{"id":1618,"date":"2007-07-03T05:45:10","date_gmt":"2007-07-03T12:45:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=1618"},"modified":"2007-07-01T21:03:34","modified_gmt":"2007-07-02T04:03:34","slug":"the-secret-to-building-an-audience-weblogging-is-half-news-half-opinion-and-half-show-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1618\/the-secret-to-building-an-audience-weblogging-is-half-news-half-opinion-and-half-show-business\/","title":{"rendered":"The secret to building an audience? Weblogging is half news, half opinion and half show business"},"content":{"rendered":"

I wrote this nearly four years ago:<\/p>\n

Anyone who has ever been to Las Vegas has seen Showbiz Weekly<\/a> and What’s On<\/a> magazines. One or the other was waiting for you in your hotel room, but there were racks of them at the airport and at the car rental counter, plus single issues in the rental car itself. They’re slick and polished, but they’re free like a TV-Shopper, albeit a lot better distributed.<\/p>\n

Functionally, they work like controlled-circulation trade magazines: Elaborate advertising and puff-piece promotional articles inform you of your buying opportunities in Las Vegas at the point where you have become a ready, willing and able buyer. That’s why they’re free: The advertisers are more than willing to comp you for as many copies as you might want, confident that your spending will more than compensate them for their investment.<\/p>\n

What’s interesting about these magazines is that you cannot subscribe to them from back home. There are a couple of general interest magazines you can<\/i> subscribe to: Greenspun’s Las Vegas Life<\/a> is a city magazine, like New York<\/i> or Los Angeles<\/i>; it’s a fun read, but not terribly useful for tourists. Vegas Magazine<\/a>, also Greenspun, is a confused fashion rag that is doomed to a very costly demise. Neither of these do the kind of job Showbiz Weekly<\/i> and What’s On<\/i> do, advising tourists on where and how to get the most Vegas from their Vegas-money.<\/p>\n

And that<\/i> is a market niche, a magazine that promotes Las Vegas tourism all year round, when the tourists are back home.<\/p>\n

The Strip<\/i> is a monthly; more frequent would be annoying. Show news, upcoming concerts, gambling tournaments, Vegas trivia and history, etc., all surrounded by advertising, since, in important respects, the advertising is<\/i> the editorial product. Very slick, very polished, with a critical edge lacking from Showbiz Weekly<\/i> and What’s On<\/i>.<\/p>\n

The loosely-focused target market is the frequent Las Vegas visitor, two or more trips a year of three or more days in length. The more tightly-focused target market is the high-roller, people who spend a lot<\/i> of money when they come to Las Vegas, and who come to Read more<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I wrote this nearly four years ago: Anyone who has ever been to Las Vegas has seen Showbiz Weekly and What’s On magazines. One or the other was waiting for you in your hotel room, but there were racks of them at the airport and at the car rental counter, plus single issues in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,6,5,16],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1618","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-blogging","7":"category-marketing","8":"category-real-estate","9":"category-weblogging-101","11":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":909,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/909\/celebrating-the-spirit-of-transparent-real-estate-weblogging-bloodhoundblog-can-and-will-do-more\/","url_meta":{"origin":1618,"position":0},"title":"Celebrating the spirit of transparent real estate weblogging: BloodhoundBlog can and will do more . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"January 17, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm thinking that I should take a much larger role in the growth of the RE.net. Many people are convinced that hundreds of agents and lenders will be starting real estate weblogs in the coming year. That may or may not be so, but it is a certainty that the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1595,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1595\/seven-days-of-the-dog-thats-no-bloodhound-thats-just-a-mangy-old-mutt\/","url_meta":{"origin":1618,"position":1},"title":"Seven Days of the Dog: That’s no Bloodhound, that’s just a mangy old mutt!","author":"Greg Swann","date":"June 28, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"We write a lot about real estate weblogging. We have categories on Blogging, on Blog Carnivals, on the Carnival of Real Estate and on Weblogging 101, with much of what we've written on real estate weblogging having been repurposed into a blog-book on the subject, RealEstateWeblogging101.com. Truly, weblogging is a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1509,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1509\/the-style-of-your-soul-the-fundamental-virtue-of-conscientious-real-estate-weblogging\/","url_meta":{"origin":1618,"position":2},"title":"The style of your soul: The fundamental virtue of conscientious real estate weblogging","author":"Greg Swann","date":"June 6, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"\"If a writer wrote merely for his time, I would have to break my pen and throw it away.\" --Victor HugoThe Russell Shaw entry What's wrong with Zip Realty?, written in February, was the most clicked-upon post on BloodhoundBlog on Tuesday. Debunking Zillow.com, which was written last July and which\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1579,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1579\/greg-swann-at-the-southwest-real-estate-blogging-conference-making-locally-focused-real-estate-weblogging-work\/","url_meta":{"origin":1618,"position":3},"title":"Greg Swann at the Southwest Real Estate Blogging Conference: Making locally-focused real estate weblogging work","author":"Greg Swann","date":"June 25, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"This is the second half of the Southwest Real Estate Blogging Conference, including my presentation and the question and answer session. The sun had started to go down, so the light in the room was a little better. Cathleen built the slides you'll see in the video. I had handed\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2481,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2481\/its-weblogging-advice-day-at-inman-connect-and-seth-godin-is-wired-into-the-godhead-as-usual\/","url_meta":{"origin":1618,"position":4},"title":"It’s weblogging-advice day at Inman Connect, and Seth Godin is wired into the godhead, as usual","author":"Greg Swann","date":"January 9, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Dumbing down:You're under pressure to do that with your restaurant and your spiritual advice and your stump speech and your non-profit pitch. There are gatekeepers pushing you to dumb it down for the average. The thing is, when you dumb stuff down, you know what you get? Dumb customers. And\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1285,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1285\/profitable-real-estate-weblogging-burning-the-midnight-oil-to-make-family-out-of-your-farm\/","url_meta":{"origin":1618,"position":5},"title":"Profitable real estate weblogging: Burning the midnight oil to make family out of your farm","author":"Greg Swann","date":"April 10, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Project Blogger is officially under weigh, so I thought now would be a good time to go read the rules. I had read an earlier version and hated them, but, at a certain point, I decided it wasn't worthwhile to stand on principle. There is an extent to which this\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1618"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1618\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}