WebProNews

While at the Syndate Conference in San Francisco, iEntry Inc. CEO Rich Ord shoots back his notes, which I have (hopefully) transcribed and expanded on correctly. Wish me luck.

Traditional search marketing has its issues. Though in the past few years there has been a "heck of lot of money" made, search ad costs are rising. As it's not as cheap as it once was, advertisers are beginning to wonder how loyal the clicking customer is that costs them a mint on PPC engines.

Clicks paid for en masse may be diminishing in favor of the more precise targeting advantages offered by organic hits, weblogs and RSS feeds.

"We paid bloggers to blog and it significantly increased our Google hits. There was a big debate about this, which contributed to the public noticing," said President and CEO of Marqui, Inc., Stephen King.

Paying someone to blog about a company can be met with disdain from the purist types, but it does a few valuable things. As a blog isn't that much different than a website, it provides not only a cheap testing ground, but also qualified endorsements through content, a targeted and interested audience, and sometimes enough controversy to drive traffic.

"We encourage all of our clients to do a soft launch of their websites in the blogosphere," said Sandy Marks, Internet Advertising Director for MSHC Partners.

Adding the option of an RSS feed also helps promote blog content. As people are choosing the content that is automatically delivered, feeds provide an excellent segue way by saying "this information brought to you by" Even better, the audience is more likely than typical to be interested.

Blogs, by being more personal, and RSS, by being more personalized, also helps to humanize your branding and deliver content to the right place.

"Our surveys show that most blog readers read at work, not home," said Henry Copeland, CEO of Blogads.

Let's not forgot that a working customer is more likely to be a paying customer who subscribes to feeds or visits blogs that are pertinent to his industry.

But another advantage to these realms that are still largely experimental is the bridging of gaps between publishers and readers, candidates and voters, companies and customers. The barriers that once existed are torn down, an aspect that savvy information seekers appreciate.

"The exciting thing to us is that blogs reaffirm that people care. We have found that when we interact with blogs we are interacting with real people," continued Marks

"These bloggers are obsessive about a particular candidate and issues. We are trying to tap into these online elites who can help shape and promote an issue. An online political citizen is different than the offline person. We market to them differently."

Some of the larger challenges involve control of your company's image online, as even though a blogger is paid to blog, the commenters are often free range. This where authenticity and transparency play a role. There's not much worse than being outed online, as the viral effect, especially of negative sentiments, can be devastating. No matter how well orchestrated, you really can't predict what happens once you've launched a campaign.

"The real world is your focus group. The downside is that your market research is in the public domain. Are the bloggers in line with your brand goals?" asked King.

Advertising on blogs is also measured differently. It's not the quantity of leads to your company's site, it's the quality of leads.

"When advertising, don't be concerned with the lack of traffic. If you reach your target audience a few hundred visitors to the blog may be great for you to advertise on," said Bill Flitter, Vice President, Marketing for Pheedo.

"Our primary goal is to expand reach of our message. We tend not to look at click-throughs, but how much discussion has been generated online," added Richard Turner, Senior Director of Interactive Marketing for TBS.

Rich asked whether RSS advertising would one day be able to compete with the broad reach of email.

"It will in time," said Flitter.