BlogHer Session: $$$ and Sense

UPDATE: Now that we have all the panelists secured for this session, I thought I'd list them, and their blogs, and how they're leveraging those blogs. Should get the juices flowing. Check it out in the extended body of this post.

Despite the horrified response from some blogging circles there are plenty of bloggers who dare to think, "is there a way for me to monetize this?" Hey, that book claims you can do what you love, and the money will follow, right? A girl can dream.

Now lest you think we're envisioning a session on how to put ads on your blog, never fear...there's a lot more to it than that.

Read on...

There are people right now who can link $$ directly to their blogging.

So how are they doing that? Sure, ads are part of it. But so is blogging consulting, sponsored blogs, off-blog writing gigs, and even simply using a blog as a marketing tool for your brand or your business (or your clients' businesses.)

UPDATED SECTION:

4 such people are on our panel:

I'm your moderator, and I have leveraged my blogs in numerous ways: from landing a regular column in a local alternative paper...that's right...print media to writing blogs professionally, both as a hired gun and for a sponsored blog, where I have editorial control, but it is exclusively sponsored by a company. Beyond that I've also leveraged blogs to land speaking engagements, interviews, press and client interest.

Toby Bloomberg is a marketing consultant who has absolutely established herself as an industry expert, in no small part due to her blog presence. She also advises her clients about blogging and helps them get into the game, although she focuses primarily on the strategy part. Toby knows first hand the reaction marketing-oriented blogs can get...and how to handle that reaction.

Carolyn Elefant is a practicing attorney who uses her blog to build her personal brand and her business. She too has landed a book deal thanks to her blog, along with the kind of speaking engagements and other invitations that not only bring revenue, but build her reputation. Carolyn also has some creative ideas about how to user her site to help other solo practitioners get into blogging.

Susannah Gardner is a blogging expert, and author of the newly released Buzz Marketing with Blogs for Dummies. Susannah's book is full of case studies and also focused on what not to do if you want to keep your credibility.

END UPDATED SECTION

But we've also seen such efforts blow up in people's faces. Fake blogs, or even just supposed executive blogs that sound like they're written by some PR flak. The blog community can be merciless (often rightfully so.) The rules still apply: transparency and authenticity are highly valued in the blog community.

So, how can you generate $$ while keeping your sanity and your credibility?

We envision a session that is both informational (giving you ideas on what you can do with your blog) inspirational (believe me, there are stories of people creating opportunities...and of blogs helping accelerate those opportunities) and maybe a bit cautionary...can you say Lincoln Fry?

Oh, and just to be clear. I'm an Amazon Associate. If you clicked to the book mentioned in this post and bought it, I would get about $.50.

What do you think? Does this session put a gleam in your eyes, or make them roll back in your head?

Comments

[Susan Getgood]

Here's my .02 There's a lot of meat in this description,and IMO it is almost worth breaking it into two: one session about how to maximize (or monetize) a blog -- use it to establish expertise, help build a brand, use as a general corp comm tools, and another session that delves into the whole fake/fictional blog "thing." There are some strong opinions on both sides of this argument, oops I mean discussion, which are interesting to those of us in it, but may not be particulalry helpful to the blogger who just wants to understand how can this blog thing fit in my business. She (or he) won't care so much about our "inside baseball" whereas we of course are fascinated by it ;-)

[Susan Getgood]

In addition to this topic (or topics) here are some other marketing/PR topics that merit some digging in:
1.How can the marketing/PR team support employee blogging without co-opting it?
2.How does blogging change PR. For the good, bad, ugly
3.A personal favorite: how can a company support its employee bloggers, who didn't quite realize that having a blog would make them a public (quasi public) figure.
4. Evil corporate topic, but necessary: blogging policies -- how they proteect individuals as well as the firm. In other words, better to have one, than to be fired cause nobody thought of it and someone got upset :-)
5. Generally (and this echoes Elisa's $$andSense theme) blogs can be an effective tool in a corporate marketing strategy. How do marketers decide when a blog makes sense: what tells you that a blog is the right tactic?

[mobile jones]

Susan, I think you're getting at some good material on corporate blogging and blogging ethics.

There are other questions that arise for me as I watch the evolution of this conference, watch the blogosphere grow and people's response to that growth. For example:

What is blogging? And by extension, what does it mean to be a blogger? Any definition seems to be fluid as the tools of blogging evolve.

I have been involved in a successful use of blogging software to create Goggle Juice for job hunters. None of these people were posting daily, keeping a journal or using the software in it's intended purpose. We leveraged the effect of linking on Google to raise visibility of the group, and thereby, each member. We, also, deployed the Google search tool to create a search across these BioBlogs allowing recruiters and hiring managers to search within our group for available talent by keywords. Blogging tools were used because they were robust and free.

Others use blogging software to create online magazines like engadget, and still others use blogging software to create an online store. There are personal journals, political commentary, technology discussion/promotion, self promotion, service marketing, politcal campaigning, community building/social networking and uses yet to evolve. Although blogging software is used in many ways and for a variety of purposes what distinguishes these sites from the term online publishing? Is it RSS and comments? Is it linking and the resulting Google Juice? Is it the use of blogging software?

Is a contributor to a sponsored group blog a blogger in the same meaning as someone who maintains a personal journal of their daily lives, experiences and thoughts? And is that person a blogger in the same sense that a political campaign candidate is a blogger?

There are some great controversies of late that would be interesting to investigate/discuss. The brouhaha between Marc Canter, Stowe Boyd and Jason Calacanis. Namely, is it okay for marketers to pay bloggers to blog? In the evolution of what it means to blog and be a blogger this is a fascinating controversy. The fellows have debated the topic. What say the women bloggers?
Topic Background:

1. The Company
2. Paying Bloggers to Blog Program
3. Blogosphere Controversy
   
4. The Live Debate - video
   

Debate play instructions:

1. press the link above, then
2. press the "Replay" button, then
3. press the play button on the video
   

There's crossover in the discussion above in making money for blogging and blogging ethics. There are loud voices in the blogosphere who have adopted what I'd call "La Bloga Nostra" which literally translates as "The Blog Ours." These are the A-list all male voices which need the balance of other opinions such as those BlogHer Con can represent.

More later maybe...

[Nancy White]

There is the secondary $ effects, some of which Mobile Jones mentions with the resume/google juicing. For me, my blog gives potential clients a way to "hear my voice," see what others think of my voice (a la links) and it sure does keep me in the top one or two with a VERY common name (Nancy White - I flip flop with the very talented musician Nancy White of Canada. Now SHE is cool!)

This visibility offered by a blog is ESSENTIAL in my biz and I bet if I were job hunting, would be as well. And far more valuable than .50 from Amazon in the long run.

My advice to many people these days is if you don't blog and you have something to say, get blogging. (Likewise, if you don't, don't make yourself look like a fool!)

One more note (I'm wordy today). The underlying ideas about making $$ through blogging also apply to non profits and NGOs. Don't count yourself out of this session if you are a terminal do-gooder.

[Elisa Camahort]

Hey Nancy: your last comment reminds me that I need to start a thread on our second marketing-oriented session. This one is focused somewhat on bloggers themselves and how they can leverage their blogs...as you say for visibility, establishing expertise, getting gigs, on and offline, generate $$$.

The other marketing session is going to be more organization oriented...how blogging can be a great tool for small businesses, well, any business, and even non-profits and NGOs.

I think by having two sessions we can cover more ground...since once you throw the whole thics questino in it gets to be a pretty massive topic.

[Nancy White]

Nodding in agreement. I think there is too much for one session. The other thing to think about is how this can flow out to the Other Voices/Other Rooms where people can dig in deeper to this and any other topic. I think it is really important to keep that on the radar screen.

Which leads to one more point. People worry about missing one session if they choose to split off to another. It may be helpful to remind people that we are going to powerblog as much as possible. So you can be two places at once. (Typical female multi-processing?)

[Elisa Camahort]

You mean the "Room of Your Own" right? :)

And of course you're right, the point of the Blogherships is to have live-bloggers in every session, making the entire conference accessible to everyone!

Have to say I've never been a fan of setting up chats during sessions an projecting them on a screen during the session...that exceeds my multi-tasking capabilites.

[Nancy White]

I like IRC, but projecting it gets things waaaay too complicated. Non projected IRC gives us fidgeters a way to stay engaged. What is really interesting is to capture those logs as another artifact of a session.

[Elisa Camahort]

OK, I can go for that idea too :)

[Maria Tseng]

Let me shift the focus a bit from activities DURING the sessions to capturing the gems for posterity. I do love to exaggerate, but seriously, I offer to be the scribe for the session on how to make money from blogging. I will turn my notes into an informative and SHORT summary of the main points. And then post it somewhere, where people can read about it after-the-fact.

If the organizers so desire, you can name scribes for particular sessions, then blog their notes. Maybe you'll see trends, etc. that are useful for follow-on activities, maybe a BlogHer Conference II... n?

My suggestion might already be entrain and I just don't know about it. Sorry if it's a been-there, done-that.

[Elisa Camahort]

Hi Maria:

Actually at this link you'll see how we're offering Blogherships to those who couldn't' otherwise afford the conference fee in exchange for live-blogging the sessions:
http://www.blogher.org/2005/04/volunteers_sign.html

Although of course we will be providing post-conference links to anyone who blogs about it.

We exactly do want to not only let those who can't make it experience it, but also to collect feedback for future events. Great minds think alike.

[Maria Tseng]

Oh, being a newbie, I thought Blogherships were people who blog about the event in real time, not after the fact.

How about pointing me to a glossary?

[Elisa Camahort]

No, you're right...the blogherships are for people to live-blog it. (And we made Bloghership up.)

It goes without saying that tons of attendees will blog after the fact. We would expect no less from our intrepid BlogHers. We'll probably do something similar to what they did after the NewComm Forum...they created a public page where everyone could go upload their URLs for the psots they'd written about the conference sessions.