By
Robert W. Bly
Here’s
a question I’ve been curious about lately: should marketers add blogging to
their arsenal of marketing tactics? Will it help sell more products and
services?
Or
is it – as I suspect -- an utter waste of time? A pure vanity publication that
won’t pay you back even one thin dime for your effort?
First,
a definition. “A blog is an online journal,” explains blogging expert Deb Weil
in her Business Blogging Starter Kit (www.wordbiz.com).
“It’s called a journal because every entry is time and date stamped and always
presented in reverse chronological order.”
The
theory is that if you are an information marketer – or, if you publish
information to establish your expertise in a niche industry or field – blogging
should be part of your publishing arsenal.
According
to Deb, a business blog is “a platform from which to lobby, network, and
influence sales. It’s a way to circumvent traditional media and analysts. And
blogging can be done instantly, in real time, at a fraction of the cost of
using traditional channels.”
Now
here’s my hesitancy in recommending blogs as a marketing tool: I have yet to
find a single marketer who says that a business blog has gotten him a positive
ROI, or return on investment.
I
know plenty of online marketers who make millions of dollars a year from their
Web sites and e-zines, for instance. But I’ve not seen a blog whose creator
says that the time and effort spent on their blog has directly put money into
their pockets.
“I
would say that, with few exceptions, blogs are not yet direct income producing
resources in and of themselves,” says blogging authority Paul Chaney (www.radiantmarketing.biz). “Their
value lies in the fact that they help raise one’s stature relative to their
respective field.”
In
my observation, there are two major problems with blogging as a
business-building tool.
The
first is that most of the blogs I encounter are rambling,
streams-of-consciousness musings about a particular topic of interest to the
author, largely bereft of the kind of practical, pithy tips that e-zines, Web
sites, and white papers offer.
As
Deb says, reading the blog is like reading the author’s journal or diary. And
unless you are a guru or celebrity whom others worship from afar, people are
simply not going to flock to your blog to discover your latest thoughts on
life.
The
second problem with blogs is one of distribution.
With
an e-zine, once the reader subscribes, he gets the e-zine delivered to him
electronically every week or every month -- or however often you send it.
But
with a blog, the reader has to go out and proactively look for it. And since
your contributions to your blog may be irregular and unscheduled, he has no way
of knowing when something new of interest has been added.
One
big advantage of blogs, according to Paul Chaney, is that having a blog can
help pull traffic to your Web site.
“The
search engines, especially Google, love blogs,” says Paul. “You’d be amazed at
how many of your posts will end up in the top ten returns. If search engine
optimization is a concern to you, blogs are the best way I know to move up the
ladder as well as increase your page rank.”
“I
confidently predict that blogs will soon be a key piece of an effective online
marketing strategy,” says Deb Weil. “Ultimately, they’re nothing more than an
instant publishing tool, one that makes posting fresh content to the Web within
anyone’s reach. No tech skill or knowledge required.”
And
that’s another one of my complaints with blogs in particular and the Web in
general: the ease with which people can post and disseminate content. “The best
thing about the Web is that anyone can publish on it; the worst thing about the
Web is that anyone can publish on it,” a computer magazine columnist once
observed.
The
problem is that there is already too much content, and we don’t want or need
more. Analysis, wisdom, insight, advice, strategies, ideas – yes. But raw
information, data, or content – no. And from what I can see, blogs serve up
almost none of the former, and tons of the later.
Blogs
are, by virtue of being a form of online diary, like diaries: rambling,
incoherent, and more suited for private thoughts than public consumption.
If
you have something of value to share, there are many better formats for doing
it online than by blogging, including white papers, e-zines, and Web sites.
Even
bulletin boards are interactive, so they have value by virtue of shared
opinions, dialogue, and engaging conversation which may be listened to openly
and publicly.
But
most blogs seem to be the private idiosyncratic musings of an individual,
without censure or editing of any kind. And the result is like porridge: a
gloppy mess, tasteless, and not very satisfying.
Until
that changes, I can’t see starting and maintaining a blog of your own, unless
you are bored and looking for something to do, or require an outlet for
self-expression. And if the latter is the case, well … why not just buy and
keep a diary instead?
About the author:
Robert
W. Bly is a freelance copywriter and the author of more than 50 books including
The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Direct
Marketing (Alpha). His e-mail address is rwbly@bly.com and his Web site
address is www.bly.com.
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