In the last months I am increasingly reading all type of news and watching conferences and seminars where people are predicting that blogs will be a big source of business. A known lecturer said last week in Bilbao that blogs are great for companies because "they are a source of innovation". It does not sound like a main reason!
Besides MS and Macromedia, there are not so many companies using blogs and in no case they are using them to bring money. They sound more like a new intranet/extranet tool or, in the case of newspapers, as a new way to name editorials. I hope to be wrong, but there is a feeling inside me that blogs have become a new source of business for traditional gourous, lecturers and people who live out of conferencing. And that scares me...
José,
If the lecturer you are refering to is the sameone I listened to in Alava a few days ago, then what I understood he said was not that "blogs are a source of innovation", but that they are an innovation per se (a new way to communicate to audiences inside and outside of your company). Then he added that most likely even the most innovative companies in your sector are not using them yet, so it is your chance, for once, to be first with something in your
Posted by: Julio Alonso | November 15, 2004 at 02:29 PM
Do I earn any money by being the "first with something"? I think that is what companies are looking for, isn't it?
Posted by: José A. del Moral | November 15, 2004 at 02:37 PM
The people making money on blogs are doing it by selling eyeballs to advertisers.
Posted by: paul | November 15, 2004 at 04:53 PM
Why does that scare you?
Posted by: Jim Kukral | November 16, 2004 at 11:29 PM
José,
I don't think that's necessarely the point. Obviously companies considering public blogging (as opposed to internal blogging) are looking at its positive effects for the company, but those needn't be monetary. Most likely they are improved reputation, awareness, etc.
Gosh, some people are even doing it just to improve their searchability by Google.
The only people looking at Blogs as a business per se are the ones into nanopublishing.
Posted by: Julio Alonso | November 17, 2004 at 03:56 PM
Hello everybody,
José, are you referring to the conference in Vitoria? If so, I don't remember having you there, but, as Julio has pointed out, the point about companies and blogging is the new way of communication implied in the process, not really the advertising.
Nevertheless, I perceived a sour note in your comment, complaining about people living on guru-ing, conferencing and so on. Being myself a promoter of guru-free spaces, I was charmed to share the conference with practicioner bloggers such J.L. Orihuela or Julio Alonso. Besides, promoting a better way of doing things through blogging is just the purpose of CEOBloggers, I think, and that was exactly what happened in Vitoria, during the very first important conference on corporate blogging.
Posted by: Iñigo Arbildi | November 17, 2004 at 06:24 PM
Just to finish my exposition, it's not about Blogs as a Business, but Blogs IN Businesses.
Posted by: Iñigo | November 17, 2004 at 06:28 PM
Then there's the business of getting businesses a blog, which I'm trying to get up and running.
http://blmbusinessblogs.com/
Posted by: Beth | December 08, 2004 at 05:19 PM
Blogs are so versatile that they can be a business all by themselves, or an important part of another business.
They can also be a public relations and marketing compontent for either an online business or a traditional bricks and mortar company. Helping other businesses add blogs to their business is also a business opportunity too. Writing blog posts as an experienced professional blogger is also a business of the future.
The scope for blogs and their relationship as businesses and as part of other businesses is unlimited.
Posted by: Wayne Hurlbert | December 17, 2004 at 05:49 AM