Saturday, January 12, 2008 Robillo: Why advertise on blogs? By Oliver Robillo IT Talks
THE year 2007 was a remarkable period for the Filipino blogosphere. For one, it saw the emergence of Davao blogs in significant numbers.
The Davao Blog Directory (http://dir.davaoblogs.com) currently lists 165 blogs -- the directory came online in February 2007. It was also the start of the much-touted Mindanao Bloggers community. After only several months in existence, MindanaoBloggers.com garnered the 20th place in the Philippines' Top 100 Blogs of the Philippine Internet Review.
Last year was also the launching of Ratified.org, a Davao-made service that ranks the blogs of the Philippines and Australia.
In the national scene, we witnessed the establishment of a few online advertising and promotions outfits. These high-tech service providers focus primarily on blogs as their preferred advertising platform. By the same token, Philippine businesses are also now becoming more aware of the efficacy of blogs as a powerful communications medium.
My own blogs are involved in two Manila-based ad agencies that use them as virtual spaces for their clients' ads. This activity is called new media advertising. Everyone involved in this is projecting that the year 2008 will see even more productive developments in this exciting new enterprise.
Davao companies are not very far behind either. Already, a number of hotels, restaurants and travel agencies are becoming more conscious and appreciative of the need to expand their marketing efforts to the Internet. One telling example of this heightened consciousness is the response of restaurateurs to the ongoing Davao Bloggers Food Trip.
The Food Trip, organized by yours truly, is a culinary excursion by a group of bloggers in Davao. Once a week or so, we are hosted by a restaurant or cafe for lunch or dinner.
In exchange, each of us writes about their food and their place via our various blogs. My reviews appear on www.davaodeli.com. This event benefits both parties: the bloggers get to have something fresh to write about (not to mention free food), and the restaurants get valuable and inexpensive promotion on the Web.
So far, our food tripping has brought us to Zakoya Japanese Restaurant on F. Torres Street, and to Taj Minar (www.tajminar.com) in Damosa Gateway. We are also scheduled to visit Belly's Grill and Salutti.
If you own a restaurant or cafe and would like to host around 10 bloggers, please contact me via robillo at gmail dot com.
Blogs also accept paid ad placements. Thanks to the virtually instant response from ad viewers, a constantly increasing number of businesses are coming on board (or should I say, coming online). To these businesspeople, the value of Internet advertising is immediately apparent; hence their eagerness to venture into blog advertising.
