The Bloggers Union advises Publishers currently using or considering embedding Lijit Search into their content: Lijit’s viability as an ongoing functioning entity is questionable.

P.U.B. basis this alert these facts:

1. Public releases from Lijit and other news sources put Lijit’s total money raised beside live revenue at under $20 Million over the last 24 months.

2. Lijit has refused to offer transparency its financial condition or revenue from advertising on Publisher’s Blogs.

3. The current economic environment demands both transparency from revenue based providers like Lijit; and due diligence from the Bloggers Union on avoiding potential content disaster for Publishers.

P.U.B. continues to take heat asking hard questions for our Publishers, including threats of legal action against the bloggers union by organizations like Lijit, because it’s simply the right thing to do in this economic environment for publishers. P.U.B. would rather pro actively protect Publishers now, then be answerable to publishers after companies like Lijit fail and leave that result for Publishers to contend with concerning their content.

What to do:

1) Have a back up.
If you are a publisher either using Lijit Search or considering it, have a back up plan using a publicly traded search option on your blog or blog network. Publicly traded companies are obligated by law to have a degree of transparency concerning their financial position.

2) Ask the same hard questions of Lijit and other revenue based blog vendors.
Contact these companies seeking use of your content directly. Ask what their financial position is, and what their guidance moving forward for 2009 and 2010 and beyond is.

P.U.B. will continue to post on these issues for our Publishers