Diva Marketing Blog Acquired .. Almost! Part I
02/07/2011
And so began a conversation with the CEO of a large (to be anon) portal. It's the dream of many bloggers: to be acquired by a platform viewed by millions, to be compensated for their work and as just as much, to be acknowledged for their work.
Girlfriend, I must admit it is a heady experience to be singled out from all the millions of marketing blogs to swim with the big fish. Okay to be totally transparent the deal was not even a smidgen of the AOL Huffington Post deal. But I rather thought you'd assumed that one!
As I do so often, I want to share my story and learnings with y'all. I had not a clue what this road would look like or where it would lead. Perhaps when there's a knock on your virtual door you'll have an idea what to expect.
My goals for Diva Marketing were never to monetize. Notice the lack of ads or affinity links. The purpose always has been to provide a place where we can explore how marketers can use first blogs, and now social media to build stronger brands and customer relationships. By providing that type of content and doing things a little differently, my own reputation and credibility in the social media industry would be established. Diva Marketing maybe a wee blog but I'm proud to say it has street cred.
I said to The X Man - Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world she walks into mine. ~ oops wrong movie! I think it went more like .. Why Diva Marketing?
The X Man told me he wanted to add a blog with a marketing focus and Diva Marketing was "a good fit" to build out his growing blog network. He said nice things about my reputation and what I brought to the table.
The X Man talked about about how this acquisition would increase my visibility and present opportunities to grow my consulting company. He talked about a link on the "new Diva Marketing blog" back to my website. All good.
What really sold me was the chance to grow Diva Marketing into a larger brand. That's something I've always wanted to do. Who knows where things could go with some extra resources to invest in the brand. The X Man even talked about possible brand extension in terms of events.
So I put on my red Manolo Blahnik's and took a step onto the yellow brick road to the Emerald City of Blogs where there would be boas for everyone, treats for Maxie and his friends, conferences with special Diva Tinis. Well .. probably not but one has to dream Big.
The X Man asked about my host (Typepad), my traffic, my revenue stream. I did my due diligence too. I talked to several people in his company and my trusted advisers.
Lessons Learned: The insights and support from advisers is invaluable. Don't go it alone if you've never been down this road before; the yellow brick road is unevenly paved and it's easy to trip over your pink boa.
In all seriousness, it was a big decision for me. Diva Marketing turns 7 in May. In the virtual pages of this site are hundreds of posts about blogging, social media, branding, strategy, interviews, research. And a few original concepts like the corner grocery store relationships and in the moment marketing.
Selling my 7 years of intellectual capital was not too difficult to justify. More of a challenge was the decision to give up a brand that been interwoven into my personal brand identity.
The bling was shiny. The opportunities were exciting. I thought it might be the right time to go in a new direction.
