Good, if not Great, Things on the Horizon for Blogs

Blogging is rad. It is cost-effective, it is relatively simple, and it (or can be) awfully fun. And it gets eyeballs, that advertiser currency that is more valuable than the Euro -- for now, anyway.

"So how come advertising on blogs is so dirt cheap?" asks Rob Crumpler in Restoring the Ad Equilibrium for Bloggers. The article discusses the current imbalance between bloggers getting paid what they deserve for high-quality content that aggregates traffic and advertisers accessing high-performance social media inventory. Right now, despite all the hype -actually going back several years- bloggers still don't have any "street cred." He argues that this should not be the case: "The Internet has turned into a million “mini” Oprah Winfreys who have a strong pull with consumers. That is advertiser gold."

So, if advertisers still have money to spend in the coming years (and so far people think they will) then this is one of the places it will go. Clicks, conversions galore. If you are blogger and have a good relationship with your readers due to the quality and relevance of your content, the advertisers will come. But will they know where to look? "Sit tight," says Rob. They'll find you.

Platform-wise, it's only going to get better. With companies like Six Apart unloading LiveJournal to Siberia and focusing more on developing the community features of Movable Type, I'm feeling like a major shift is on the way. Social networks, move over. Or rather, get ready to be mashed up with blogs.

Communities--not individual bloggers--are the power brokers on today's Web. It's readers, en masse, who move markets. Six Apart's goal to empower bloggers with tools that turn readers into active community participants could leverage this power shift.  -- Rafe Needleman, WebWare

Meanwhile, the corporate world is still struggling. Not really knowing how to deal with this rather unpredictable teenager, has finally formed an organization. Called, uniquely, The Blog Council, its goal is to share corporate blogging strategies and develop standards-based best practices. More like ask each other, what-in-the-hell-are-we-supposed-to-be-doing-with-this-thing. Cisco Systems, Dell, Wells Fargo, and Microsoft are among the global brands in the group.

One question that might be popping up in this forum is whether or not to outsource. Is the best blogger an employee of the company? Or a professional, albeit(he/she) an outsider?

Comments

[sonya]

Even blogs that don't have an enourmous following can be highly profitable if their readership is comprised of people devoted to a specific topic. Niche blogs provide niche markets, and dedicated readers may prove dedicated consumers.