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BTW, it's totally possible for a writer, even a journalist, to have a blog that isn't itself a publication. Journalists have ideas that no one has paid them to have too, and they might want to get the ideas out there even if no one is paying them to write it.
My general rule for having a blog is that if you ever have an idea that you think "I wish everyone knew this" -- then you need a blog, and that idea belongs there.
I think a few early-ish successes like Drudge may have muddied the waters.
With advances in information technology, people are slowly but surely becoming aware that such expressions do not need to be classified or pigeon-holed, but insteads can be stored in an arbitrary location and accessed by appropriate indexing.
The indexing methods that are appropriate depend on such things as the "user" (e.g. language) and the "use case" (e.g. entertainment). Therefore, whereas someone who speaks .US or .UK might search for a vacation-rental in Spain @ http://vacation-rentals.es (and such linguistic phenomena were probably also at play with your sale of weblogs.com).
Whether the code (the website) available at the location (the web site) is a blog or some other format (or genre) is (IMHO) secondary.
I have to remember to write TO my audience, and not just write what I think most people will find interesting and popular.
your blog as a notetaking tool, and unless there's a reason not to, why not
share your knowledge with everyone else. There are all kinds of ways to
profit from keeping a blog, one of them is knowing that helped someone.
Money is only a means to an end, it's not an end in itself. Obviously it's
an important means, but it's not the only one.
I try to respect the differences between people, I might read a blog written by a Yankees fan even though I despise the Yankees. I know that there are Yankees fans. If I ran the world I would probably try to encourage them not to root for teh Yankees, but even so I know that as long as there was free choice there probably would be some misguided souls who don't see the light. :-)
It's very easy for people to tune out. They're mostly tuned out most of the time anyway. I wouldn't worry about it. Be yourself man!
Yes, my daughter is taught to speak her mind and be herself above and beyond anything else.
I really appreciate the reminder. Thank you.
When you consider what the domain would have cost in the first place, that is better than the lottery.
It actually solidifies my beliefs in how a blog should be used and how I use my blog, granted not as effectively as yours, but money has come as a result of my ideas.
I would love to see more like this one, practical stuff we can all use.
Thank you.
It's also interesting to note that what you have described may easily be somewhat "contrary" to the so-called "Google guidelines" -- have they ever blacklisted any of you writings on the basis of violating any of Google's rules?
BTW: I think Google's rules are totally bogus -- I blogged about it several weeks ago, and I also got a very positive contribution from Anita Campbell (an expert with respect to blogging for Small Businesses). Here's my blog post (in case you missed it): http://gaggle.info/post/141/on-the-web-its-freedom-2-publishing-0
I think it would be totally cool if more prominent bloggers were to come out and clearly state the obvious: Google (and it's stupid rules) = Bullshit
Maybe if more people were to call the bogus company what it really is, they would no longer be able to make money from other people's hard work -- because then (perhaps) more people would realiye that Google's SERPs are manipulated to favor their own publishing partners (although this has been well documented, it's still not widely known).
Thank you for having the courage to come out and speak the plain & simple truth!
:) nmw
Nice work, Dave.
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You're one of the earliest bloggers out there, and your traffic is one of the highest around. Plus, you made over $2 million having the a valuable domain name, weblogs.com -- obviously there was value added, but the domain name itself is quite valuable and not something that's easily duplicated.
1. Pretty sure verisign wanted more than the domain name.
2. My traffic is nothing compared to many of the larger sites that came
later, and others made a lot more money than I did.
3. I hope it's clear my point is larger -- I'm not counseling people on
making money, I disclaimed that right up front. But a lot of people are
confused by the reasoning in Lyons's piece, it's a common refrain from MSM,
as if blogs were doing what they do. They are doing some sloppy thinking
there because blogs aren't. Blogs have value in their own right independent
of whether or not they are part of a money making venture.
Dave
You shake my brain and you rattle my soul. I enjoy the tech/poli posts of course, but I so love it when you slip in and out of DaveNet mode here. ~ http://www.scripting.com/davenet/about.html
Appreciate you sharing this Dave.
Regards,
I originally started my blog as an experiment and the feedback that I get from my mini community is payment in itself. As a personal SEO tool, seeing the world through my own "filter", and conversation starter it has been a great undertaking.
That's an interesting turn of phrase: it suggests that the product was good before you made it. It bears out my impression that you think in a very interesting way. For what it's worth, I like that.
Keep telling these stories Dave. Makers of stuff, developers need to hear these existence proofs.
In this context, good blogging matches the academic world publishing results mostly not thinking about patents or IPs. It is hard to put a dollar figure to it.
Is it kind of ironic in the thought that this is one of the things i have heard so often on tv and Radio, yet it is something that when written just does not work out right. Great thought's and good to see that there is potential without the need to plaster my blog in ads. thank-you
May the force be with you to inspire the cyberspace & the world.
Steve Pavlina is also making money from his blog. His tips are here http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2006/05/how-to...
Personally I have never paid a cent to advertise a ski apartment that I rent out, because my blog makes sure it is always in top 5 of the appropriate search terms in google.
This makes sense and is probably the most helpful piece of advice I've heard in along time.
Thank You.
"All the promotion ever done for the company was done right here. "
Wrong. Scoble did some too while he worked for you. In fact I didn't even read your blog back then, and discovered and tried Radio Userland because I was reading Scoble's blog.
Some people are so darned ornery! But I love yaz anyway. :-)
Exactly!
Dave, one of the first things I liked about your blog (and, of course, you... still do) is that it embodied that philosophy (purist 'blogology', if you will). No ads, no clutter, just you —warts (or whatever you might have!) and all— and whatever thrown out onto the cyber sidewalk for whoever is curious enough to stop and take a look.
I mean, how can anything truly new (ideas, things, etc.) ever enter into our world if first it must be paid for in advance?
Being unafraid to try, say or do things before you've determined what others might think first is key to success in anything (generalizing a bit)... but especially blogging. There's no guarantee (obviously) if one does believe and practice this in life, yet living the opposite way will usually put you in a politician's pickle – unable to do anything unless your adv-[ert]-isors or the polls say it's okay.
I miss blogging like crazy –and one day will make time to do so again– but I still read your blog as often as possible (ok, almost daily).
Keep it up! >;]
design business?
Anyway, it's not surprising that professional reporters want to apply the
same rules to bloggers that they apply to political candidates. If they can
catch you in a trivial gotcha, no matter how smart they are, they're going
to run with it. I made the mistake for a number of years of giving a shit
what they thought, even though I would have told you outwardly that I
didn't, I was acting differently.
I've learned that you can't win in that world, and it's crumbling anyway --
so let it go and that's gotten me back to my roots, all the way back to
before I was blogging when I was writing DaveNet just for the thrill of
being out on the edge.
As a result we're having a lot more fun here. And it's got the
blackholebrain to make another visit. That's coooooooool.. :-)
It's really another version of what somebody somewhere probably said: "follow your heart, and the money will follow". And just magine how different the world would be if more people followed their hearts instead of dollar bills...
Of course, it seems like that's also the reasoning (not necessarily publicly expressed) behind a lot of what's going on everywhere today, especially with the political world.
All reporters hate not being the one to "get the scoop" —their thrill— especially if a sub-important blogger breaks it first. But to me, professional reporters who feel that way are similar to music industry snobs who scoff at "internet musicians" who do and share what they love without shouldering the 'yoke of obedience' that the establishment insists MUST BE WORN!!!
But hey, enough of us now know better (not just talking music anymore) and I think the PTB are more than a little frightened by how enlightening and empowering the web is to people... LOTS of people. We can get our thrills without all the "thank-you-sir-may-I-have-another" crap they so enjoy!
Anyway, the good ole sign business is 'ok', but our company let 20% of the work force go in the past month or so... which says a lot. But hey, I still love designing signs, and I'm glad to be working!
Then again, if I get laid off I suppose I'll have plenty of time for blogging then, hmm?
>;]
Authenticity made a real difference in recommending the product, because I felt like I had an insight into how the product came to be, I'd watched it evolve, I felt like my responses were part of the design process, and would continue to be.
I'm still using it, though not as much as before. It's not under active development, and you owned up to that. You let us in on the troubles you had, and why support wasn't so great for a while, and that let me know where you were going helped me make good choices. I still trust your stuff because of that. If those things had happened without an explanation, and I'd had to rely on rumors, I'd have walked away completely. Instead, I let people in on what they're buying and plenty of my clients still choose it. Some don't. Some wouldn't have anyway. I can't say that the truth did anything but help.
Thanks.
Blogs are communication tools. Marketing is communication. Advertising is communication with the masses. PR firms help people who can't communicate do so effectively.
When you can communicate effectively AND with a large audience - well, that's when a blog is absolute marketing MAGIC.
His article just makes him look like the typical marketing newbie and that's really sad.
http://web.archive.org/web/19961114163115/http:...
What I don't agree with is that you can't make money directly of an blog, sure you can. Even if your only goal in life is to make money on blog, it can be done. I even know about a few people in little Norway that do problogging for money.
One of the areas in which the power of blogging for business has shown its muscle is that in a world of electronic commerce, the blogging businessperson has again a means to initiate conversations with clientele and potential clientele. It "repersonalizes" the relationship in a way that static content websites never good (save by using too many gifs of flying flags and bible verses.)
I did some content writing for a designer who is always trying to come up with ways to make his clients' sites sticky; adding games, talking avatars, etc. I pressed on him the idea that he should sell his clients on adding blogging. There was no data on the traffic enhancement of blogging at that time and since he was doing well without selling blogging, he paid no attention.
I think he sells blogging now.
Masterpiece!
Bring Back The Fun in Blogging!