Micropublishing: The Next Wave For Advertisers

In its 24 October edition, Business Week has an analysis of the recent sale of Weblogs Inc to AOL from the point of view of the potential for advertising in blogs. Written by Blogspotting, the Indeed. The article also mentions the deal announced last month between Gizmodo gadget blog (if you visit Gizmodo, note the little flags at top-right of the screen - links to the localized versions). Some good comments to the article, especially this contra one: The "blogosphere" will disappear much like the "webosphere" did in the mid-'90s. Once the e-commerce benefits were noted and capitalized upon, the geeks were out, the F500 in. No reason to think blogs will be that much different. Web 2.0 may remain the domain of the true believers - wikis and whatever comes next - but consider blogging to have already jumped the shark. Few consumers will really know or care about the difference between a corporate Web site and a corporate blog. The core of transparency will likely go by the wayside on many of these blogs once "big media" has taken control. Discerning consumers may be able to note the product placements and other BS in posts, but non-discerning ones won't - and that's the marketing payoff. I say this as someone with one company that has a blog as its only Web site and another company that consults on blogs. Hope I'm wrong, but I don't think so. That's not a bad argument, although not one I agree with - I don't believe for one second that the blogosphere will disappear as the commenter envisions it might - and neither does Jason Calacanis. Take a Reader Comments... Neville Hobson is the author of the popular Crayon. Visit Neville Hobson's blog: