How to Be Top Blog - Day 3, 12:00 PM EST

[Garrett]

And now, for one final update from the DMA/AIM net.marketing conference. This update is on a subject I’m sure most of you are familiar with: blogs!

Rick Bruner, President of Executive Summary Consulting spoke at the session Blogs: A Powerful Tool for Gathering Market Intelligence.

His presentation was hastily prepared because he was not the person scheduled to speak and he didn't say why the other guy didn't show up.

The Four Types of Successful Blogs. He started the session off by briefly describing what constitutes a blog (short for “web log”). There are several blogging technology solutions available, including moveabletype.com and Google’s Blogger.com.

According to Rick, the four types of successful blogs are:

1. Thought Leadership Blog. The though leadership blog allows the blogger to distinguish himself or herself as a well-informed industry professional. A good example would be Alan Meckler's Weblog.

2. Customer Relations Blog. The customer relations blog engages with customers. For example, he says Macromedia's weblog offers product updates and the bloggers themselves are product managers for Macromedia.

3. Peer Marketing Blog. Peer marketing blogs are typically ways for marketers to get the word out about their products. Everybody’s favorite doll Barbie has a great example of a peer marketing blog.

4. Media Relations Blog. The media relations blog is a great way to augment a press section. Geared towards the journalist audience, media relations blogs contain press releases while still maintaining a personalized feel.

Now that we’ve touched on some examples of successful blogs, you may be wondering whether a blog would be right for your business. What are some reasons to have a blog? Rick said, "Blog stands for Better Listings On Google" because Google likes to see regularly updated content. You’ll also find that stuff happens first on blogs, which often feature breaking news. (Perhaps you’ve heard of the Drudge Report…)

Become the Top Blog. People also use blogs for gathering information related to a particular industry. Rick advises business owners to read industry blogs. If your industry doesn’t have a blog, go ahead start one! One niche blog would be Gizmodo.com, which covers technology industry.

Next, he said, it is important to track blogs in order to become aware of what's happening in a particular industry. Technorati is one prime example of this.

It is possible to syndicate blog websites or subscribe through XML syndication. If you are trying to be more active, start blog or do something blog-worthy. For example, the chocolate beverage company Yoo-hoo had a van stolen a while back. Yoo-hoo mentioned the incident on its company website and contacted some bloggers to discuss it on their websites as well. Naturally, the bloggers thought it was hilarious and created a buzz. The heavy blogging provided plenty of press for Yoo-hoo.

Another thing Rick suggests is interacting with bloggers. He stresses the importance of treating bloggers as journalists. If you send them a press release, send them a link rather than the actual content as they’ll probably end up linking to it anyway.

A Few Good Blogs. Need some inspiration? Here are Rick’s examples of a few good blogs:

http://www.instapundit.com/
http://www.boingboing.net
http://www.gawker.com/
http://www.wonkette.com/

After the session I asked Rick whether it’s possible to monetize a blog. Without hesitating, he said, “No.” Why? Because blogs are basically just a great marketing tool.

There are, of course, some people who do successfully monetize blogs. Matt Drudge of the Drudge Report is a blogging millionaire. He has what Rick considers to be "stupid ads" that sell cheaply but make a lot of money due to the high number of impressions on the site. The owner of Gawker.com and Wonkette.com sells advertisements on those blogs and has also hired freelance writers to write several posts per day -- and they are just now breaking even. Meanwhile, political blogger Andrew Sullivan managed to raise $1,000 through one fundraising event.

One possible solution might be the micropayment model. Bloggers can monetize, say, one post per week and sell that post for a very low price per view. If you have enough traffic to your site, this could hold some potential profit.

So, yes, if you have a very high-traffic blog site there are ways to make money – but effective examples are few and far between.

Are there any WebProWorld members who’ve successfully made money off their blogs? If so, would you mind sharing a few tips and tricks with the rest of us?