It didn't take long for advertisers to zero in on the latest Internet phenomenon -- a new breed of "bloggerpreneurs" whose weblogs cover the gamut from politics to personal poetry. The trend is still in its early stages -- blue chip firms like Procter & Gamble aren't yet lining up to buy blogger ad space -- but analysts point out that other Internet phenomena such as eBay had very modest beginnings as a market space for trading Pez dispensers and Beanie Babies. Statistics are sketchy, but most observers agree a popular blog can attract more than a million readers a month, with one study estimating that roughly 4% of the 126 million adult Internet users report visiting blog sites for information. Much of the current advertising is connected to the upcoming national election, but a few of the more well-known names are beginning to attract mainstream advertisers (Xerox on Slashdot and AOL and CNN on the Drudge Report). "They said nobody would want to advertise on personal diaries. Even my wife thought I was crazy," says Henry Copeland, founder of Pressflex, whose Blogads service connects advertisers with a network of bloggers. He's now expanded his business and has three programmers working for him in Hungary. (Wall Street Journal 15 Mar 2004) [NewsScan Daily]
posted by Marcus Zillman |
4:20 AM
