selling coffee machines

By alice | November 20, 2005

(Note: I’ve never marketed anything in my life. This post is all just theorising. It seems like common sense to me, but one thing I do know from experience is, if you haven’t tested an idea in practice then the theory of it isn’t worth a dime. Just saying.)

Quite a few people have been directed here by Steve Den Beste’s link to my post below: warm greetings to any of you still passing through.

This isn’t a big-hitting blog, but as you’ll know if you’ve been following the OSM story, hits don’t make money. Not that this is a moneymaking blog either, in fact there’s no way to donate money here even if you wanted to. It’s an old-fashioned bloggy blog, where I write what I want even if it makes no sense, and those are the kinds of blogs I also happen to like to read. It’s an ongoing blogodilemma that if you have a great Corporate Brand Image (which can happen by accident more easily than design, perhaps) then you will probably get more readers, but you may also get bored of writing the same old every day forever. On the other hand, someone like Kim du Toit (as if that was possible) could have a fantastic brand identity and a massive readership… and only enough advertising income to pay for the massive bandwidth. How come?

Like Den Beste (20051117) said,

It’s not how many people you get, it’s who they are that matters, and political commentary sites don’t get people that advertisers are interested in reaching, or rather, don’t get enough such people.

Or, like Dennis says,

Yeah, high household income is something advertisers like, but if it isn’t coupled with access to the decision maker they have no reason to spend with you.

Much trumpeting has been made of the affluence of blogoreaders. But if you want to sell them stuff, you have to get them to spend, or at least visit the commercial sites. Just being there is not enough. I am a blog reader. I never, ever, ever click onto advertising sites. If I want to buy something, I will look it up myself, thank you very much. I’ve got my own systems for spending money, evolved over *cough* number of years. I hate, hate, hate being sold to. Can’t stand it. Sidebar ads do not upset me (though pop-ups definitely annoy), but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t rather eat my own shoes than go looking for them on Manolo’s sidebar ad.

I might, however, follow a link from a post that directly recommends and highlights a really good pair of this season’s riding-style boots. The ones I really want are from these people:

toast boots

Andulacian riding boots, they’re called, and unless I see an ad with a picture of those very boots, which is most unlikely, I’m not going to click on it.

The last Martha’s apprentice was a good lesson about this problem. Two teams had $40k each to sell a new coffee-maker by getting people into a shop and then persuading them to buy. The first team got far more people in their shop, then showed a total lack of enthusiasm about selling the machine. The second team got fewer people in, but made more of an effort to sell- offering freebies and generally talking more positively- so they won. Manolo makes money by selling shoes in his posts, and because he believes in the shoes you don’t feel conned when reading him. But political blogs would lose trust if they filled up with posts about stuff for buying. You don’t want your presidential candidate sporting a Macdonalds t-shirt, and you don’t want Glenn Reynolds product-placing mentions of Coca Cola. But in the Martha show, at least the people in the shop were there for a free coffee.

This isn’t the reason why OSM is being described as a car-crash, though. That’s about specific issues to do with competence and trustworthiness. It matters because it affects the reputation of the whole political blogosphere and everyone who links to and discusses issues with the OSM blogs, and when they write that off as envy, it’s a bad sign and a divisive event in what used to be a civilised community.

Depressing. So to end on a happier note, I really like this skirt from Toast as well:

toast skirt

It’s a shame everything there costs too much. Maybe I could copy it with green stripes instead. No, they’re not paying me a penny, as you very well know.

(Tragically Mundanely, the Martha show has been a ratings disaster and won’t be renewed. I think it’s better than the original Trump, which just gives you a headache, but headaches get more and more popular in TV these days. The lesson is that my tastes are peculiar, and Martha should stick to pecan pies. Dodgy business, marketing.)

1 Comment »

One Response to “selling coffee machines”

Sean Kinsell Says:
November 21st, 2005 at 3:48 am

“This isn’t a big-hitting blog, but as you’ll know if you’ve been following the OSM story, hits don’t make money. Not that this is a moneymaking blog either, in fact there’s no way to donate money here even if you wanted to. It’s an old-fashioned bloggy blog, where I write what I want even if it makes no sense, and those are the kinds of blogs I also happen to like to read.”

I can attest to that last part, given that you stop by my place frequently. : ) After a few curious click-throughs to links on the subject, I decided very quickly that the OSM brouhaha wasn’t something I was interested in. I’m fond of and passionate about individuals and institutions. Clubs? Not so much.