Envato, makers of the popular sites PSDTUTS and FlashDen, has lifted the curtains on the Creattica portal slash network. Design news blog Creattica Daily serves as the network’s first offering.

From Creattica Daily’s About page:

“...a site of daily news and links for creatives and designers. We cover a broad range of creative inclinations from graphic to product design, interactive to motion, advertising to articles…”

Creattica Daily will soon be joined by Creattica Sessions. Stay tuned to the main Creattica portal for its opening.

Easton Ellsworth of our sister site, The Blog Herald has written a brief yet excellent article on the struggles of major blog networks in today’s weak economy. An excerpt:

Consider the b5media network, which boasts hundreds of blogs covering dozens of niche topics.

I spoke with b5media president and CEO Jeremy Wright about the company’s current challenges and how it is responding to the changing economic landscape.

One major challenge is paying bloggers fairly while keeping operating costs as low as possible. “Our biggest priority is to take care of our bloggers, but we also have to be a business and sometimes those two things collide,” says Wright.

Read the full article here.

We have added the Cosmo Fair network to our watchlist. Sporting the tagline “Adventure, Travel, Entertainment, Sports, Gadgets…How the world enjoys life,” the network is published by Bill Belew.

Cosmo Fair currently consists of 11 blogs.

Visit the Cosmo Fair network here.

Giga Omni Media network has just acquired TheAppleBlog, as reported by Om Malik himself on the GigaOm blog. Started in 2004, TheAppleBlog is now the seventh member of GigaOm’s blog roster.

Quoting Om Malik:

I had always wanted to start an Apple-related blog — one that was more analytical, did more in-depth reviews and at the same time focused on helping the new switchers to Mac and iPhone platforms, making suggestions on tools and applications. What we didn’t want to do was compete with the existing blogs, especially ones that do a great job of breaking and aggregating news — sites such as the AppleInsider, MacNN, TUAW, and the MacDailyNews.

Congrats to GigaOm for this prized acquisition.

We have added The Finance Blog Network to our watchlist. TFBN is a personal financial blog network made up of two groups, Members and Associate Members.

TFBN currently consists of four blogs.

Visit The Finance Blog Network here.

The Curbed blog network recently launched Curbed Marketplace, a real estate listing site that’s more than just a list. From the marketplace’s Help page:

[Unlike] some other systems, we’ve designed the Marketplace to feature big, beautiful photographs and a blog-style layout of properties perfect for perusing. We’re hoping this makes discovering a property — and selling one! — a pleasure.

Visit the new Curbed Marketplace today.

Our sister site The Blog Herad reports that UK-based blog network Shiny Media is actively looking for a buyer for its Who Ate All the Pies English football blog:

Several of Shiny’s other sports blogs have been retired over the past year, with the main reasons being the difficulty of monetizing them, when compared to Shiny’s core technology- and fashion-related sites, and various administrative strains.

Read the full report here.

The net abounds with sites talking about blogging (yes, you’re reading one!). Is there room for an offline venue? From the Blog Herald:

Would you pay $40 a year for a printed magazine about blogging? Interactive Global Media hopes so as they get set to unveil Bloghology, a publication that promises advice, interviews and useful how-tos designed to entertain and educate beginners and experts.

The discussion after the BH post is an interesting one, featuring naysayers…

Seems that there’s more than enough information online to not warrant a new for a printed magazine.

...and the opinions of the guys from Bloghology themselves:

If your personality as a blogger and your blogs are highlighted in the magazine, would you buy 10 copies per 10$? We may surprise you…

Me? Although I’m a Net person, I still prefer reading print on paper. Still, I’ve got to see the first issue before passing any judgment.