On Hanging Separately
April 9, 2009 / 9:49 am • By Dr. Melissa ClouthierA year ago, my co-blogger John Hawkins asked me to write at Right Wing News. I’m an independent person. I have my own blog. I like the freedom to write what I want to write. Still, John has a bigger audience and I believe the future is going to be consolidation. United, conservative writers and thinkers have greater power.
But there’s not much money in the game. In fact, for most conservative bloggers, there’s next to no money in the game. Some very good writers, thinkers, strategists and experts who blog get nothing but a good reputation for their efforts. A good reputation doesn’t pay the bills.
In my own case, I doctor to pay for my blog habit. That is, I give away my blogging work for free unless I free-lance an article for an on-line publication. Since writing and politics are my passions, I have viewed blogging as a hobby.
As time has gone on, I’ve seen the trends that John mentions today and it’s getting irksome:
I got a promo from one of them, that shall remain nameless, a few days back. They were bragging that they were running a million dollar ad campaign. While that’s great, as far as I can tell, they’re not spending a cent of that ad campaign on conservative blogs — and do you know how much it would cost to run an ad on every single blog in the conservative advertising network at Blogads for a week? At the moment, only $5,686. That’s roughly 1/176th of the amount they’re going to spend on this campaign, but they’re not even willing to go that far to support the Rightroots that are out in the trenches every day.
In fact, we’ve even gotten to the point now where organizations will pay thousands of dollars on consultants, to hit blogs up for links, instead of just buying ads on the blogs. That’s great for the consultants (and I can tell you that from personal experience), but it sucks for the bloggers who get nothing but link requests out of it while some consultant pockets a fat check just for writing a few emails that generally don’t produce any results.
The consultants don’t just want links. They want friendly stories. They want candidate exposés.
During the last election, do you know who advertised on my site? C-Span. That’s right. C-Span appreciated my election coverage and live-blogging, but the Republican party probably didn’t know I existed. Well, there’s a few of us who live blog these big events and draw a crowd. It would be in a candidate’s best interest to know these people–Ann Althouse, VodkaPundit’s drunk blogging, and I are pretty darn consistent. And yet, no ad dollars from campaigns.
Part of the problem is that political bloggers focused nationally have a national audience. That is, since I don’t focus on Houston issues, my readership isn’t local. Ironically, I think I’d have an easier time with advertising if my readership were primarily local–even if the readership was smaller.
Since my readership is national and broad–political and cultural interests–fewer advertisers are interested. Doesn’t matter that the readership is educated, upper income, and fertile soil for certain products.
Will hanging together help to change the money problem? I don’t see how. If bloggers join together, it doesn’t guarantee that think tanks, lobbyist groups, candidates or other conservative groups will suddenly get generous and spend parts of their budgets online.
In fact, there’s been a strange derisiveness about bloggers by those on the right. Political consultants gingerly ask for help here and there, but don’t give much in return. And it’s not just a problem on the right. Yesterday, Jane Hamsher and Kos noted the same problem at the Plumline:
A number of these top bloggers agreed to come on record with me after privately arguing to these groups that they deserved a share in the ad wealth and couldn’t be taken for granted any longer.
“They come to us, expecting us to give them free publicity, and we do, but it’s not a two way street,” Jane Hamsher, the founder of FiredogLake, said in an interview. “They won’t do anything in return. They’re not advertising with us. They’re not offering fellowships. They’re not doing anything to help financially, and people are growing increasingly resentful.”
Hamsher singled out Americans United for Change, which raises and spends big money on TV ad campaigns driving Obama’s agenda, as well as the constellation of groups associated with it, and the American Association of Retired Persons, also a big TV advertiser.
“Most want the easy way — having a big blogger promote their agenda,” adds Markos Moulitsas, the founder of DailyKos. “Then they turn around and spend $50K for a one-page ad in the New York Times or whatever.” Moulitsas adds that officials at such groups often do nothing to engage the sites’s audiences by, say, writing posts, instead wanting the bloggers to do everything for them.
Some on the right were snarky, but the problem is universal.
Blogging, at the forefront of New Media, is a more intimate and friendly way to get a message to people. Politicians, lobbyists, writers hawking books,and think tanks, all love the medium when it suits them, but don’t seem to recognize that people are trying to make a living.
What to do? I don’t really know. Blogging doesn’t yet have the respect and understanding of the political class. And forget social media. Most of the consultants and “experts” I know are stupid about it, so how could their charges have a clue?
Perhaps as the Legacy Media fades, the political class will put their money where it counts more. Still, why pay for what you get for free?
5 Responses to “On Hanging Separately”
April 9 2009 / 10:46 am
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Hi Melissa,
I never really thought about it that way. I started blogging in January because I’m genuinely interested in the conservative movement and I can just put my opinions up (or I can go to another blogger’s site and post responses if the material is engaging enough).
Although I don’t pay for my blogging, I am fortunate that I do have a job that allows me the free time to either read a bunch of blogs and respond or write a post on my own.
Now I’m under no illusions as to how many people look at my blog (I think I have a couple of responses at the 20+ posts I’ve written). I don’t blog to make money. I just do it to blow off steam. Now are there bloggers who are more professional than someone like me? Absolutely. I’m a total amateur by comparison.
Here’s a point to ponder. Almost everyone uses the internet in some form or another. However, how many actually read political blogs on a daily basis? I’m not trying to be sarcastic at all with this comment. I think perhaps the Republican Party still sees the vast majority of its audience as not reading blogs to make a major effort in this area (this is pure speculation, admittedly). There will come a time when blogging will be part and parcel for most people (especially as the younger generations move up).
April 9 2009 / 4:48 pm
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Hi Melissa,
I am not quite sure what it is you are advocating. If, as you say, you blog because you are passionate about writing and politics, which are two of my own passions also, then it is your avocation (as it is mine) to be a blogger, not a vocation. So why is making money from blogging an issue? I am appalled that slimes like Daily Kos aren’t at all inhibited to declare their “opinions” are for hire! I suspected that Hamsher and Kos were whores; now I know it.
April 9 2009 / 5:15 pm
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TheBigHenry,
There is no question that the Left blogosphere are sold to the highest bidder and have traded independence for money and influence.
I’m not suggesting that Right do the same. In fact, it has not been the case at all that the Right has had any sort of coordinated anything communications-wise.
What I don’t understand is why say, the NRA isn’t advertising, using a tiny amount of their budget, to put their association in front of a sympathetic audience.
What I don’t understand is why Heritage will spend huge bucks advertising on FOX where people are DVR’ing through the commercial and instead advertise, which can be measured, by the way, on sympathetic blogs.
It is a matter of changing the mindset of advertisers. When an advertiser puts an image or idea on a billboard, they do not expect immediate action. They know that there need to be at least nine impressions to get the customer to act.
Why not use cheap blog advertising to make one of those impressions? It is so cheap from an ad budget perspective but makes a huge impact both in terms of the audience and also the blogger.
The Right needs more people writing, pushing forward activism (and bloggers are leading local grassroots activism)and presence. People are turning toward alt media and we need quality voices there.
April 9 2009 / 9:51 pm
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I too blog to let off steam. Beyond that, I recognize that it is important that I, and all conservatives who can, blog as often as possible, link as much as possible and remake conservatism for ourselves. This is where it begins. I make no money from this, don’t intend to make money from this but understand your point that organizations that have advertising budgets should be looking to this media and use their money for the shared cause. I have not paid for a newspaper in years, would never pay for the local leftist rag (American Statesman) so I hope advertisers realize they are not reaching me through that media. Blogs, I read a ton of em.
April 10 2009 / 12:51 pm
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While I’ve always blogged because of the passion for the issues, in the back of mind I always felt that there was a possibility I could one day make a full time living blogging.
I make a small amount now, enough to cover my server costs and an extra something in my paypal account every month, but it’s never blossomed into what I had hoped. It’s ok though. It’s not the reason I came into blogging in the first place, so I’m content.
But I will say that you are absolutely correct, Melissa. Conservative advertisers still have yet to embrace the blogging audience as worth their advertising dollars. Something I don’t think they quite understand. I don’t think they realize that people who read conservative blogs are much more likely to be “activists” and take action beyond the everyday headline or column. Instead, they advertise to the average joe who doesn’t follow politics as intensely as the average blog/news junkie.
Hopefully one day they’ll realize that their advertising dollars are better spent on those who actually will get involved (blog audiences). That is the point isn’t it? To create more involvement, more activism for the political cause, right?
Unfortunately, the techonological learning curve for advertisers hasn’t fully caught up with what we, the bloggers are fully capable of.. This has always been a problem right advocacy groups. I mean, have you seen Human events email newsletter recently? Packed full of ugly ads looking like something out of 1994.
Groups like GOP.com, CATO Institute, NFRW, Heritage, Media Research Center, Human events, WND and others, haven’t yet caught on. They haven’t fully embraced blogging nor do they have a clue about Social Media and the benefits that come from these awesome new technologies, hence the advertisings dollars will not come if they don’t understand the value of the medium.
They’re missing a big opportunity to not only reach a more active and informed audience, but also support the great writers and bloggers who are feeding that audience on behalf of their cause.