Tech journalist, Sarah Lacy, on why she doesn’t run ads on her blog:
Until I could find an advertising vehicle that valued my audience as much as I do, blogging would just be a loss leader for me—a hub for everything else I was doing and a way to solidify myself as a thought leader. After all, isn’t a decade of industry experience and contacts worth more than pennies a click? BusinessWeek, Yahoo, or any organization that pays me to speak certainly thinks so. Why should I value myself any less?
That term “loss leader” is interesting. It sounds like an oxymoron, of sorts.
I agree with Lacy that blogging’s real value (for most) is not found in ad revenue, but rather in reputation building. Yet, I’m not sold that AdPulp is a “loss leader” for my personal brand. I’m looking for more of a win-win from this site. I’d like to increase revenue and find exciting speaking, writing and consulting gigs.
Interestingly, the other day, Fred Wilson mentioned Technorati’s “State of the Blogosphere” report and how it suggests bloggers are pulling in $75K+ in revenue when their sites have 100,000 or more unique visitors per month.
Wilson balked at that analysis, as do I. AdPulp makes but a fraction of that figure. For sure, we need to court more sponsors, but even then I see us gradually raising revenue. Gradual or not, we do want to raise revenue. So, if you’d like to speak intelligently to the influencers gathered here, let me or Shawn know. We’ll get you a good rate and even better exposure.
