"Why Every Recruiter Should Blog"

I'm not sure I understand how this stuff works, but so what?  I don't understand color TV, women, and neckties either -- and my life is filled with them.  For the first time, this blog has surpassed the $100K mark in terms of its theoretical value.  See for yourself ...

My blog is worth $102,181.74.
How much is your blog worth?

The above widget was created by Dane Carlson, who writes of it ...

Inspired by Tristan Louis's research into the value of each link to Weblogs Inc, I've created this little applet using Technorati's API which computes and displays your blog's worth using the same link to dollar ratio as the AOL-Weblogs Inc deal.

Fair enough.  But what's really nutty is that Dane's widget implies that the "value" of each of my posts is $473.  Looking back on all 216 of them, a handful have seemed downright worthless (as I'm sure you longtime readers would agree).  And of course, I've had some lucky gems.

After all, blogging is a numbers game much like photography:  Take a role of 36 shots, and 33 will turn out blurry.  But the other three are priceless.  By that math, I've got roughly 15-20 posts that have generated all of the mojo for me.  Those are the "money posts."

Either way, I wouldn't sell this blog for $102,181 -- mostly because blogging has been an insanely great lead-generation mechanism.  Aside from my best posts providing substantial link bait, all blogs are incredibly SEO-friendly.  And in a way that print advertising and direct mail never could, this blog has served to differentiate, dimensional-ize, and credible-ize me to hot prospects who Google me.  Given the lifetime value of an executive search client, that's good enough for me.

So my question for fellow recruiters is:  "Why aren't you blogging?"

"Site Info"

Comments

[Harry Joiner]

I knew you weren't picking on me. However, I thought your comment was a good oppty for me to spell out to other readers that I'm not hung up on the valuation -- which, again, is purely theoretical.

I do think that anyone in the professional services arena ought to blog simply because so much of my traffic seems to come from people Googling me. That means that they hear about me in a maybe dozen different ways, but make the final decision to use me in a single (2 step) way: first by reading my blog, and then by calling me.

[Dave J.]

Harry, I hope you didn't think I trying to devalue your blog. Blogshares is a tool with its own valuation system.

You are right about the power blogging. If I go 'on the market', you'll be one of the first to know. Those other recruiters wouldn't even have a shot at me ;-)

[Harry Joiner]

Yep, I follow Blogshares, and I know Dane's analysis is higher than Blogshares'. It's all relative. Many "A-listers" (and Senator, I'm no A-lister) have blogs that are worth much less on Blogshares than using Dane's tool.

My point was not to puff out my chest and say how great I am. It was to say that a blog's real value stems from its ability to support my marketing in a manner which is unlike any other medium -- and to encourage all of my competitors to climb aboard the blogging bandwagon.

[Dave J.]

Did you know about Blogshares.com? There your blog is worth $5,170.19 and 50% of the shares are owned by a Cris Draper.

http://blogshares.com/blogs.php?blog=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.marketingheadhunter.com%2Fexecutive_search%2F