Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Why I've never "monetized" this blog.

In my professional life, I have responsiblity for driving Eyes-on-Site (EOS) and converting that traffic in to sustainable customer and audience conversation and revenue. In pursuit of these goals, I have tested and researched and preached about many, many ways to achieve optimal SEO and SEM objectives and bottom-line return. I read and re-read and test and play and muse on many, many new features, algorithms, measurements and metrics, yet I have never chosen to activate the "monetize" tab here.

Why?

Some overly complimentatry virtual friends of mine claim that I some thoughts and insight that might pay for my ideal role of creating my own think tank. From early "back-link" and affiliate marketing days, it has been suggested that perhaps I could feed Pinky (black lab who has her own shelved blog) by adding some advertising and referrals here. I've been reluctant and perhaps egostistical. As my friend Emmett Pickett poses: (http://www.destinationemmett.com/): Are you part of the Empire or the Federation?

Professionally, I argue that I can be both and challenge that goals of altruism and capitalism in business are not mutually exclusive (see my career history at the American Heart Association as the perfect example), but perhaps here, I want to preserve some almighty dollar anonymity. In a long Facebook and public exchange with Emmett and much respected Albert Quian, yesterday, (http://www.albertqian.com/), the three of us gave each other gentle jabs in a discussion re Klout's recent partnership with Gilt as an incentive for increasing your Klout score. (Mine is 29... :( ) The end result for me was an late night of musing about what my purpose here, and in other social networking digital dialogue spots, really is. Most critically, is my need for clout in the universe inextricably tied to my desire for Klout?

It's still at 1/2 a cup of coffee, but the bottom-line is that I am ready for the Radian6, Visible Technologies, Socialable Labs, et al, of my professional universe, to intrigue me with measurements that demonstrate both my ability to influence TRULY with tools and dashboards that also indicate a clear path to demonstrable EBIDTA and ROI. :)

Or, make my "Gilt" trip a short one if I can up my score and redeem points for opinion! :)