Joe Hobot is turning the technology blog website he built into a full-fledged business.

In 2008, Hobot acquired www.MWD.com, a nearly 15-year-old Web domain, and retooled it the following year. Today the technology news site features 27 paid contributors who cover the latest technologies and mobile gadgets.

Hobot, a devoted blogger since 2006, said that next month he will file paperwork with the Iowa secretary of state to officially incorporate MWD Network LLC.

That’s part of the 30-year-old entrepreneur’s plan to localize the site’s authorship by hiring a number of Central Iowa bloggers, journalists and writers as he pursues his goal of garnering 1 million page views per month.

“My focus for 2011 is actually to bring all that business into Des Moines,” said Hobot, who in 2008 earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Kaplan University.

He said he has a knack for optimizing websites for peak search-engine performance.

Thousands of websites link to www.MWD.com, he said, including those of media outlets such as The Wall Street Journal, Reuters and the Chicago Sun-Times.

Several companies have also asked Hobot to take a sneak peak at their latest mobile gadgets weeks before they arrive at retail stores.

“I already have partial contracts with Samsung, Sprint and T-Mobile,” Hobot said.

This year, Verizon has been a big supporter.

“When I ask for a device, they will send it to me the next day,” he said.

And though Hobot typically embargos the reviews until an agreed-upon date, he doesn’t play favorites.

“Blogging is not for everyone, if you mean it as a business,” he said. “You have to do a lot of research. I don’t do any favors for any of the companies. If I see that a product is really bad, I will say that.”

Hobot, who last year sold his first technology blog website for $17,000, said he will not sell www.MWD.com, which attracts each month an average of about 400,000 unique visitors who view between 600,000 to 650,000 pages on the site.

“I’m very good at finding people to view my page,” he said. “In 2011, I’m going to contribute more toward connecting with people.”

A native of Slovenia, Hobot lived in Berlin for six years before moving to Des Moines in 2000.