Question

Blogging … The Wave of the Future?

This was the tittle of a talk given to the local chpater of the American Marketing Association by a well respected local advertising and promotion “expert.”

“How many of you have your own blog?” he asked as the audience settled down.

Over half of the sixty people in the room put their hand up.

“That’s impressive,” the speaker commented. “However, this is a meeting of the American Marketing Association and you are all obviously used to marketing yourselves one way or another.” Further questioning led to the conclusion that the number of blogs per person ranged from one (the most common number) to seven with the mean or average being 2.1. some were personal, other political, and yet other focused on a specific issue of importance to the writer.

“How many of you have ever tried to sell products or services on your blog?”

One only person kept his hand up (Harrison DeVry)

“I tried selling some of my paintings on my blog. At the of each blog ( on the problems in the oil industry), I posted pictures of my oil paintings along with the tittle and price… generally in the form of ‘$200 or best offer.”

“Did you sell any?” the speaker asked.

The painter shook his head from side to side. “not a thing.”

Question 1: Do you think blogs represent a major C2C marketing opportunity? Is this the way of the future? Or is the painter’s experience likely to be typical?

Question 2: what do you think would influence the likelihood of selling something via a blog? What should come first? The blog and then the paintings? Or the paintings and then the blog?

Question 3: what could Harrison Devry have done (if anything) to increase the likelihood of selling his paintings?