I've been blogging (hobby) for over three years. Little to know AdSense or referral revenue — it wasn't the point. I wanted a way to share what I know about the E-Learning field in a way that my organization (at the time) just couldn't share. So in an effort to be a responsible member of the community and for my own narcissm, I started blogging. I'm not great at it, but after 3+ years, I've established my voice.

Two weeks ago I blogged that I was interested in taking sidework, and that was the first time I've pitched trying to grab some work on the blog. The results have been overwhelming. My blog gets about 150 hits a day from subscribers and about 50-150 hits from search, based on activity. I've gone from having no side projects to six clients in a matter of two weeks with no advertising other than the blog.

When you build a relationship with a blogger, you become the hammer that blogger uses

When talking to marketers (primarilly b2b) the first thing I advise is that to appreciate the value of bloggers and blogging or for that matter any social media they need a different mindset from that they use for traditional marketing.. It's hard for them to grasp this particularly when under pressure to justify spend/budget and being asked “well how do you know it will work?”.

Having been a corporate marketer it often comes down to knowing how to prove your business case.Therefore more numbers/comments becomes an easy measureable (if misguided) target of sorts. But there is much that marketers can do, and here's where I believe social media practitioners can assist them to understand and to help convince others in their organization. This is some of what I do when I'm asked about blogging (or social media in general).

1. I begin with their business goals and strategy, not the SM tool. For each goal try to show ways th

I've been blogging (hobby) for over three years. Little to know AdSense or referral revenue — it wasn't the point. I wanted a way to share what I know about the E-Learning field in a way that my organization (at the time) just couldn't share. So in an effort to be a responsible member of the community and for my own narcissm, I started blogging. I'm not great at it, but after 3+ years, I've established my voice.

Two weeks ago I blogged that I was interested in taking sidework, and that was the first time I've pitched trying to grab some work on the blog. The results have been overwhelming. My blog gets about 150 hits a day from subscribers and about 50-150 hits from search, based on activity. I've gone from having no side projects to six clients in a matter of two weeks with no advertising other than the blog.

When you build a relationship with a blogger, you become the hammer that blogger uses

When talking to marketers (primarilly b2b) the first thing I advise is that to appreciate the value of bloggers and blogging or for that matter any social media they need a different mindset from that they use for traditional marketing.. It's hard for them to grasp this particularly when under pressure to justify spend/budget and being asked “well how do you know it will work?”.

Having been a corporate marketer it often comes down to knowing how to prove your business case.Therefore more numbers/comments becomes an easy measureable (if misguided) target of sorts. But there is much that marketers can do, and here's where I believe social media practitioners can assist them to understand and to help convince others in their organization. This is some of what I do when I'm asked about blogging (or social media in general).

1. I begin with their business goals and strategy, not the SM tool. For each goal try to show ways th

When talking to marketers (primarilly b2b) the first thing I advise is that to appreciate the value of bloggers and blogging or for that matter any social media they need a different mindset from that they use for traditional marketing.. It's hard for them to grasp this particularly when under pressure to justify spend/budget and being asked “well how do you know it will work?”.

Having been a corporate marketer it often comes down to knowing how to prove your business case.Therefore more numbers/comments becomes an easy measureable (if misguided) target of sorts. But there is much that marketers can do, and here's where I believe social media practitioners can assist them to understand and to help convince others in their organization. This is some of what I do when I'm asked about blogging (or social media in general).

1. I begin with their business goals and strategy, not the SM tool. For each goal try to show ways th