A blog falls somewhere between a journal and a magazine. Its content can contain anything from trading to politics to technology to science to what you did and ate and thought today. There are few rules when it comes to blogs and they are steadily growing in popularity. When Weblogs creator, Jason Calacanis, sold his blog to AOL for $25 million in 2005 it cemented the idea that blogging was big business. Despite the downturn in advertising for magazines, advertising executives are now taking their business to blog networks.

Meet Sugar… Brian and Lisa Sugar began blogging in their spare time four years ago. Today they have a successful blogging business simply called, Sugar Inc. Sugar Inc. is a blogging site that generates 11 million readers per month to their 12 blogs. The company’s ad revenue has increased by 20 percent in the first half of this year and it’s still rising. In fact, the company is anticipating their ad revenue to double by next year. Their advertisers include Chanel and Sony.

Shenan Reed, founder of Morpheus Media a digital marketing agency whose clientele includes Louis Vuitton and L’Oreal, believes that blog networks with a targeted focus make a perfect match for advertisers. Take for example, Sugar whose blog specifically targets the 28 year old woman. The entire site is edited and designed around this target with blog posts that are short, light and sarcasm free with big photos. The headlines on the site include: The Jolie-Pitts Bring the Twins to the Golden Arches and 10 Sexy Bedhead Hairstyles to Try Today. Reed says, “Blogs with their unpredictable and sometimes edgy content can be frightening to advertisers, but blog networks are less risky. When you’re dealing with a company where the editorial control is living under one roof you feel like there’s a consistency in the message, which is what makes Sugar fantastically interesting to us.” Reed’s company, Morpheus Media, has recently begun an ad campaign with the Sugar network on behalf of Neiman Marcus. In the ad campaign, each of the Sugar blog’s cartoon mascots are dressed in outfits from the store and readers could click on the clothes to buy them.

However many believe that blog networks need to continue innovating in order to stay relevant. “Perpetual movement is the essence of survival and prosperity online,” says Michael Moritz, the Sequoia investor who backed Google, Yahoo and Sugar. “If online media and entertainment companies don’t improve every day, they will just wind up as the newfangled version of Reader’s Digest – bankrupt.”