A question from one of our members:
I am one of three members of a group blog, and we’re on the verge of taking our blog to the next level and monetizing by signing up for at least one ad network. All three of us now live in different states (with one in another timezone), which makes coordinating outside of email difficult, and, with increasingly busy schedules and more involved emails, bigger questions can sometimes go unanswered.
Because we’re planning on monetizing, the suggestion of creating an LLC to establish rules of how revenue is shared and who can officially make decisions/sign contracts has been brought up. With an LLC, we wouldn’t have to worry about playing email (and, eventually, fax) tag just to get decisions made, or making big decisions with the risk of one or two of us saying, “Too long, didn’t read, do whatever” and then being upset later. Is forming an LLC a good idea, or are there some potential drawbacks we should be aware of before we make these big jumps into an LLC and ad networks?
If anyone has experience with LLCs, revenue sharing among a group of bloggers, or just has any advice on making group blogging work in general, I’d love to hear from you!
Thank you so much!
If you have a group of people, and there is no one clear “boss”, then you need to establish some kind of process that everyone agrees to follow for decision making. This might be, “One person makes advertising decisions, the other makes content decision” or “Weekly vote on issues – get votes in by 11 pm monday EST” or something like that.
Creating an LLC does not do anything for you except connect you EVEN MORE, meaning, you now all own a company together, which is something like having a child together – you can’t just walk away without a lot of drama.
LLC’s are good if you all are committed and if you have a group sharing income, but you shouldn’t start one if you arn’t prepared to INCREASE your level of communication and collaboration, not decrease.