Here’s a ranking of Marketing blogs:

http://adage.com/power150/

I used to run #50 – 55. Now I am around #300.

When I started writing criticism of Display Ads and Social Media, my Technorati ranking plunged, which punishes my ranking in the Ad Age Power 150 ranking.

Is this is the “Wisdom of Crowds”?

Further, look at that Top 150 list. Many of the top blogs are really worthless LCD stuff.

I think the blogosphere is simply rigged, the wrong measures of “authority” are being used, these measures are set up to promote LCD, ad-driven content and that’s just the way it is. That’s the model.

It’s quantity over quality.

Is it worth it to fight against this? At least with a web site / newsletter, the content stands on it’s own…

80/20 Law?

80% of the traffic volume will go to LCD.

20% of the traffic volume will seek out the new ideas and challenge themselves.

The genus “marketing blogs” are – well, I’m laughing at the thought right now – but I mean, I guess I just don’t value vagueness.

It’s a lot like Meme tracking. Sometimes I just don’t know where the real discussions and the real crucible of them are. Other times, I’ve been involved in the very thread where it was born.

Where are the real, substantive, discussions around marketing really happening? I’d go there if I knew where.

I believe that most people who are well-rounded and un-threatened by ideas would want to go there too.

Could it be a case of an unrealized market?

What’s the overall population that reads ‘marketing blogs’? Would we hazard an estimate of 100,000? Is 20,000 readers enough to keep something substantive going?

It’s the MARKETING blogosphere that concerns me, which includes all the Social stuff. Now that is a race to the bottom with LCD-driven ad volume as the fuel! The vast majority of these blogs, perhaps 90%, add no new ideas and do not question “common knowledge”, they just pass it on to be repeated over and over.

So the real question for me is this: is there really an audience for new ideas and challenging current thought in the blogosphere? Or is groupthink the blogosphere business model?

If so, there’s no point in investing the time in publishing my material in this format.

At the root is the question “what’s the reward for blogging”

If it’s traffic, then you’ll natural trend towards LCD, the Lowest Common Denominator. The TMZ of Web Analytics we already have. We’ve yet to get a Perez Hilton of WA.

If it’s something distinctly different however, well then, ;) don’t get distracted by the TMZ of WA.

The problem with LCD is that it’s so vanilla, and it’s such a race to the bottom.

I will argue, however, if that some readers are dissatisfied with the race to the bottom, in this Internet age, there’s nothing wrong with undertaking one of the greatest social experiments in web analytics.

I thought perhaps the blog could be a “front end” to the newsletter, that people would come in through the blog and end up in the newsletter. That doesn’t really happen to any great extent, even though I publish most of the newsletters in the blog.

Jacques, yes, so the idea was Marketing Productivity is a “wide” topic, as opposed to the newsletter, which is very narrow. It would allow me to talk about stuff like Social Media that I really could not do in the newsletter.

And if you think about what Avinash does and how successful he is at it, you get a notion of the audience issue. People seem to want to be given the “how to” without really learning anything conceptual, or having to think very hard about complex issues. I think that’s just the nature of the blogosphere audience, it’s “quick hits” and content grazing. Nothing wrong with that, but it is what it is, and I’m not sure you can fight it.

And on the book, sure, I have often thought about that. But books take a lot of time, and this (I think) is one of the central arguments Ron is making when he talks about “distraction of mental energy”. Writing a blog, at least in the style of this one, is every bit as tough as writing a book, it takes the same time and energy, at least for me.

So perhaps if I stopped doing the blog I’d have the time and mental energy to actually write that book you’re talking about…

I don’t think I will kill the blog, but do really need to figure out a new format and / or mission for it, because the benefits are out of whack with the effort.

Ron is obvioulsy right: you can be damn sure I would read you on a monthly basis! I’d take whatever you want to dish out!

As a long-time subscriber to your newsletter, I can appreciate the difference between the two. I have always seen your newsletter as a kind of “how to”; very specific, very much into the nitty gritty of the theoretical framework you present in your book.

Your blog is where I find bleeding edge thinking (cf. “Web Intelligence”, “Repeating the Past”, “Consensus Learning Model” series, to name a few in the recent past), and your posts have influenced me a lot professionally.

Now, as a consultant, is blogging worth it? Obviously yes if you’re Avinash Kaushik, but there is room for only one, I guess. I know I have never gotten any business because someone thought my blogs were awsome (OK, they are probably not after all). To be specific, blogging to me is a way to occupy some “space” in the WA public discourse. To be even more specific, blogging has generated enough content so that I score well in organic search. That’s basically it, business wise.

And honestly, I have always been appalled by the few comments some of your most seminal posts have received, especially compared to some WA bloggers who will get at least 50 for anything they write. I know I am walking on politically incorrect grounds here, but to me, the difference in quality in content, and audience, is obvious, and in line with what happens everywhere else where sophisticated thinking lives, where it’s more difficult to breathe.

You know what else I would read? A new book, based on all you’ve written here in the last year!

However, given what you’ve said, Jim, about the newsletter, I am left wondering why you continue to keep the blog alive (or why you started the blog in the first place).

BTW, I just subscribed to the newsletter. For the life of me, I don’t why I didn’t do that 1.9 years ago.

I was not going to get into the dynamics and metrics of my blog versus my e-mail newsletter in a more comprehensive way, but your reply stimulates a short mention…

On a per thousand basis, the interactivity I get from the e-mail newsletter is about 10x what I get from the blog.

When I post the newsletter, people respond by asking specific questions about how the topic relates to their business and I respond to them individually and specifically to the business problem they are facing.

I’m not sure how you can do that very well (at least in my business) with a blog, because a lot of the issues addressed deal with trade secrets, e.g. “What is the value of our customer?” or “Can you help us figure out how to sell more to current customers?” or for the more advanced people “20% of our best customers have defected, how do we address this problem?”

This is not the kind of info a company wants spread around, and I promise to keep the questioner anonymous in return for providing real world solutions and examples other folks can follow in the newsletter.

This is the “trade” or value for the newsletter; participation is not “free”. This is an exchange with real value paid. The company gets tangible advice, the subscribers get compelling and unique content.

What do I get? Down the road from this initial exchange, I get jobs, because (hopefully) I nailed the initial challenge and they want to move forward.

This has been my business model since 2000.

And blogging does not have the same effect as the newsletter. I’m open to any suggestions on how to drive the blogging contribution to the same level as the newsletter, but I think the “exposed” nature of blogging, and the audience for it, quite simply smothers the business potential for me.

My newsletter is (unlike most others) extremely interactive, and responses to “Comments” are personalized and confidential.

Can you get that kind of experience from a blog?

Me neither, I’ve never wanted to put ads on my modest blogs (was asked a couple of times). And I have never been able to connect that effort to any new engagements either.

For me, blogging helps me structure my thoughts, even though I usually do it on a jist (I don’t spend much time writing my posts). It’s a way for me to put what’s intrigues me out there, and see if someone could help me think better.

I am sure guys like Ron and you put way more efforts into it, and I understand your wondering whether it’s all worth it or not. As a reader, though, I can guaranty you it is.

I also publish occasionally; I got fed up with the stress of the weekly post. Now, I just do it whenever something comes up in that little head of mine. This has destroyed my Technorati rating, but I don’t care anymore. I do care for the 300+ people who bother reading what I write, and I have had great comments that have helped me get further.

But is it worth doing all that, if it’s for only a handful of people to really care? I guess you’re right to ask yourself that question. Personally, I don’t, because I would stop blogging if I did.

Ron, thanks again for all those thoughts.