We’ve had no one quit in the last month– and we’ve taken in more than 300 applications for the few spots on staff open. That makes sense, because our traffic is close to the 10 million per month mark now, which means a lot of readership for the writers, and our pay percentages are among the highest in the industry.

We did recently begin paying all of our contributors (including people that do as little as five posts per month), at a rate competitive with Gawker and a few of the other big networks. In advance of that, we slimmed down our staff a bit– we felt that it was better to have less writers doing more posts, rather than vice-versa.

As for the Cowboy, my feeling is that it’s easy to talk smack, and very difficult to perform. Our reputation and performance speaks for itself– if Erati is still around in a year (word on the street is that it’s already failing– and I didn’t just hear that from Scrivs– check out some of the “blogs” they’ve launched and count the posts they’ve actually gotten up– it’s a joke), we’ll see how they are doing. Maybe then he’ll have something to back up all this trash talking he’s been doing.

on a separate-but-sort-of-related note, i love how your definition of “recent” actually means “earlier this week”. i know i don’t currently pay my writers, but at least i’m honest about it and they don’t have to find out that SOME of the team had been getting paid whilst the rest hadn’t been in a COMMENT SECTION as some sort of lame-assed retort.

that might sound harsh, but everything i said about your boyfriend cowboy goes double for you: you seem to spend twice as much time talking trash about other people as you do writing your own sites. i suggest we adjourn this conversation for a year– and if you’re still around then, maybe you’ll have a little more understanding about what it is we do, and have a little more respect for what we’ve built.

Joe and I have spent the last month or so brainstorming and regrouping after he was so frustrated “working” for you.

Believe it or not, I have a lot of respect for what you’ve built. What I have absolutely no respect for, however, is your well-documented unprofessionalism and the underhanded manner in which you’ve treated a lot of your staff. I only find it slightly amusing that here you call our Gothamist piece “interesting”, when I’ve heard from so many sources – including people on my staff – about you bitching and badmouthing us for it. I stand by that piece to this day because of the way you continue to conduct yourself on an ongoing basis. Your ability to skirt around all of the issues I mentioned in my comment above is almost admirable.

Once upon a time, Gothamist had no readers, and until last week, no pay. Everyone has to start somewhere, and I’ll be happy to talk to you about this in a year when we have our footing. Our readership is growing slowly and steadily, and the calibre of talent we have on board already illustrates that we want to go further than rehash outdated crap like Gothamist. I have absolutely no doubt we’ll continue to attract talented writers who will thrive in the positive and creative environment we strive to provide and achieve on a daily basis.

As for your “boyfriend” comment about Cowboy – just because I write for one of his sites doesn’t mean I agree with everything he says and does, nor that I have any say in the workings of his network.

And for the record, quantity is totally useless without quality content.

That’s not true. It was this one:

http://decentcontent.com/index.php/decentstyle/by-angelina/the-modern-musts/

or this one:

http://decentcontent.com/index.php/decentstyle/by-angelina/angelinas-divine-christmas-wish-list/

I can’t decide.

Also, quit being such a little shit.

I CHALLENGE YOU cowboy, post at insid.erati how much you are paying a new blogger and with what revenue. you have no traffic. better yet, interview your authors, other than yourself (heather too) that actually write for erati.

also, nice ripp on scrivs the other day calling 9rules a blogring…then I notice the footer on erati.com and you have feeds under the heading “blogring.erati”

you have no ideas of your own do you?

scrivs:
not buying into the i don’t talk smack comment. in more than a couple of emails ive gotten from compadres they say you are really pissed at me. and are talking smack. so boohoo. i’ve tried to make peace but clearly jake is proving that you and him are buddies who have nothing better to do than talk smackola. shit that’s my job and i do it very publicly.

jake:
how about a game of chess.

Your network will do whatever your network will do. You will be king of the blogosphere in 2 months and rich beyond your own means because you do everything just right. I am just slowly waiting my own doom right now. You never offered a public apology to me, you did so over email. Hail the new king!

If you wish to go after me, please go after stuff I have done wrong intentionally and not base it on what others have said. I can see why Jake is mad, but I don’t understand why he brought my name into this. For once I have taken the higher road over the past couple weeks, but you feel like its your obligation to keep on going after me.

Thanks for everything you have done for me. Kisses.

I ashamed that I even responded to this.

BJake’s at it again! And God bless him for it…otherwise, I woulda resorted to posting some high concept peice like where do blogs go when they die or why do people put bandanas on their dogs. Anyhow….. A SHIT STORMS…

BJake’s at it again! And God bless him for it…otherwise, I woulda resorted to posting some high concept peice like where do blogs go when they die or why do people put bandanas on their dogs. Anyhow….. A SHIT STORMS…

BJake’s at it again! And God bless him for it…otherwise, I woulda resorted to posting some high concept peice like where do blogs go when they die or why do people put bandanas on their dogs. Anyhow….. A SHIT STORMS…