In defense of blogging

Thanks to Bob Cargill for the link to this article in DM News that bashes blogging as a useful form of marketing for businesses. The author writes:

I have yet to find a single marketer who says that a business blog has gotten him a positive return on investment...

There are two major problems with blogging as a business-building tool.
The first is that most blogs I encounter are rambling, streams-of-consciousness musings about a topic of interest to the author, largely bereft of the practical, pithy tips that e-zines, Web sites and white papers offer.

The second problem involves distribution. With an e-zine, once the reader subscribes, he gets it delivered to him electronically every week or 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.

...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.

Obviously this writer didn't do his homework. Yes, people make money from blogging. Hmm, rambling streams of consciousness with no practical tips... my Bloglines account is crammed full of the most interesting authors I'd ever want to read. And speaking of Bloglines, the author clearly hasn't heard of RSS feeds and how that's transforming content distribution. I could go on and on, but I won't.... since you, dear reader, obviously know the truth of blogging. How we get the word out to the rest of the world is another issue...

Comments

[Max Blumberg]

I appreciate Bob taking the time to discuss this topic here: http://maxblumberg.typepad.com/dailymusings/2004/11/an_interchange_.html

[Bob Bly]

David St. Lawrence should be more careful about stating facts without checking. For instance, he says:

"Bob Bly may be able to avoid being labelled a hopeless dinosaur if he changes his operating basis, but he faces a rapidly dwindling client base unless he takes immediate steps."

My client base and volume of business is larger than ever, and much of it is online marketing -- landing pages, microsites, e-mail marketing, online conversion, and online ads ... much of it very successful. One landing page generated a thousand subscriptions for a $400 a year service in 7 days....another produced conversion rates as high as 17% ....

[David St Lawrence]

Bob Bly claims on his web site that he is:
an independent copywriter and consultant with 25 years experience in business-to-business, high-tech, industrial, and direct marketing. I am sure that he has been successful or he would not have fallen into the trap of ignoring oncoming technology.

It appears that he made it on to the internet and stopped there. He made it through one paradigm shift (the web), but wasn't able to make the cut on the next paradigm shift (weblogs). There is a long history of people who became successful in a particular set of circumstances and couldn't come to grips with the next level of development.

His article sounds very much like the hilarious statements made by so many experts like Thomas Watson, Thomas Edison, and H M Warner, who did not realize that their game is over. I wrote a post on this phenomena some time ago: Yesterday's Experts - woefully out of touch

http://ripples.typepad.com/ripples/2004/04/yesterdays_expe.html

I have 47 years of high tech experience under my belt and the one constant I observed was that there is no plateau where one could sit contented in the knowledge that everything was going to continue smoothly.

Bob Bly may be able to avoid being labelled a hopeless dinosaur if he changes his operating basis, but he faces a rapidly dwindling client base unless he takes immediate steps.

[Bob Cargill]

Jennifer,

The great respect I have always had for Robert Bly -- as a fellow direct marketer -- is exceeded only by how surprised I was to learn how little he thinks of blogs.

Of all people, such a successful, prolific copywriter and author as he would be one of the first I would expect to have a presence in the so-called blogosphere. Without a doubt, his wealth of knowledge would lend itself well to this powerful publishing tool. Don't you agree?

If most blogs he has encountered are “rambling, streams-of-consciousness musings about a topic of interest to the author, largely bereft of the practical, pithy tips that e-zines, Web sites and white papers offer,” (as he wrote in this DM NEWS column), then he obviously hasn’t seen yours.

Bob Cargill
Senior Creative Director
Yellowfin Direct Marketing
Boston, MA

[Paul Chaney]

Jennifer,
I also rebuffed Bob in this post: http://radiantmarketing.typepad.com/radiant_marketing/2004/11/bob_blys_take_o.html

Sometime ago, I had asked him why he wasn't blogging. He emailed me with much the same response as he included in his article. In fact, let me quote his response, "To be frank, I don't get the whole blogging thing, never read them, so probably won't start one. But if you check my Articles page on www.bly.com and subscribe to my e-zine on the home page, you'll always have new content from me...."

Bob did add he felt he needed to get educated on blogs.

While I hold Bob in highest esteem, after reading his article, I STILL feel he needs to get educated on them.

[Yvonne DiVita]

I had a nice conversation with Robert...he's off the mark and nothing I said could convince him otherwise, but he was being honest and as open as we expect bloggers to be...so, I will cut him some slack. That said, let's all get out there and show him what's what. I say blogging will begin to produce huge profits for the right folks, in short order. That means good content, attention to the readers, and authenticity...which will attract advertising and help market products and services. We'll show'em!

[Aleah]

This poor guy's article is getting annihilated by every prominent business/marketing blog out there. I think he'll be carefully investigating his topic next time around.