Economic Implications- Advertising

The rise in advertising on blogs challenges this notion that there are no economic factors involved in food blogging. Businessweek’s article ‘Blogs will Change Your Business’ from May 2005, highlights the positives of tracking the developments of the blogosphere, especially so because of its economic implications. Blogs can be perceived as the internet’s way of narrowcasting as can be seen from the food blogging, where there is a food blogging community (i.e Australian food blogger’s ring, Sacramento food blogs), everyone is linked to one another. All 3 sites, Vanilla Garlic, 101 Cookbooks and Gluten-free girl have Cupcake Bakeshop by Chockylit in their links list. While 101 Cookbooks and Vanilla Garlic have Gluten-free Girl in theirs and both Vanilla Garlic and Gluten-free Girl have 101 Cookbooks in their links list. This is proof of the narrowcasting phenomenon and it gives advertisers a valuable fountain of information, providing them with the perfect tool to target specific demographics (Baker and Green 2005). This then brings up the question of whether or not a shift in power has occurred. On one hand, it seems as though these food bloggers can now decide what they want to be a apart of. To further elaborate this point, this essay will draw examples from the 3 blogs. Looking at 101cookbooks.com, Swanson has advertisements for fellow blogger’s cookbook “Chocolate & Zucchini”, this reinstates her commitment to food blogging. Yet there are also advertisements for Amazon.com as well. These advertisements are specifically targeted at her audience and this brings up the issue of blogs being used for economic purposes. This is very much in coherence with the idea of niche marketing. By placing advertisements on every page of 101cookbooks.com, Amazon.com assumes that consumers of the blog will be interested in the selected book titles. The essay will explore more of the economic implications further on in the essay. Returning to the point on the shift in power, Swanson has now assumed the role of the producer placing her in a position to guide her readers on what to think about. As Rosen (2005) says “If the great mass of bloggers are not aiming for large audiences-how can they matter?” This provides evidence that the ‘purity’ of the blogosphere and the disregard for power is a misconception. This in turn justifies the argument that despite the many assumptions that blogging is “egalitarian” as Liesl Rampono, journalist for The Age, says, the idea that all bloggers are the same on the hierarchy scale is untrue. The following paragraph will explore the relationship between the economic implications of blogs and the hierarchy of bloggers.