Dave Sifry, head honcho at Technorati, the blog search engine, has given us another State of the Blogosphere assessment. Essentially he says:

* The blogosphere is now 100 times larger than it was 3 years ago.

* The blogosphere is doubling in size every 200 days.

* 175,000 blogs are created each day — two every second.

* 70 pc of pings that Technorati gets are from spam blogs.

* Daily posting levels are at about 1.6 million posts per day (18.6 per second).

* English has retaken the lead as the most spoken language in the blogosphere (Japanese is only 1 pc behind).

All this shows what a great market the Web is for commerce of all sorts. Take the business behind this Website, Syntagma Media. Over on Syntagma, there’s an assessment of its growth in July:

In the month of July Syntagma Media’s basket of key indicators showed an increase of 20.8 pc. Annualized that represent a 250 pc growth rate.

July, of course, is traditionally a slow month for commerce, the exceptions being anything related to travel, tourism and vacations in general. So our true growth is probably somewhere between 300 and 400 pc — a rate that outperforms even Hong Kong in its heyday.

As we often say, blog networks — whether interpreted as geeky outlets for techy types, or online, distributed magazines, like Syntagma — are a good business to be in.

To press this message home, we’re going to be running a new series titled, Making Money Online.

Stay tuned for that one.

When signing up to a franchise deal, there are a few details you should get clear first:

1. Make sure your contract mentions the period of the agreement. This is often five years, but it can vary. It should also specify a renewal option. Check any small print in the renewal terms in case they involve much greater expense or other prohibitions.

2. Nail down the exact location you’re getting and your rights to exclusivity within it.

3. All fees and costs, plus calculation formulas, should be presented to you. You also need to know if you can sell the business on for a profit.

4. A clause specifying that you can leave the business to next of kin in the event of your decease is also important, if a little gruesome to the squeamish.

5. Costs of training of you and your staff should be met from the fees you pay to the franchisor. Hidden costs for training can be large and sometimes disabling.

6. If you think you know enough to set up on your own after a few years, talk to the franchisor. Enlightened businesses will provide opportunities for you to expand with greater input to the business as a whole.

Above all, make sure you are aware of all the subtleties of the business before signing away your cash.