« Ind. Gov't. - Inspector General bill the focus of story today | Main | Ind. Gov't. - Focus on Indiana's Governor, a Tax Cutter Who Has Become a Tax Raiser »

Sunday, February 20, 2005

General news - Blogging in the news

The Chicago Tribune reports today that "Bloggers blend business with stuff they like: Advertisers take notice of Web logs, especially those that draw large audiences, loyal followers." Some quotes:

John Campea started The Movie Blog, a Web site for amateur movie critics, as a labor of love. Now he's making up to $400 a month running ads on the site.

It's not enough cash for him to quit his job as a law clerk, but it shows the blog world's potential as an advertising venue, a potential that big ad companies have noticed.

Take Starcom MediaVest Group in Chicago. It recently commissioned one of its executives, Dan Buczaczer, to find out how to make blogs attractive to clients like Best Buy.

Starcom figures that blogs, despite their sometimes anarchic nature, are a key way to reach a powerful group known to advertisers as "influencers." * * *

With their ability to form personal connections with readers, blogs are drawing interest from advertisers who would pay dearly to piggyback off the bond between blogger and reader. * * *

Internet advertising is making healthy gains these days. Just look at Internet search engine Google Inc., which recently reported a seven-fold jump in fourth-quarter profits, well above Wall Street's expectations. Google makes its money from advertising. * * *

Like many bloggers, he uses Google's AdSense, a service that automatically matches advertisers with sites based on the content of each. Google splits ad revenue with sites like The Movie Blog, and revenue is based on the number of clicks each ad receives. Campea says he gets about 7 cents per click.

Campea, of Hamilton, Ontario, has no plans to make a living off his blog. Still, he said that would be tempting if traffic to the site--and ad revenue--keeps growing at a strong pace.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on February 20, 2005 02:38 PM
Posted to General News