Nick shut down OddJack today.

This was his first blog shutdown. We’re had a bunch of blogs die out over the past two years, mainly because we tried so many in the start and didn’t staff them up properly. It’s not a big deal, these things happen. In fact, the concept of niche publishing is to open and close blogs if the don’t breakout after a certain amount of time. My guess is that Bodog, OddJack’s sponsor, pulled out because of low traffic. Happens to the best of us. I mean, will XBOX360Fanboy be around forever? Not unless Microsoft doesn’t release an XBOX3 it wont! However, you can be sure that Joystiq.com will be around forever.

I’m guess his sports blog Deadspin will be next given the slow traffic [ NOTE: Dead wrong... Deadspin has great traffic! my bad]. If so well pick up Will in a heartbeat (note: Wil and I worked together at Silicon Alley Reporter/VentureReporter back in the day).

Our CardSquad blog has been doing great… so, A.J., if want to blog about cards just let me know. We’re always looking for talent–especially Gawker’s (note: let me know when your Gawker non-compete ends of course).

Update: Lock schools me… Deadspin has amazing traffic–My bad!

Update2: Nick asks when we are going to close our “dead” blogs. My response: Why close them? They can sit there and get traffic, make Adsense revenue, and serve as a resource for folks. I think the model is to leave these sites up… I don’t see the point in taking them down. If I was you Nick I would leave OddJack up and let it make you some cash and leave the posts up for folks who might be interested.