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Blogging Becomes Big Business
By Michael Alan Hamlin
December 13, 2004
The Internet is a powerful tool
for increasing personal visibility. Last week I interviewed an applicant
for a position in our firm, for instance, who maintains her own
website. Her resume is available to potential employers along with
samples of her work, which include the applicant's personal perspective
on current affairs. One of her commentaries had to with why she
chooses to stay in the Philippines, despite its myriad problems,
when so many other talented people are leaving for perceptually
greener shores. The topic demonstrated the relevance and thoughtfulness
of the applicant.
Just how powerful the Internet is
in raising an individual's profile and marketing his or her expertise,
services, and products is apparent from the research my co-authors
and I are doing for the next edition of the book, High Visibility.
The bottom line is that everyone uses the Internet to market himself
or herself - investment advisors, doctors, chefs, inspirational
speakers, entertainment personalities, politicians. The Internet
has become a basic component of any personal communications initiative.
It has also become a vehicle for
wielding influence. Democratic presidential aspirant Howard Dean
leveraged the Internet to rocket to national prominence, and raise
millions of dollars in contributions (Dean in real life was a less
compelling candidate, in fact, than the electronic version.). But
you don't have to be a presidential candidate to make the Internet
work for you.
During the course of the U.S. election
campaign that ended last month, people that have come to be called
"bloggers gained new prominence, writing up-to-the-minute news
and politics nuggets that the mainstream media struggled to match,"
according to Lauren Gard, writing in a recent issue of BusinessWeek.
Because traditional media couldn't keep up with the bloggers, Gard
says millions of Americans turned to political blogs such as instapundit.com
and Daily Dish for the latest perspective on the candidates. In
the last two weeks leading up to Election Day, I received a number
of forwarded links to instapundit.com in particular, from friends
seeking to influence my thinking.
As a result of this attention - and
perhaps in part as a result of healthy growth in Internet advertising,
35 percent this year, and its effectiveness in general - advertisers
are becoming interested in this informal medium. Gard cites data
indicating that approximately 11 percent of Internet users are "inveterate
blog readers," suggesting a hardcore core of dedicated consumers
who return regularly - at least weekly - to their favorite sites.
That guarantees high click through rates.
As a result, growth in blogs has
exploded. Blog search engine Technorati shows almost five million
blogs, up from just 100,000 two years ago (and up about 300,000
from the time Gard submitted her story to her editors). New businesses
serving the blogging community and advertisers have also sprung
up. Entrepreneurs are buying up blogs, for example, and then selling
and distributing ads to their blogger networks. Google provides
a service called AdSense that puts ads on blogs and pays per click
through. Established private firms are inviting bloggers with related
interests to connect to their websites in a bid to encourage visitors
to come around more regularly.
While blogging is still in its infancy
and there is little chance that it will ever offer the riches associated
with the early dot-com era, its lure is attractive, especially for
advocates seeking a voice. After all, what could be better than
getting paid for pontificating? Gard says that some bloggers make
up to $10,000 a month off their ads, providing a very comfortable
profit margin for part-time "work."
Successful blogging, however, is
not a matter of "build it and they will come." There are
key success factors involved, as in any business. For example, a
blog must have compelling content. Compelling content might be useful
information or incisive opinion. Either way, it must be different,
meaningful, and impactful to distinguish it from millions of other
blogs.
Second, the blog has to be updated
very regularly and frequently. It should also generate other interesting
comment by readers, which both demonstrates the law of compelling
comment and provides new content ideas. Third, the blogger in fact
must have deep content pockets of his or her own, so that the blog
endures over time and withstands competition.
For those who can fulfill those criteria,
blogging may be your ticket - one of them anyway - to high visibility.
(Michael Alan Hamlin is the managing
director of consultancy TeamAsia and the author of three books on
Asian economies and companies. His latest book is Marketing
Asian Places, of which he is a co-author (Wiley, 2001), and
he is currently at work on High Visibility: The Making and Marketing
of Asian Professionals into Celebrities. Write him at mahamlin@teamasia.com.).
Copyright © 2004 Michael Alan Hamlin. All Rights
Reserved.
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