I read an ezine called Early To Rise, by Michael Masterson. In this particular issue, dated May 11th, it had an article written by Bob Bly. Google says he is a copywriter. He says he’s a copywriter. I say he’s ignorant. An unlearned, uneducated, unmitigated goofball, with regard to blogging.
Bob says, in an article available on his site :
” …should marketers add blogging to their arsenal of marketing tactics? Will it help sell more products and services?
Or is it – as I suspect — an utter waste of time ? A pure vanity publication that won’t pay you back even one thin dime for your effort ? “
So according to Bob, blogs used for business purposes, to promote products, are an utter waste of time.
Somebody jump in here and stop this foolish talk. Make him quit. Stop him before he sets marketing back about 75 years. Bob might be a fine copywriter, but his sense of marketing is as poor as any human I’ve ever encountered.
Need more proof of Bob’s failure to see the big picture ? Okay, here you go :
” Now here’s my hesitancy in recommending blogs as a marketing tool: I have yet to find a single marketer who says that a business blog has gotten him a positive ROI, or return on investment.
I know plenty of online marketers who make millions of dollars a year from their Web sites and e-zines, for instance. But I’ve not seen a blog whose creator says that the time and effort spent on their blog has directly put money into their pockets. “
I’m kind of biased here, but pardon me while I say several products have been marketed thru blogs of late. Since the blog that sold them probably cost them very, very little, if they sold anything at all, they returned a profit over and above what the blog cost.
He goes on to make more simply stupid determinations, such as :
” In my observation, there are two major problems with blogging as a business-building tool.
The first is that most of the blogs I encounter are rambling, streams-of-consciousness musings about a particular topic of interest to the author, largely bereft of the kind of practical, pithy tips that e-zines, Web sites, and white papers offer. “
Uh, Bob, that doesn’t sound like a business blog, a blog about a specific product or a marketing blog of any kind, that sounds like a blog that some goober writes to have a place for his mama to read about his cat, his lack of a life and his wish for a life.
Need more proof of Bob’s lack of knowledge about blogs and how they work ?
” The second problem with blogs is one of distribution.
With an e-zine, once the reader subscribes, he gets the e-zine delivered to him electronically every week or every 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. “
Anybody here get every copy of every ezine they subscribe to ? Me neither.
Anybody else heard of RSS feeds ? Bob doesn’t seem to know that you don’t have to bookmark a site and go back and hope it’s been updated. He doesn’t know that you can be alerted, by your feed reader, to a new post on every blog you subscribe to.
Let’s finish with a bang and refute more of this nonsense and idiocy :
” The problem is that there is already too much content, and we don’t want or need more. Analysis, wisdom, insight, advice, strategies, ideas – yes. But raw information, data, or content – no. And from what I can see, blogs serve up almost none of the former, and tons of the later. “
That kinda goes against every known statistic there is about the internet and peoples surfing habits.
I personally never tire of new info on the subjects that interest me. Seems Bob’s just giving us his opinion and likes listening to himself so much that he thinks he must be right. Kinda like he thinks to himself, ” I said it, so it must be true ! ”
” Blogs are, by virtue of being a form of online diary, like diaries: rambling, incoherent, and more suited for private thoughts than public consumption. “
Rambling, incoherent, not for public consumption… does this sound like something you read. None like that in my feed reader. Maybe Bob just needs to upgrade his choices of blogs.
” If you have something of value to share, there are many better formats for doing it online than by blogging, including white papers, e-zines, and Web sites. “
Wonder if Bob knows you can alert the world to a new white paper with your headline, in your RSS feed, while pinging about 50 sites that will alert a few million people to it’s availability ? Probably not. Nice of him to make it simple for me to blow his thoughts to smither-freakin’-reens ! You guys know I excel in simple.
” Even bulletin boards are interactive, so they have value by virtue of shared opinions, dialogue, and engaging conversation which may be listened to openly and publicly. “
Again, Bob has zero knowledge of blogging, knows nothing about the comments feature and real interactivity.
” But 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. Until that changes, I can’t see starting and maintaining a blog of your own, unless you are bored and looking for something to do, or require an outlet for self-expression. And if the latter is the case, well … why not just buy and keep a diary instead ? “
Again, that doesn’t sound like any of the over 100 feeds I read on a regular basis. Wonder if Guy Kawasaki thinks his blog is a gloppy mess, tasteless and not very satisfying. How about Bob Parsons at GoDaddy ? Andy Wibbles, is this your blog ? Darren Rowse, are you gloppy ? Paul Short, do you feel unsatisfying ? Debbie Weil, how about you ? Brian Clark, Mr. Copyblogger, do you feel like this fits you ? Jeremy Wright, are you a gloppy mess ? Jay Jennings, who has sold a lot of product thru his blog, do you feel tasteless ? Matt Furey, who has started to blog, probably because ezines are hard to get thru anymore, are you gloppy and tasteless ? Can you sell anything thru your blog ? What about you guys over at 37Signals ? You guys ever sell anything thru a blog ? Any cases of positive ROI ? I bought Backpack as it was being marketed thru their blog and I love it ! A review is on the way. Joe Vitale, do you like your blog ? Making any sales because of it ? Feeling tasteless and gloppy because you blog ? Blair Warren, what do you think about blogging and it’s viability as a marketing vehicle ? John Jantsch and the Duct Tapers, how about a comment here ? Rich Brooks of FlyteBlog, help a brother out here. Tell us what you think ? Jim Edwards, you’re blogging, podcasting and video blogging, surely you can refute some of this mess. Mike Smock, I need your input. Paul Chaney, surely you can help us here. Seth Godin, earth to Seth, you feeling gloppy and tasteless ? David Meerman Scott, surely you can offer some better advice that what this cat has spewed. Liz Strauss, what about it ? Martin, you out there ? Anybody ? Y’all just gonna let this guy call us gloppy, tasteless and all that other jazz ?
Let me leave you with the words of Aaron Tippin :
” You’ve got to stand for something, or you’ll fall for anything. “
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