When the idea of having a blog for DMI started floating around, there were a lot of questions that we had to consider. Who would be our resident blogger? What would we blog about? How much did we want to reveal on our blog? And the most important question...who would read our blog?
A recent article in The New York Times Magazine titled, Queen of the Mommy Bloggers got me thinking about how much influence a particular blogger may have. The article talks about a couple popular blogs (we're talking about 100,000 visits per day) that have yielded influence amongst its readers. One of the featured bloggers, Heather Armstrong from www.dooce.com, complained about her washing machine on various blog posts and because of all the press her blog was receiving, she "fielded frantic, apologetic calls from Maytag and not only got her washing machine fixed but also had a second one donated by a different company to a nearby women's shelter."
She along with many other bloggers also have turned blogging into a lucrative business with ad placements and product endorsements. Has this turned off readers? "Being powerful on the Internet is an odd and contrary state. 'Influential' can mean strangers love you but it is just as likely to mean that they hate you."
With or without ads, people read blogs for various reasons. It's a window into someone else's life, they may share a particular interest or hobby, or they can be a resource for information. We wanted our blog to be a combination of all those reasons.
Why do you read blogs? What blogs have appealed to you? Does a blogger's opinion help influence yours?
--L
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