Why it pays to Blogvertise, Blog Marketing

Blogvertising is a venue, still in its infancy, but it's going to be huge. Internet blogs offer insights, opinions, information and entertainment of a variety, accessibility and quantity unparalleled by any other medium. To understand it's potential value to an advertiser, you should know a few things about the dynamics of blogging.

Many people post blogs, just for fun or for their own benefit. Writing is a great way to organize your thoughts, even if only for yourself. In the process of doing so you also learn more about the topics your interested in as you research the topic of the day. Blogs are unique in that this post for example, will still be here tomorrow, next week, five years from now.

Many blogs develop big readership, either through promotion or word of mouth due to great content. But an advertiser can take advantage of the industry as a whole, even those that don't get frequent visits.

When you advertise on a blog, the most cost-effective way to go is through a mention and a link within the blog. Essentially you pay the blogger to write about you, your product and/or your company. This can be done through services like CrispAds or PayPerPost, often for as little as $5 per blogger. Of course you get to approve any post you're paying for. This accomplishes several things. First, there's the obvious. Readers of that particular blog are informed of your product and provided a link. That link, remember is there for as long as the blog exists. It may be there for years, or even decades. An added benefit is that the more links you have to your site across the web, the higher you rank on search engines, regardless of the readership of the particular page its on.

Here's where it gets really interesting. Many bloggers will attempt to maximize traffic by selecting topics based on currently popular search terms. These term rankings are updated every hour or so. Suppose you put out an offer to pay $25 per post for bloggers to discuss your company: Easy Street Designs. $25 is not huge, but it's enough to get the attention of a lot of bloggers. Most of the interested parties are going to do a search for your company to get more information for their post. If enough of them do so around the same time (shortly after you post your offer, say Monday morning), your company is going to show up in the top 100 search terms for that hour. This can result in a whole slew of unsolicited blog posts about your company by other bloggers chasing trends. In the end you may pay for a dozen posts and actually get several hundred. The downside is that you have no editorial control over the unsolicited posts. Oh well. What do want for nothing?

Blogs, the new Radio?

In looking at the development and evolution of the blogosphere it occurs to me that the dynamics of the marketplace are very similar to radio, only better.

Like radio, you never know how many people will be tuning in at any given time. Unlike radio, your message is there waiting for them whenever they decide to show up. The marketplace is demand driven. Blogs are sought out by people seeking specific information and points of view. There is no content "gate keeper". No doubt one political party or the other will soon be pointing out how "unfair" this is and propose some kind of "Balanced Blogging Bill"

Blogs are extremely versatile. I have several areas of interest and enjoy writing, so I have several blogs. Taking a page from the radio advertising play book, I decided to experiment with "call in contests" on one. This morning I posted a question of the day, along with a link to where one could find the answer. The first person to email the correct answer before the deadline wins a free pizza. Of course, the winner would have to be someone close enough to come pick up the prize, which is why it's posted on a locally targeted blog. I'll let you know how it goes.

The marketing opportunities are vast. Sites like PayPerPost.com and Crispads.com can help you make money and/or advertise on other blogs. An ad often consists of being paid to put a link within a blog post or do a review of someone else's blog. Unlike radio, a blog post doesn't go away as soon as it's aired. Who knows how much "airplay" you'll get for your $5.

The blogosphere isn't new, but I believe it's on the verge of becoming HUGE (or HUGER). The potential is tremendous. Once again, Google is ahead of the curve, leading the market in blogging tools and gadgets, not to mention free web space. From here I see the blogosphere branching out into video stations as the technology catches up with demand. Other media could have evolved along side it and taken advantage of the trend, but they seem to be content in trying to fend it off, a lost cause.

Here's something I'd like to see: A radio station that has a site where you can download free (or for 20 cents or so), unrestricted mp3's of up and coming bands. The station uses the download data to determine which songs to play and how often. The bands get great exposure, the consumer gets great new music. The radio station operates not as a radio station, but as a brand name for a particular genre of music. They could sell ads on the website, the radio, even a monthly newsletter or magazine.

As for TV, how about YouTV? An expansion of the "public access" channels. You have a series of channels that feature viewer submitted content. Different channels for different content. 3 minute clips submitted by viewers. The cable or satellite provider also makes individual clips available in the ON DEMAND menu. Again, they use the demand data to determine which videos to replay. Of course they also make the videos available on the web.

The marketing industry shifts back and forth, sometimes favoring distribution channels, sometimes content. At the moment and for the foreseeable future, it looks like Content is King. Hitching your wagon to a particular distribution channel is probably not a good idea.