The Blog Marketing Explosion

Rich Ord
CEO, iEntry, Inc.
Published: 2004-10-05
There are literally thousands of blogs by eBusiness insiders.

This has changed the landscape of guerrilla marketing.
At first it was seen as just something cool to do ... but blogs are now being used to build personal and corporate credibility that will eventually attract customers (they hope!).



Almost Everyone Blogs. Do You?


Are Blogs a marketing goldmine? Discuss at the WebProWorld eBusiness Forum.

Blogs are a goldmine of formerly hard to get insight from CEO's, marketing guru's and others who never used to have a public forum. These business leaders are utilizing the internet to convey their personal thoughts on happenings in their industry and life. They are blogging for the same reasons they do public speaking, to build credibility for themselves and their company's. Blogging has become a new … less time consuming and less expensive way to reach potential and current customers.

Big Blog Company associate Jackie Danicki comments in The Times (London) on CEO blogs, "You basically have a lot of CEOs who are sitting there and writing about what they know. Also adding personal things in, talking off-topic, about their holidays. ...It gets readers to feel an affinity."

Danicki continues, "Executives start blogging for a number of reasons, They want to raise their personal profile. They want to reach out to customers and members of their own staff without going through official channels and PR departments. They want to be seen as a forward thinking company up to date with the latest trend."

The effect is powerful viral marketing with blogs linking to other blogs. "The real value is things that you don't expect," says Danicki. "I know from our perspective, the amount of people we've ended up talking to and doing business with just simply thanks to our blog is amazing. Producers in Hollywood. People from publishing companies in the States. People who in another time without this network we would never have made contact with."

So, what kind of information is in these blogs? I remember reading Jupitermedia CEO Alan Meckler's blog where he warns "all trade show operators about the perils of working with the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas". Real time concerns by big time CEO's, now that's what the internet was invented for!

Then there is Jonathan's Blog. Sounds innocuous doesn't it? Well, Jonathan is none other than President and Chief Operating Officer of Sun Microsystems. Sure, he has a pony tail, but at least he isn't wearing pajamas. Jonathan is usually pointed and philisophical in his frequent blog posts as in this recent excerpt, "Please do not listen to the bizarro numbskull anti-Sun conspiracy theorists. They were lunatics then, they are lunatics now, they will always be lunatics. We love the open source community, we spawned from it."

Billionaires have blogs too. Dot com billionaire Mark Cuban who is starring in "The Benefactor" reality show has been blogging since March. In one post he dumps on Trump, "I don't think its dawned on you just how hard Mark Burnett threw you under the bus. … Nice job on Leno last night Donald. At least you admitted that you hadn't seen The Benefactor. But saying that it will fail. That's a little much Donald, even from you."

The CEO of Tucows, a big domain seller, blogs us with his insider insights that future domain sales will be done via auctions. Elliot Noss states, "The market for expired names is changing. The old one (framework) wasn't working. Not for everyday registrants and that is who we should all be thinking about. Not for Verisign and not for ICANN. Those who say that either of them like the status quo really do not have a clue."

Robin Hopper, CEO & Founder of iUpload, talks about how major consumer marketing efforts are starting to utilize blogs. "Coke's online brand manager Mark Dooley reveals they've been keeping a close watch on consumer generated marketing including blogs and that they plan a social networking-oriented marketing effort soon. Bottom line, consumer generated marketing is going to be a must have tactic in your arsenal…"

The Jason Calacanis Weblog shows how blogs often reflect where one has traveled to. Jason is currently the Chairman of The Weblogs, Inc. and has previously started and sold several dot com ventures. In this post Jason is at the Gnomedex conference (on blogging) in California ...

"Speaking at Gnomedex right now.. I'm blogging this from the stage of Gnomedex." Well, its not always biting commentary, but it is fun … and in the end it's marketing. Possibly, the most powerful type of corporate marketing per dollar spent ever invented.

About the Author:
Rich Ord is the CEO of iEntry, Inc. which publishes over 200 websites and email newsletters. Rich also publishes his blog WebProBlog which focuses on internet business and marketing trends.