I appreciate Doc Searles’ view that there’s money to be made because of blogs, not with them. Generally, the conversation around monetising blogs spends time in adverts and it’s related business marketing activity. Being compensated for blogging.

Doc’s take is the other way around. Blogs expose the talent and expertise of the writer, and that opens up opportunities – like consulting for a business that wants more expertise in a subject area. The blog is indirect in these cases, but still a crucial part of the ‘acquiring of wealth’ process.

It’s like the blog is a resume. No-one will pay for a resume, but it creates an opportunity to be hired because of what’s in the resume.

The closer to the real social presence on the web, the more useful a living breathing blog is than a resume. Particularly if an organisation is looking for someone with the practical demonstrable skills, rather than ‘have the degree’.

On the idea of businesses wanting to work with bloggers – that’s a difficult topic indeed. My first question is why would a business want to do it? What do they really want?

Get their name out there? Build great products.

Get those great products better recognised? Build good relationships with bloggers, and show them why your products are great. But don’t expect/demand/insist on blog coverage.

Brand awareness: it’s either in aggressively in your face all the time, or it respects my attention and opinion. Or somewhere in between. I know where on that scale I’d want a brand to be.

Nokia Booklet. What an awesome sounding netbook. 12 hour battery life, 3G, 10″ screen – that’s relevant to my interests. I’m already more excited than I should be for a product that isn’t on the shelves yet.

The thing is though, there are tech bloggers who work so hard in building their brand and their loyal readership (hence trust with the readers), with so much time and dedication being injected, it would only seem fair if they can also make a living out of it. But we both agree that they are respected because of the impartiality and the passion, and once money is involved both seem to get convoluted.

I love Yochai Benkler’s metaphor – Commons-based peer product works because people do not need monetary incentives – in fact, it can be more counter-productive. Just like going to over to a friend who cooks for you and you present a cheque at the end of the dinner. There are things in life that money can’t buy, nor can it measure. Hard for business to work with it.

One of the key aspects of social media is that recommendations are based on trust. I trust you when you recommend WordPress as a blogging platform because you believe it best meets the needs of someone who wants to blog. There is nothing out there that conflicts with that measure of trust.

If I try it and it doesn’t work out, that’s fine. It works for you, but it doesn’t work for me. (A good friend of mine often reminds me I should assume good faith – much easier to do when a blog is clearly free from corporate clutches)

However, when the recommending site is skinned to look like a recognised brand, the value of that trust is typically reduced. If that site recommends something related to that brand, which voice are they using: their own independent unfiltered voice, or the corporate voice of the brand they (in some form) ‘represent’.

Every opinion becomes measured against the visible branding. And I feel that stops people seeing a rich unedited voice of an individual, and dumbs it down to ‘yet another corporate astro-turfing’.

The integrity of a blog relies on it also being perceived as being independent. A brand that wants to skin an independent blog in its own likeness dilutes the perceived independence – no matter what the contract between the blog and the brand says. It’s the perception of collusion that’s damaging.

Some people can succeed in being objective about their associated brands even when they are part of that brand. Jon Udell is one person who comes to mind as an example.

On the flip side is the TechCrunch-esque dogma that an employee of a company speaks for that company even if the blog is clearly identified as not being part of that brand and contains just personal opinion of that individual. Extreme.

It also comes down to personal integrity, which you have in spades. The people who know you will be able to look past the brand skinning. It’s the ones who don’t know you, they’ll perceive you as representing the brand, and speaking as part of that brand.

It is a difficult road. Sometimes the easiest option is not to travel that road.

Mike.