MSM gets Business Blogging wrong -- again

The Globe has a great article, Blogging for Dollars, by Carolyn Johnson, which talks about how a few, a very few, bloggers are making great money by blogging and running advertisements.

Well done Carolyn, but you missed the most important part about Business Blogging, or Blogging for Dollars, or whatever term people like to use.

Most business bloggers don't give (pardon me while I use the vernacular) "a rat's ass" about explicitly generating a few bucks, or quid, or Euros, from our blogs. We are supporting our businesses and careers.

Examples include lawyers and realtors generating new clients through blogging, consultants positioning themselves as experts and generating new business, and employees blogging on their area of expertise leading to increased opportunities both within and outside of their current organizations.

I've love to make lots of money from advertising, but I'm quite happy making lots of money from speaking gigs, consulting opportunities, and more which are generated from my blogging.

I'm in the majority of business bloggers: we're not in the advertising business, we've already got businesses we're passionate about which pay the bills and keeps us quite happy thank you.

Note to big $ advertisers -- I'll sell out, make me an offer I can't refuse, but I can and will refuse a lot! :) Nothing against advertising after all . . .

Comments

[The Hairy Beast]

Ted, the only time the Beast clicks an ad on a Blog page is when he messes up with his touchpad and hits it by accident. The Beast goes out of his way to avoid looking at ads and even disables Java so he won't be distracted by the annoying "moving" ads.

Seriously, one has to wonder if advertising on Blogs is even worth a hoot to the ad companies - does anybody ever click on the things?

Also, if the Beast goes to a Blog that's so infested with ads that he can barely navigate it to find the good stuff, the just clicks away and never comes back. Same with popup ads - until Firefox came out with a really effective and free popup blocker, the Beast actively avoided all sites that used them.

Your instinct not to lard up your blog with ads is correct and the Beast applauds you.

[Kian Ann]

Ted,

Actually, whether it is in my own workshops or through the people whom got in contact with me though my blog, I face the same issue - they miss the point about blog marketing.

Like what you said, while making a few bucks off advertising is no harm anyway, the main point of having a business or professional interest blog is to build up credibility and market other services that you may have.

There are blogs which are started out solely to make money directly - through adsense or affiliate marketing... and that is where the statistics show that it is not very successful, and it is simply because the competition online is crazy!

[Ted Demopoulos, Blogging for Business]

Hairy One,
You and I (and most readers of this blog) are far from typical -- people do click on ads.
Of course context also matters a lot:
For example imagine a blog or Web site on "handbags." Women into handbags seem to buy lots of them and probably would click on ads quite readily. Or a blog that compared and reviewed the latest electronic gadgets -- and ran reviews on them.

Kian Ann,

Agree 100%! No harm in making money off advertising, and some people, very few, do make a lot, but its not the dominant successful business model at all!