With this post I add a new category, “Blogging Business Models.” As much to ponder their viability as to note those that have sprung up. Well-known blogger Jason Kottke quit his day job this week (according to Wired and Red Herring) to work full time on his blog, kottke.org. On Tuesday he kicked off his new professional blogger status by soliciting donations from his readers. Today he’s got a list several screenloads long of “micropatrons” who have contributed via PayPal. He suggests $30, equivalent to $2.50 a month, but we have no way of knowing what the average donation is - or the total. (Thanks to Tig Tillinghast who runs MarketingVox for the pointer.)
I love this idea of a business model of course… independent blogger launches a mini publishing vehicle, funded by rabidly supportive readers. But Kottke’s blog - if his fundraising tactic works - is an exception, not an example of a new business model. Most independent blogs (not part of a media property like Gawker or Weblogs, Inc.) are barely supported (call it “gently buoyed”) by 3rd party advertising such as Google Adwords and Blogads. I think the greater application of corporate blogs is one with a longer-term ROI: humanizing the connection with customers, or employees if it’s an internal blog. A relationship is part of a brand. And ultimately a strong brand generates more sales and higher employee loyalty and productivity. But I digress…
At some point in the near future I’ve gotta get a grip on the reality of publishing two blogs… is it possible for a small company (i.e. me) with limited resources (i.e. time)? I don’t have a definitive answer. For now, I’m putting everything related to writing a blog into BlogWriteForCEOs. The rest gets published to this blog. But it’s not very scientific. So for today, be kind enough to go here to read “Why blog and what makes a blog successful”?
Tom Peters has nailed it when it comes to selling his value/expertise with FREE stuff. Poke around his Web site (it’s built on blog software) and you’ll be amazed at how much content is free. It’s awfully clever if you think about it. Peters is making the big bucks through his consulting and speaking gigs. By freely distributing PowerPoint presentations, PDFs and Word docs he’s doing cost-free viral marketing. For example:
- Download all of Tom Peters’ slide presentations (going back to 1999)
- Download a 187-page Word doc containing all his blog posts from July, 2004 through January, 2005 (look in the right-hand column where it says “Download files FREE!!!”
- Download his Re-imagine Manifesto (12-page PDF)
Here’s the kicker… For those who want even more, he’s bundled his slides with his speaker notes and you can download them for a small fee ($5). Visit his Wow! store.
Thanks to John Jantsch for hosting a lively audio conference with me last week on blogging. Apparently 200-some folks tuned in. John has cleverly posted a page of basic blogging resources on his DuctTapeMarketing site.
Surprisingly not-out-of-date is James Horton’s 9-page PDF, “Marketing and Blogs: What Works” (apparently written in 2003). Download it free here. Among his key points… There are three ways to approach blogs as a marketing strategy: “Write a blog yourself, market through bloggers or advertise on blogs.”
Yesterday’s abrupt news that Carly Fiorina was ousted as CEO of H-P got me to thinking… should Carly have had a blog? BTW, the link on Carly’s name goes to the bio page on H-P’s site where the copy has already been changed to "Former Chairman and CEO." Don’t write off the blogging idea as ridiculous. Consider…
An Internal Blog
If Carly had had an internal blog (i.e. behind H-P’s firewall and not for public viewing), she might have been able to warm up her apparently chilly and/or distant relationship with many H-P employees. Maybe she could have reestablished some of the collegiality that defined H-P’s culture not so long ago. She might have titled her internal blog "Dateline Carly…" and doled out choice anecdotes about her constant travelling. Maybe she could have blogged about how wonderful it was to fly on the corporate jet and how much she appreciated it. I bet they had great snacks on the plane. Did she have a real bed? She might have shown a photo of it. People *love* this kind of thing… particularly if it’s divulged by a celebrity. And it’s pretty harmless info.
An External Blog
Even more daring… suppose Carly had blogged publicly, like Jonathan Schwartz of Sun. Would her every word have been parsed by Wall Street’s analysts, the media and her competitors… Making it virtually impossible for her to write authentically? Possibly. But imagine if she could have been just a wee bit more transparent about H-P’s struggles to turn a profit on its personal computers division (the unwieldy result of the Compaq merger). Or perhaps she could have engaged in a bit of mud slinging with HP’s biggest rivals, Dell and IBM. Sun’s Schwartz has been openly confrontational with IBM in recent posts. And yeah…it makes for interesting reading.
Ah well… we won’t know if Carly would have been a good blogger. Unless she has the nerve and savvy to start a blog now. Kind of a "What’s Next" with reflections on life, what she’s reading… etc. Go for it Carly! TypePad awaits you.
Useful Links (yup, from the mainstream media…)
2/10/05 Wall Street Journal: H-P’s Board Ousts Fiorina as CEO (requires registration)
2/10/05 New York Times: Fiorina’s Confrontational Tenure at Hewlett Comes to a Close
2/10/05 Washington Post: Hewlett-Packard Forces Celebrity CEO to Quit
2/07/05 Fortune Mag cover story: Why Carly’s Big Bet is Failing
Thanks to Stephan Spencer for the heads up! He writes:
Hi Debbie,
Just thought I’d let you know that you (not your site, but you) show up on Google Video as the #1 result for “blog”, with a photo of you next to the search result.
http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=blog
Kinda cool!
It’s from the segment of the Nightly Business Report you appeared
on (Jan. 14, 2005).
Cheers,
Stephan Spencer
web: www.netconcepts.com
blog: www.stephanspencer.com
If you’re looking for a quick immersion in business blogging (and RSS) basics, here are two upcoming events that fit the bill. Blogging & RSS Jumpstart is a half-day seminar I’m running on Thursday Feb. 17, 2005 in Washington DC. To be exact, at the nifty Tower Club in Tysons Corner, VA. This one’s really a bargain. It’s $249 but you get two printed reports on blogging (combined value $226) with your registration. Get the details and register for the D.C. blogging event.
The second is the last in a series of blogging events put on by the AMA - Blogs: Marketing Beyond the Website. This is a day-long workshop on Friday Feb. 18 in Chicago. It’s part of the AMA’s Hot Topic series. The event is chaired by Toby Bloomberg (author of the Diva Marketing blog) and has a good line up of speakers. More info here. ($695 or $645 if you’re an AMA member).
Heck, go to both events and you’ll really be up to speed!
Here’s a thoughtful “short list” of resources for online marketing. Put together by Toby Bloomberg in her Diva Marketing blog. Thanks to Aimee Kessler Evans for the pointer - from the Digital Grit blog. She writes it for marketing agency Digital Grit. Clever, huh?! Lets Digital Grit show off their knowledge/expertise about the latest in online marketing tactics.
Small business marketing consultant John Jantsch is hosting a series of FREE teleconferences on topics of interest to… yes, small business owners. You can register for the session on blogging (I’m the speaker) on Feb. 9, 2005 12 Noon Central by clicking here.
John is a very clever marketer himself. Poke around his site and you’ll find his Weblog publication. Yes, it’s his blog. But he’s given it a different name to make it sound more user friendly to his target audience. He also publishes an e-newsletter, Duct Tape News. And offers an RSS feed for that as well. This should be a great event and I’m looking forward to it. John, thanks for inviting me!
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