of the topics on your blog does not cut it. Advertisers must know they are reaching a politically dedicated audience.
4. The blog must have a blogroll, blogwire, or some other means of permanently linking to a list of progressive blogs. You have to be a good blogosphere citizen to join.
5. The website must focus primarily on the production of original content, not just linking to other websites. This helps keep the network focused on blogs rather than other types of sites, and helps prevent copyright violation within the network.
6. The blog must be overtly liberal / progressive in political orientation. Mixed websites that features writers on the left and the right are not allowed in. It is the Liberal Blog Advertising Network after all, and I take a pretty loose definition of the term liberal anyway.
7. The blog must be at least six months old. This is done to ensure that blogs in the network will not shut down on a regular basis.
8. The blog must regularly post new content, defined as five days of posting a week for six months (grace periods of two weeks are allowed when it comes to this in the event of personal business, finals, or some other major event). Our advertisers need to know they are posting on active websites.
9. The blog must prominently feature a link to the order page of the Liberal Blog Advertising Network, preferably the Advertise Liberally button. Promoting the network is part of membership in the network (although, obviously, there is no need to do this until you join).
10. The blog must have more than 2,500 page views a week for two months in order to join the network. Either Blogads or Site Meter traffic is acceptable for this measurement. Our advertisers know that their ads are reaching people.
Note number one: If you have invested a lot of money trying to comply with the above rules, and if your website has more than 1,000,000 page views a week, it is possible to negotiate an exception with me. I won't guarantee anything, but if such negotiations are conducted in good faith to try and comply with the network standards said exceptions could greatly benefit both the network and the website in question.
Note number two: If you think your website meets these criteria, email me at chris@mydd.com (I'm done sending out invitations--too much of a hassle). If I think your blog meets these criteria, I'll let you in. If I think your blog does not, I will not let you in. If I am unsure, I'll send my thoughts to Markos and Anna, and we will talk it over. If you disagree with my decision, you are welcome to start your own advertising network on Blogads. Anyone can do that. The netroots have generally been defined by do-it-yourself operations, and the Liberal Blog Advertising Network is no different.

I developed these criteria during the summer of 2005 as I weighed the requests of the many, many websites that sought entry into the network. These are the criteria I have developed in order to try and keep the network strong and membership in the network fair. I remain proud of my efforts. In fact, I think it is right up there with the netroots survey and running for Democratic Party office as my best examples of do-it-yourself activism online. I hope that publishing this list of criteria clarifies the situation for people looking to join the network.

As a final note, whoever was feeding the New Republic their info on the network already knew these criteria. This is because I sent the criteria out to the entire network back in October of 2005, and in the same email I told everyone that Markos and Jerome were on the advisory board. Thus, there was no way to know that Jerome had been on the three person advisory board at one time without also knowing the criteria. I find it interesting that the New Republic choose not to publish the criteria, and that they were unaware Anna had taken over for Jerome. I told that to the entire network, in December of 2005. Funny that whoever is feeding the New Republic with info did not seem to get that email. That certainly narrows down their potential sources quite a bit.