http://ripples.typepad.com/ripples/2004/06/bloggers_and_th.html

via

http://www.willpate.org/archives/2004/06/15/a-microbusiness-blog-directory.php

Media Guerrilla points to a San Francisco Chronicle article, “For some, blogging pays”. The story outlines some of the challenges that eager bloggers face as they attempt to kindle their early flames with advertising dollars. As this snippet describes:

The percentage of blogs that have ads is still quite low, but it’s likely to grow now that companies like Google are making it easy for bloggers and advertisers to connect.

To lure ads, bloggers say a site should be about a specific product or subject. Henry Copeland, founder of Blogads, says people who want to sell ads on their blogs should plan to work on them hours a day for at least 18 months to develop a following.

“This doesn’t happen overnight. You have to build a voice, a relationship,” he says.

Some people fear advertising will corrupt blogging and encourage bloggers to write for money, not passion.

“The presence of advertising clearly pollutes the simplicity of the relationship between the writer and the reader. But I think it would be really simplistic and indefensible to argue this is a unique problem in the blogging space,” says Tim Bray, a blogger whose day job is director of Web technologies at Sun Microsystems.

Source: San Francisco Chronicle, “For some, blogging pays”

Blogging truly is, and will continue to be, a labor of love for its proprieters. The article notes that the average blogger utilizing ads averages only 20 - 50 dollars a month. I’ve vented some of the trials associated with the blogging process just a couple of weeks ago in my “Blatigue” post.

I am often most puzzled by the rather negative assignments made to the process of generating revenue from blogging. It’s unfortunate, at best, that some people take offense to the intersection of commerce and creativity. Realistically, the forces and expenses spent in the process of being creative and generating content, both syndicated and original, must be replenished from somewhere. Hopefully, we’ll be able to look beyond the ads and see the value we gain from the underlying resource.

The Wall Street Journal reports on an additional use of blogging technology by the consumer masses: as community centers for familes.

I’ve used a variety of Web sites in recent years to share photos of my children with their grandparents and other family far way. Lately, I’ve wondered if it wouldn’t be better to put photos, digital videos and other links I want to share with my family on one Web site, making it easier to manage and access them from afar.

[…]

But other advanced features, such as the button in Blogger for easy linking to Web sites, are missing. In addition, the layout templates aren’t nearly as attractive graphically as Blogger’s and TypePad’s. AOL says it’s working on all of these issues, and expects to add a Web linking button and phase out the registration requirement later this year.

I’m not completely satisfied with Journals, and I would be happy to use Blogger or TypePad if they manage to work out their issues with photo albums and passwords. In the meantime, though, I’ve chosen AOL’s Journals to create my family blog.

Source: WSJ Online, “Blogs Can Tie Families, And These Services Will Get You Started”

As the old saying goes, “Everyone has their price”. We’re at the beginning of a potential new wave of changes to the social infrastructure of the blogosphere and many are wondering what metrics will come to rule and what practices will guide some and disturb others.

This progression to a more established publishing medium, one that has garnered the respect of both the marketing and mass media machines, will introduce many of the original arguments that plagued journalism. Probably floating to the top will be the ethical issues surrounding the separation of advertiser and editorial content.

Tossing the first stone, Peter Caputa has begun a quite interesting little experiment. He’s offered a bounty to the individuals that can promote a specific link on his site into key positions on Technorati. The real goal of the experiment is to glimpse at what efforts people are willing to go through to “sell” their links. Hopefully we’ll see some results in a week or so.

One comment that came from a subsequent discussion on the site raised something quite succinct about the blogging game, as it stands today:

Easiest way to get links? Link. Plain and simple. You’ve just made it onto my reading list, so next time you post something that I have something to add to, I’ll link to you.

As a result, you’ll get 50-100 new visitors. You’ll likely get a dozen new readers. Some of those will link… And so on.

It’s the practice of linking which gets traffic. It’s the practice of great writing and good thoughts that keeps it.

Source: User Comments, Jeremy C. Wright

This sentiment is reflective of the tried and true nature of the blogosphere. A merit-based system that highly rewards originality and creativity, we’ve seen many enter at the edges with these very goals in mind. However, I’ve got to wonder what causes memes to spread, what makes someone the flavor of the day (if there is such a thing).

Is there another model that isn’t quite obvious yet? A model that is far more transitive, perhaps swelling to the occasion and dissipating just as quickly? It seems that if we are to entertain the notion of blogs as business, we’re going to have to also translate some of the other successful business practices as well.

News.com reports on an upcoming update of BREW (Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless). The software is mostly intended to serve as a broker for micro-payments:

The company on Monday released a new version of BREW, or Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless, that lets cell phone service providers broker “minitransactions” that allow customers to pay a few cents for add-on feautres to games or small amounts of data.

The software, which is typically used to funnel downloadable ring tones, games and video mail programs to consumers, breaks “new ground,” said Gina Lombardi, Qualcomm’s senior vice president of marketing and product management.

Source: News.com, “Qualcomm brews tiny transactions”

Though this is promising for the cellular providers, intent on selling leagues of celebrity-endorsed ringtones, wallpapers, and video games, it seems promising for the fledgling blogging industry as well.

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An architect once designed a cluster of buildings. When asked by the landscape crew where to pave the sidewalks, he told them to plant grass between all the buildings, wait a year, then, after the occupants had worn the most useful paths, the architect told the landscape crew to pave the pathways that the occupants had created.

Source: Business Evolutionist, “IDEO? DOH!”

In an organization blogs can operate much the same way. They become open spaces where people can create their own path. Discussions emerge and the lines wear deeper into the solid ground, creating meaningful relationships built on common interests.

We’re bombarded with marketing ballyhoo about how technology is redefining not just how we work, but actually speeding up the pace of change itself. It is, and has reached a point well beyond any leader’s ability to stay on top of it all. Just as delegating responsibilty ensures the smooth operation of an organization, empowering a team with weblogs allows the collective IQ to stay current.

Source: WillPate.org, “Blogging Paths in the Grass”

Advertising models are constantly evolving. As Seth Godin might say, Big Media’s dependency on interruption very well may be their undoing. It seems that more and more are starting to get that message and taking matters to heart.

News.com reports on the slow, yet steady, migration of Big Media Ad-Buys away from broadblast television to more targeted, measured, and personalized mediums (the Big I in Internet leading the pack).

As is noted:

Driving the trend is a larger transition by traditional media to deliver content through Internet Protocol networks, the byways of the Web. An array of home and mobile devices–and even billboards–will be connected to IP networks, bringing access to any content, anywhere, on demand.

These are the digital thoroughfares that afford new capabilities to track how, when and to whom marketers deliver their ads. As a result, traditional advertising firms will increasingly need to hire digital-technology companies that can pinpoint their target audience and monitor the effects of their messages.

Source: News.com, “Digital Ads Tune In”

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The WSJ Online has an interesting report out on how to make money selling content. It’s quite lengthy, so I’ll use the bold print method to summarize. Here’s the plan they outline:

• Give consumers something they can’t get elsewhere.
• If you’re going to put up a wall, make sure it’s in the right place.
• After putting up the wall, make it easy for visitors to climb over.
• Setting prices: Start low, aim higher.
• Bundle Up.
• Hang on to your subscribers by giving them more for their money.
• Get subscribers to upgrade.

Source: WSJ Online, “Making Them Pay”

Surprisingly good and simple advice.

An interesting question has been raised by a Microsoft employee, where’s Apple’s blog community?

http://blogs.msdn.com/decheung/archive/2004/04/26/120086.aspx

Yesterday, I received an e-mail from a regular visitor of the site. For the most part, this reader has a great deal to say, though she remains anonymous preferring to initiate conversation outside of the blog (which is totally fine with me). The reader posed an interesting question:

okay, so i read your blog about advertising on blogs… and it occured to me that blogs are one of the most perfect places to advertise. They are usually a niche market, people interested in one specific topic. I guess if you don’t mind making a couple of bucks off all the writing, research and time you spend on your blog it’s aight. The only thing i’d be worried about of course, is: are you “selling out” if you advertise on the blog? wouldn’t it make your blog seem just a little bit less credible, more skewed to the advertisers you place there? If i was making money off my ads i certainly wouldn’t want to piss off the advetiser and have them yank their ads from my site.

This is really the long-debated issue of ethics in journalism, the proverbial separation of church and state. Opinions vary considerably, so I’ll share my understanding and approach to the situation.

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