Tag - business

Bloggers need pitch policies these days. The marketing contacts to bloggers are increasing exponentially – hardly a day goes by that I don’t get pitched to review some product, check some site, add some link.

Recently, I seem to have been put on some list by a Nancy Hendrickson at Author Marketing Experts (blog), who may have noticed that I review most books that I read (including some on my personal blog).

It’s always wonderful to get an email addressed “Dear ______ ,” with a tagline saying Powered by Campaigner, an email marketing package. It’s even better when I notice that the email says “You are subscribed as john.koetsier@gmail.com. To unsubscribe please click here.” Naturally, I have no recollection of having subscribed to any such list, nor does an email to Nancy result in any reply.

(I wonder how many of you will click that link to unsubscribe me.)

Phil Gomes – a lawyer at Edelman – started having this problem in 2005. In response, his pitch policy includes:

• The email you send is clearly sent to me and not to a list.
• You yourself (or members of the company you represent) actively and thoughtfully blog.
• You are a blogger or member of the media and you’ve written/posted something interesting that might have missed my watchful gaze

That’s a great start. Here’s when not to contact me. Don’t even bother trying to contact me when:

• you don’t blog
• you don’t “get” blogging
• you don’t answer to a reply
• you use email list software to talk to me
• you haven’t even taken at least a cursory look at my blog
• you aren’t going to follow through on the things you say you’ll do

I don’t mind getting email from fellow bloggers. I don’t mind getting a link and a request to check it out, or to add it to my SLOB hall of fame.

I do mind being used.

What’s a savvy new-media social-web podcasting-blogging-story-telling marketer supposed to do in a company that thinks dead-tree news outlets are cutting edge?

Gino mentioned this problem at the Pinko Marketing Blog:

So, my new job (which has taken a lot of my time recently!) seems to conflict with my blogging.

Many house builders barely have a marketing department to speak of and those that do work in a very simple and formulaic fashion.

So where does Pinko marketing fit in with these people? Is there ANY point in trying to speak to these people a) about blogging and b) about Pinko Marketing.

My response, which I posted as a comment, is as follows:

That’s a tough one – particularly as the business you’re working for may not feel like it really needs to establish a long-term relationship with clients … after all, how many times is a client going to buy a home from you?

I will say one thing: forcing a marketing model on people who just don’t get it will not work.

1. it’s not real for the company, so it’s not authentic, so it won’t ring true over time
2. when people don’t understand you, or understand new things you want to do, they have a very strong incentive to think that you’re stupid, because this saves them the difficulty of rationalizing the fact that they don’t get it. So its a bit dangerous, personally. (Especially in a new job)

Suggestion:
Get some wins. Establish a track record. Then start moving downfield in the direction you want to go … slowly, but purposefully.

When trying to change a corporate culture, slow is fast and fast is slow. The only possible exception is when the company is faced with a life-threatening challenge and must adapt quickly or die painfully.

And something that isn’t real for an organization isn’t sustainable.

Today, Dave Winer said that he made $2.3 million via his blog, Scripting News. How on earth did he do that?

I would really like to know, and I bet thousands of other bloggers would as well.

But – little hint up front – it’s a secret. A very intriguing secret, and a secret with clues, but, in the end, a very secretive secret.

Here’s what Dave says:

People think blogs are about advertising, and I would agree, but they’re thinking in terms of clicks and eyeballs, and I’m thinking of technology that’s created using the intelligence of community participation.

Want to see how it’s done? It’s here in the archive of this blog. Don’t have the time to read the archive? Read today’s blog. We will get a whole new flow built here, through persistent experimentation, refinement, listening, promoting, thinking, and looping.

Hrm. OK.

It’s one of those non-explanatory explanations. Kinda cagey, vague, and secretive in an elementary school “I know something you don’t” kind of way. What on earth does he mean?

It’s fairly obvious right away from just looking at Scripting News that it does not carry advertising. That seems to jive with his comment above.

So what is it about? “Technology that’s created using the intelligence of community participation” sounds wonderful and interesting and web 2.0-ish … but what does it mean in relation to $2.3 million of annual revenue?

Dave teases us by saying: “It’s here in the archive of this blog.” Is it? I have some time, and I’ve been checking through his archive. Maybe I’m too dense. Or I’m just not seeing the forest for the trees.

But I don’t see things generating $2.3 million of revenue.

Perhaps there’s a clue in the most prominent feature in Scripting News’ right sidebar, the Community Directory. Maybe there’s a site there with ads, or some other revenue model, that is generating significant revenue.

There are a lot of links there to feed directories of sorts, and a whole bunch of errors … but nothing that looks like a money machine.

Knowing that some of us are dense, Dave gives us one more clue:

Don’t have the time to read the archive? Read today’s blog. We will get a whole new flow built here, through persistent experimentation, refinement, listening, promoting, thinking, and looping.

OK. So today’s blog, September 22, 2006 has clues to what is earning Dave a couple of megabucks a year. Does someone else see them? I sure don’t.

Unless Dave is charging $100/link (and he’s not … he’s linked to me two or three times, and I haven’t paid him any money … not that he would do that anyways), how the heck is he making money? His only other comment there is a vague futuristic statement.

I’m stumped. I’d like to hear others’ ideas.

Because if no-one else knows how Dave Winer is making millions via Scripting News, maybe it’s just April Fool’s day and no-one told the rest of us.

Or the secret of making $2.3 million/year by blogging is just that: a secret.

OK, brace yourself. This is a really easy one …

The time NOT to market your product via bloggers is when you HAVE A LOUSY PRODUCT.

If you have a lousy product, whatever you do, don’t send it to bloggers. Hopefully, they won’t see it, won’t realize it’s a lousy product, and won’t post on it. There is, after all, a variety of word-of-mouth marketing that you don’t want.

If you have a lousy product, hide it.

Don’t let bloggers see it. Keep it far away from clueful people with their own personal electronic printing presses.

Instead, sell it via mass media to people who still read paper magazines and paper newpapers. Use advertising on network TV.

This way you can show your product to people who can’t try it, market to people who won’t know it sucks, and sell to people who don’t check out the online buzz first.

. . .
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This post inspired by Joel Spolsky’s post on the incredibly bad Sprint Power Vision network, and the free LG Fusic they sent him to try. Talk about disaster.

Scoble comments on this too …