I wrote my Boogie Man post yesterday, and I have to say that I feel pretty good about it. Sure, the language was a little stronger than is politically correct, but then again you probably don’t come here for PC drivel. You can read the post here, if you like.

More than catharsis, the post yesterday enabled me to pick the brain of a relatively popular marketing blogger. Stanford Smith, whose blog inspired yesterday’s post, weighed in with a substantial comment. Among his suggestions was the following:

Why does this get under your skin? Talk about how you plan to build a business around YOUR audience in a new or different way. I’m sure Chris would love to see how his example has inspired different monetization strategies.

So that’s what I’m going to do.

The Problem with Brogan-Style Blogging

In case you missed yesterday’s post, here’s the problem as I see it with blogs whose approaches are similar to Chris Brogan’s. (And it’s worth noting that I’m not saying that this is a bad approach to blogging. I’m only pointing out differences in our marketing philosophies.)

Brogan-style blogging hooks you with good ideas. It develops a rhythm wherein you come to the blog expecting good ideas. And then those ideas somehow evolve into something proprietary and closed-source that requires a buy-in.

Nothing wrong here, except that the buy-in usually involves having someone take you step-by-step through the marketing/PR/advertising/customer service arenas, ultimately arriving at a handful of conclusions you could have reached yourself if you had just talked it out with your coworkers over lunch.

I’m all for the open exchange of information. I love going to conferences with big table discussions. I love reading online forums and blogs that encourage lively chatter. But anything that runs contrary to the free exchange of ideas — those who would charge for the venue or, worse, the ideas themselves, for example — starts off in the red, in my mind.

Why We Need an Alternative

I don’t expect to be paid for having ideas. I don’t expect to receive payment because people read or even like my ideas. To think that those ideas are mine to be paid for is absurd — my ideas are the product of the ideas of a litany of authors, whose ideas were amalgamations of other ideas, and so on. Learning these makes me better at what I do; but it’s what I do that deserves payment.

Now, if it happens that my analysis of a particular idea reaches someone who is so impressed that she wants to call me and discuss this idea further, so be it. And if I can convince her that her company has work that needs to be done, and that I’m both qualified and affordable, go me. But to this point, I have no right to expect that anything I’ve done is worth a red cent. And that is true even if — even if – something I’ve said causes someone to perform some action that makes money for a third party.

If you take Brogan’s style to the extreme — if everyone blogged like him — then we’d be stuck in a world where honest commentary and profit-driven review are so intertwined as to be indistinguishable. If, on the other hand, we removed affiliate promotion from the blogs of thought leaders, we’d know exactly what we were getting (in theory). I know which world I’d rather live in.

An Alternative to Brogan-Style Blogging

Brogan talks about the art of asking for the sale. In his case, asking for the sale often means clicking a link to buy something he didn’t create — a book on Amazon, a camera, a suitcase, a WordPress theme, what have you. What if, instead of asking us to buy things, a blogger was forced to sell only his own talents? Do you think he would spend more time vetting his ideas? Developing his theories? Implementing strategies and guaging their effects? I think he would.

Instead of blogging on the freemium model — giving away small or general ideas for free and charging an “upgrade” fee for the big or specific ideas — why not promote the free exchange of all ideas and charge only for their implementation?

You might have guessed it, but I’m a big fan of doing things. When a client hires me to consult on SEO, I don’t just present them with ideas. I actually do the optimizing. When they hire me for social media management, I don’t just walk in and train people on the finer points of being social. I actually log hours at the keyboard representing the brand. I tell clients that I’m not a consultant; I’m a marketer. I do marketing.

And that’s the alternative that I propose. I propose that bloggers stop thinking about ways to improve their revenue stream today, and start thinking about how to improve their trade forever. It’s time marketing bloggers stepped out from behind the pulpit and sat down with their fellow marketers. It’s time they started sharing ideas. It’s time they focused on doing marketing, not just talking about marketing because it’s what marketers are reading.

And I’ll start this rehab with myself. Hello, my name is Matt. I’m addicted to “New Marketing”. I’ve been clean and sober for one day.

Who are you?

Image credit: framesmedia | Dan