Zen blogger or pushing advertising online - changing the landscape of professional and educated opinion
As an 18 year veteran of fashion and entertainment style and design, I consider myself a purveyor of good ideas. Ever ask why am reading this blog?
Reading lots of fashion stylist's online opinions, makes one very tired of hearing silly stories about how they pair a nice jean with kitten heels, blah blah. Although, sometimes I discover what is relevant while spending time online to see what women shoppers want. Audiences naturally want to stay on sites that speaks to their problems directly. The author wants to sell a few clicks on an ad from their affiliate partners, but lets not kid ourselves. Is that unfair? I don't hate advertisements if done properly. If we stay away from advertisers, we will never be excited through clever little hidden creatives. Plus, all would be lost to rants and bored with each others' sites. A blogger offers an educated and selective opinion, if done right. Everything is relative. Sadly, though professional writers and marketers are being forced out of their cushy publishing jobs by the ever increasing home blogger. At a recent event for mobile marketers, Gary Schwartz and Joe Carvelli spoke in depth about the information we receive is being driven harder by pocket size hand held platforms vs. laptops. Joe hammered in the idea that the Kindle Fire is unstoppable. The elegant publisher of Gary's book by Simon and Schuster's emphasized that they are at the mercy of Amazon because though yes, you can easily buy your books through Amazon ( the Kindle Fire ), the publisher also has to compete. They have to sell books to stay alive. To make matters worse, agents are not backing down at monetizing their content either. Back in the day, I served as an Executive Assistant to a top Literary Agent at ICM. Back then, I held a highly coveted position of making sure no one got through to my boss unless screened and discerned as top priority. This would have made some freak out, but the importance of her time changed my perspective of the entertainment/ publishing business. I worked the desk of the one and only Dianne Fraser, a successful Television Business leader. I learned from her to curate the work you do. Because of her, the talented writers were published and got to executive produce work we all saw on television. She lent her selective eye to works she believed made them invaluable. Now, ICM could not survive without trying to sell their own work. So, they have gone from Agents to Publishers/ Producers of content. This serves as a lesson to future bloggers, because while I don't personally drive messages I don't believe to be useful, I am commenting on the state of everything we use to shop, entertain and technology that changes the landscape of cool. I, as you, watch what others are doing to be inspired by not trying to compete with experts in industries. However, believing this is a free market, if I offer businesses as an extension to making ones' lives enriched, than I have hopefully been given the gift of spreading the word. Publishers spend a lot of time, nurturing a writer and editing the crap out of bad assumptions they make. They also anticipate a level of readers interests. While, its true, we all can get a blog going, if you are a professional artist, of some sort, offer your clients something they wouldn't expect from you. And, let the professional writers do their job and vet the bad from the good. They value the worth of an authors ability to contribute to us all, not because of their subjective opinions, but because of their education in the history of all writers before them, to hopefully, offer thought provoking and intelligent works of art.
To all my fellow artists, designers and future online bloggers, I propose, ask yourself what makes you uniquely qualified to share in a public forum? Be conscious of your audiences needs, interests and more importantly, are you offering a value or just trying to sell something? Naturally, if you are in business, you must have something to share, so don't be afraid to share your knowledge, not just pimp out other advertising for the sake of monetizing. We all have a voice, but lets no over-share.
Reading lots of fashion stylist's online opinions, makes one very tired of hearing silly stories about how they pair a nice jean with kitten heels, blah blah. Although, sometimes I discover what is relevant while spending time online to see what women shoppers want. Audiences naturally want to stay on sites that speaks to their problems directly. The author wants to sell a few clicks on an ad from their affiliate partners, but lets not kid ourselves. Is that unfair? I don't hate advertisements if done properly. If we stay away from advertisers, we will never be excited through clever little hidden creatives. Plus, all would be lost to rants and bored with each others' sites. A blogger offers an educated and selective opinion, if done right. Everything is relative. Sadly, though professional writers and marketers are being forced out of their cushy publishing jobs by the ever increasing home blogger. At a recent event for mobile marketers, Gary Schwartz and Joe Carvelli spoke in depth about the information we receive is being driven harder by pocket size hand held platforms vs. laptops. Joe hammered in the idea that the Kindle Fire is unstoppable. The elegant publisher of Gary's book by Simon and Schuster's emphasized that they are at the mercy of Amazon because though yes, you can easily buy your books through Amazon ( the Kindle Fire ), the publisher also has to compete. They have to sell books to stay alive. To make matters worse, agents are not backing down at monetizing their content either. Back in the day, I served as an Executive Assistant to a top Literary Agent at ICM. Back then, I held a highly coveted position of making sure no one got through to my boss unless screened and discerned as top priority. This would have made some freak out, but the importance of her time changed my perspective of the entertainment/ publishing business. I worked the desk of the one and only Dianne Fraser, a successful Television Business leader. I learned from her to curate the work you do. Because of her, the talented writers were published and got to executive produce work we all saw on television. She lent her selective eye to works she believed made them invaluable. Now, ICM could not survive without trying to sell their own work. So, they have gone from Agents to Publishers/ Producers of content. This serves as a lesson to future bloggers, because while I don't personally drive messages I don't believe to be useful, I am commenting on the state of everything we use to shop, entertain and technology that changes the landscape of cool. I, as you, watch what others are doing to be inspired by not trying to compete with experts in industries. However, believing this is a free market, if I offer businesses as an extension to making ones' lives enriched, than I have hopefully been given the gift of spreading the word. Publishers spend a lot of time, nurturing a writer and editing the crap out of bad assumptions they make. They also anticipate a level of readers interests. While, its true, we all can get a blog going, if you are a professional artist, of some sort, offer your clients something they wouldn't expect from you. And, let the professional writers do their job and vet the bad from the good. They value the worth of an authors ability to contribute to us all, not because of their subjective opinions, but because of their education in the history of all writers before them, to hopefully, offer thought provoking and intelligent works of art.
To all my fellow artists, designers and future online bloggers, I propose, ask yourself what makes you uniquely qualified to share in a public forum? Be conscious of your audiences needs, interests and more importantly, are you offering a value or just trying to sell something? Naturally, if you are in business, you must have something to share, so don't be afraid to share your knowledge, not just pimp out other advertising for the sake of monetizing. We all have a voice, but lets no over-share.
Posted by SmartyPants at 12/14/2011 1:04 PM 
Categories: entertainment
Tags: Gary Schwartz MXM Simon and Schuster Dianne Fraser ICM blogger Social Media local community Mobile Marketing Kindle Fire
Categories: entertainment
Tags: Gary Schwartz MXM Simon and Schuster Dianne Fraser ICM blogger Social Media local community Mobile Marketing Kindle Fire
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