If you’ve been reading this business blog for a while, you know my answer is an unmitigated "no!"
However, that is the take by well-respected copywriter Bob Bly. Mike Sigers of Simplenomics (and a regular flyte blog commenter) takes Bob to task in a post entitled Bob Bly is Wrong About Blogs.
While not everybody agrees on the value of a business blog, I did find some of Bob’s quotes surprising, such as:
I have yet to find a single marketer who says that a business blog has gotten him a positive ROI, or return on investment.
Let me start by raising my own hand, then.
Just like any business venture, not every blog is going to have a positive ROI. However, if you think back to the late ’90′s, how many Web sites were making money? Most were expenses, not investments.
Also, most of Bob’s comments seem to be targeted at personal blogs, although I’m sure there are plenty of so-called business blogs that "are rambling, streams-of-consciousness musings about a particular topic of interest to the author."
Of course, Bob does have his own blog and is listed as a contributor on Business Blog Consulting, where I also blog. (However, I couldn’t find any posts of his at BBC. Not sure if this is because he doesn’t have any or because our search isn’t working properly.)
However, if I made my living by crafting copy that
makes people take a desired action, I’d probably be looking at the
democratization of copy via blogging as the end of Western civilization
as well. I wonder if classical painters had the same reaction when they saw the first modern art painting hanging in a gallery or museum.
Tags: Bob Bly | Simplenomics
