I already posted this once this morning and it disappeared; let’s see if I can recreate it…
This morning I ran into Dwight Drake, who was breaking his fast with some newspaper folk, including my former publisher and Bill Rogers of the state press association.
I asked Dwight whether he was wooing the press, but he said it was the other way around: They were trying to sell him some ads.
Well, good luck to them, said I as I moved back toward my table — newspapers certainly need the revenue, and maybe if Dwight broke with the conventional wisdom and invested significantly in print, some of his competitors would, too.
Only later did I realize I should have told Dwight that I’m planning on taking ads on my blog, once I work out the technical issues, and so if he wants to spend money, he could do so with me. But I always forget stuff like that. Maybe I’m not cut out to be a Mad Man after all (please don’t tell Joan Holloway) …
I chatted with Dwight a bit more after his meeting broke up, and he told me that before he would approve the “500 Days of Sanford” video spoof, he had to go see the movie. Wanting to seem hip, I didn’t ask “What movie?,” although that’s what I was thinking. Oh, now I see. Dwight says it was OK, but no “Gone With The Wind.” I can believe that. At any rate, I found the video amusing without getting the allusion.
Then, after I left, I realized I’d missed yet another selling opportunity, because I could have told Dwight I can run video on my blog. Of course, I already did run his video, for free.
I’ve really got to get a handle on this thinking like a businessman thing…
Related Posts
Did you not pick Anne’s brain for advice on the ad thing?
I see where you cross posted blogs, but maybe she would fill you in in exchange for some champagne–she’s crazy about it.
I have ideas of who might advertise on your blog, too….
You’ve spent three decades trying to figure out how best to serve the public. It will take some time to figure out how best to serve yourself.
Keep this in mind. Blogs serve a targeted audience. Potential advertisers need to know who they’re reaching. It might be a small group, but it might be exactly the group someone is trying to reach.
So I need to get all of y’all to behave in commercially desirable ways, so advertisers will want access to you…
By the way, I ran into Dwight at a reception this evening, and mentioned the blog advertising to him, so I’m starting to get the hang of this…
Interestingly, this was at the open house of the new law firm that Kevin Hall and Butch Bowers are forming. They’re in this beautiful historic house — with its own official marker and everything — at 1329 Blanding.
What I don’t get is that Kevin and Butch wanted to do this. There they were in the same huge firm that Dwight works for (Nelson Mullins), which means they had all sorts of other people to make sure the bills are paid and such. Now they’ve got to deal with all that themselves. Some people like that — and it was really neat how they had their families helping out with the open house and everything — but my brief time being in business for myself has confirmed me in something I knew before: I’m an organization man. At least, an organization large enough to have someone seeing that the light bill gets paid and that clients pay for my services. I was talking about this with someone from the McNair firm, who agreed with me.
But hey, Kevin and Butch have that entrepreneurial spirit upon which the country was built (so my Jeffersonian friends keep telling me — or is that more a Hamiltonian thing?), so more power to them. I hope they thrive.
The audience of this blog is not work much to a Democrat politician, because the radicals like Randy will vote for them no matter how dishonest they are, and the rest of us cannot vote for a good Democrat because that only increases the power of the crooks who run the party.