Wil Wheaton, the actor-turned-blogger, turned to John Battelle's Federated Media to handle advertising sales after finding Google's Adsense program "a collossal waste of time and space." So how's Federated Media, one of the most-hyped new ad networks — sorry, author-driven something-or-other — been performing for the Star Trek veteran? Wheaton's verdict: "a collossal waste of time and space." Battelle's sales team hasn't sold a single ad since January. Oh dear.

Now, it's hardly a surprise that advertisers ignored Wheaton's personal site, despite his status as one of the blogging pioneers. The audience is much smaller, and more diverse, than other sites in the Federated network, such as Boing Boing. Here's the mystery: why on earth does Federated Media sign up sites, such as Wheaton's, and Fark, which are so hard to sell?

Battelle, who founded the Industry Standard in a former life, gets a short burst of good publicity, at best; and then months of grief when his new affiliates are inevitably disappointed. As long as internet companies are judged on some amorphous notion of momentum, and headlines, Battelle's gung-ho strategy makes sense; if profitability becomes a concern, again, the former tech publisher may, just as he was during the last cycle, fall victim to his own bullishness.

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