What vacuum?

Photo Credit SoStark

Today, two of the most prominent blog-about-blogging bloggers (say that three times fast) went on a content crusade. Brian Clark, of Copyblogger fame, wrote a post that poses the inevitable question “is content king?” while Darren Rowse, of Problogger, asks “is writing great content enough to build a successful blog?”

Both of these gentlemen, whose work I admire immensely, come to similar conclusions — great content is a good start, but there are a whole slew of other factors that go in to building a successful blog.

To which I can only say, “duh.”

Writing — even really excellently amazing high-quality writing — has never existed in a vacuum. Shakespeare + his patrons = The Immortal Bard. Shakespeare – the Earls of South Hampton and Pembrook = another glove maker who writes in his spare time.

Back in the day, of course, an artist only had to find one or two influential patrons in order to bring his product to market. The primary sticking point was, however, the high cost of production — coupled with inefficient marketing, and high levels of illiteracy (i.e., a limited client-base) in the general population.

So — and this is the part where I start talking about small business, so pay attention — what are we complaining about? The means of producing written material (including marketing material) have never been more accessible, and the general population is either dumber (and hence easier to fool) or smarter (and thus more likely to read) than ever before. So what is it that stops small-business owners (yes, I include professional bloggers) from overcoming that third stumbling block and creating really efficient marketing?

Find out tomorrow, when this riveting saga continues!