The campaign manager for one of the congressional campaigns came back last week to renew some blogads. Afterwards he sent this note:

“Your purchasing engine is extremely easy to use for both the initial purchase and ad updates. I think this is a wonderful system.

Roman Levit
Campaign Manager
Barrow for Congress“

Amy Keller of Roll Call did a great job earlier this week covering the Chandler campaign‘s use of blogads.

With an investment of only $2,000, and in less than two weeks, the campaign has raked in between $45,000 and $50,000 in contributions from blog readers, and that number is growing every day, said Chandler campaign manager Mark Nickolas.

Chandler ‘ a former state auditor and former state attorney general ‘ is facing off against GOP state Sen. Alice Forgy Kerr in the Feb. 17 special election for the Lexington-area House seat. But while Kerr has outraised Chandler by several hundred thousand dollars ‘ as of late last week, Kerr had raised about $1.2 million and Chandler was estimating his fundraising total at about $650,000 ‘ Chandler’s campaign says its fundraising pace is picking up and at least part of the surge has come from the Web.

‘It has been phenomenal,’ Nickolas said. ‘I get an e-mail every time there’s a contribution ‘ and we know from the e-mail the source is a blog when they come through that avenue. Since the morning of Jan. 29, the FEC [filing] cut-off, I’ve put all those e-mails in a separate file. So far there are 711.’…

Nickolas said the contributions from blog readers are ‘averaging in the $40 to $50 range.’ The vast number of contributions are between $20 and $25, but every so often a $1,000 or $2,000 contribution will pop up to ‘boost the average.’

While Nickolas was initially hoping simply to make back the campaign’s $2,000 investment, the gamble has brought in more than 20 times that amount.

Chandler’s experience seems to reinforce conclusions made by the Institute for Politics, Democracy and the Internet, which in a recent report stated that the ‘great promise of online fundraising lies in its low transaction costs,’ enabling political fundraisers to ‘look to average people for funding.’

Indeed, as Chandler’s blog choices demonstrate, while the price of running a campaign ad on a blog varies greatly from one site to another, doing so is uncontestably cost-effective.

‘You can get the premier spot for a lot of these blogs for just $400,’ remarked Nickolas, who consulted with Blogads’ Henry Copeland for advice on where to place his ads.

According to the Institute for Politics, Democracy and the Internet study, the ‘online political citizens’ are ‘dramatically more likely than the general public to donate money to candidates,’ and by the end of 2003, approximately 46 percent of that universe had already donated to a candidate or political organization in the past two to three months. By way of comparison, only 10 percent of the general population has donated to a candidate or political party during the same time period.

The study also found that Democrats tend to be more comfortable giving online, with nearly half of all Democrats ‘ 49 percent ‘ saying they donated online, compared to just 11 percent of Republican donors.

‘The thing about this community is they are educated. They pay attention to politics. They care and they tend to have a little bit more disposable income,’ Nickolas observed. ‘If you can appeal to them, they are more than happy to throw $20, $50 or $100 at you.’ …

Can Chandler’s success during this special election translate into a winning fundraising formula for other campaigns ‘ particularly in a busy campaign season in which dozens upon dozens of candidates are competing for attention?

‘There’s no doubt about it,’ Nickolas said, though he conceded: ‘We’ve been blessed by the fact that we’re the only race out there.’ He said the campaign’s finance director has been inundated with calls from other Democrats in the fundraising arena wanting to know if they can do this in their campaign.

Nickolas is sure of one thing, however: ‘We’ve probably raised the real estate prices on these blogs.’

Glenn Reynolds writes: “BLOGADS seem to work. Despite its taking-in-each-others’-wash overtones, I bought blogads on TalkLeft and BillHobbs.com for my wife’s documentary, Six. The orders have poured in, and the ads, for a month and two weeks respectively, paid for themselves almost overnight. It’s not choking the local post office or anything, but it’s a pretty good response. Meanwhile, PoliticalWire reports that the Chandler for Congress blogad paid for itself in donations the first day. Maybe Henry’s onto something.”

As Glenn is wont to say: blogs are a pack, not a herd. Ignore them at your peril.

NPR’s ombudsman eats crow after dissing blogs.

E&P reports on TPM blogger of the year award.

SF Chronicle says political insiders watch blogs like DailyKos. Here’s one enthusiastic insider/blog reader:

“I’m a reader. I think Markos has done an incredible job,” said the president of the New Democrat Network, Simon Rosenberg, a centrist who worked in Bill Clinton’s famous “war room” during the 1992 campaign and continued working for Clinton throughout his presidency. “Kos is one of the places I go for full-time information every day,” Rosenberg said. “If people like me do that, you know it’s having an impact.”

Tallahassee Democrat says:

“Blogs are the biggest communication innovation for the 2004 election,” wrote Alexis Rice, author of a recent blog study at Johns Hopkins University. “Blogs are transforming campaign communication and will become not only an important tool in the presidential election, but in future state and local elections.”

Before receiving his award yesterday, Josh Marshall reports, Josh tried to explain blogs to Arthur Schlesinger, one of Josh’s heros. He wanders over to the great historian and his wife and starts babbling.

To be polite Schlesinger’s wife asked me to explain to them just what a blog is. And though I get this question pretty often, it turns out to be a rather challenging one if the people you’re trying to explain it to don’t necessarily have a lot of clear web reference points to make sense of what you’re saying. I ended up telling them that it was something like political commentary structured like a personal journal with occasional reporting mixed in. Now, as I was explaining and watching the looks on everyone’s faces it was incrementally becoming clear to me that this was playing rather like saying that something was like a washing machine structured like a rhinoceros with the occasional sandwich thrown in. And, as Schlesinger himself had said rather little through all this, it was also dawning on me that being one of the four guests of honor at this little event was providing no guarantee against making a bit of a fool of myself.

Got this note, titled “Site Traffic Quadrupled OVERNITE: A Testimonial you will like” at 3AM from Richard Luckett, the creative Texan behind lefty paraphernalia-seller and publisher Agitproperties, about blogads he’s running on DailyKos and Atrios.

“HC:
I wanted to get the word out about our new column written by an anonymous Army intelligence officer just back from Iraq and Afghanistan for two years. These ads were updated late Monday night. I was extremely pleased with the results. Feel free to use this info as you see fit. I even wrote the pitch for you. ; )

Richard”

Here is Richard’s testimonial:

Agencies: are your clients’ shrinking ad dollars this well-placed in front of a pool of potential consumers virtually pre-screened to have an interest in what they are selling? These stats prove plainly that a small, inexpensive campaign of well-written and well-targeted blog ads can quadruple a site’s traffic (and potential sales) overnight.

Day before ‘The Trooper Speaks’ blog ads were posted:

Total Page Views for this date:289
Unique Visitors for this date:178
First Time Visitors:148
Returning Visitors:30
Average Page Views per Visitor:1.6
Average Page Views per Hour:12.0
Average Unique Visitors Per Hour:7.4

Day after ‘The Trooper Speaks’ blog ads were posted:

Total Page Views for this date:1,545
Unique Visitors for this date:743
First Time Visitors:695
Returning Visitors:48
Average Page Views per Visitor:2.1
Average Page Views per Hour:64.4
Average Unique Visitors Per Hour:31.0

Many Internet advertisers would not be ashamed to see results like that for an entire campaign, not just day one. As you may recall, Luckett has raved about blogads before, saying ads on blogs are four times as effective as ads in the Village Voice. I should note that it is not just blogs that drive Luckett’s success. His laser-sharp design and punchy copy are key. He also changes his creative every one to three days, sooner if an ad is dogging. Here’s the eye-grabbing graphic for the ad he mentions:

Here is the ad’s current text:

After two years in Afghanistan and Iraq, “Anonymous”, a U.S. Army Intelligence officer, speaks out weekly on what he saw and experienced. His sad, brave and poignant words should be required reading at CENTCOM. Read his new column exclusively at agitproperties.com, the home of the world-famous FAUX NEWS coffee mug, KIRK ANDERSON’S Got Allies? tee and our new COALITION OF THE BILLING tee. agitproperties.com – the truth starts here.

Richard Luckett, who handles marketing for leftish vendor Agitproperties, has been one of our most creative advertisers, running a series of humorous ads on Atrios and now DailyKos. Richard called me up last night to rave about how well things are going. This morning he reprised his comments by e-mail:

Businesses and ad agencies that dismiss blogs and blog ads are nuts! Blogads are absolutely phenomenal. Compared with print ads we’ve run in the Village Voice, blogads target our exact demographic and give four times the ‘bang-for-buck.’ You are keeping our fulfillment guy extremely busy. Bloggers put us on the map and blogads are definitely keeping us there.

Advertisers should study Agitproperties’ strategy. Update your ad text and image often. Be cheeky. Be exhuberant. Use some html tags. Know your audience. Keep some pitches inside. And put your fulfillment guy on overtime.

Here are the components of the ad Richard is running today:

Ho Ho Faux!

What better way to enjoy a cup of holiday cheer than in our 12 oz. FAUX NEWS coffee mug in “Hannity’s Heart” black?

See it, along with our infamous FOX-baiting O’REILLY YOUTH tee, our world-famous FAUX NEWS tee, our timely Got Allies? tee, way-cool TED RALL stuff and more at agitproperties.com – for the unrepentant Leftists on your gift list.

Paul Libman, the impressario behind Oy to the World, called up to tell me the impact of his blogad on TalkingPointsMemo on sales of his Klezmer Christmas CD. I took notes and confirmed them later with Paul:

“After my ad for Klezmer Christmas started running yesterday on TalkingPointsMemo, my traffic was up five or six fold. I was up late last night processing orders. This is fantastic. I think blogads are going to be much bigger than banners. You are able to so closely target the sensibility of the people you are advertising to. I just knew Josh’s audience would appreciate the humor of my album and I’ve been proven right.”

I hate to sound like an internet utopian, but this is one of those win/win/win/win/win situations. Paul Libman finds customers he could never affordably reach otherwise. Lots of shoppers will sleep easier having crossed a few names off their holiday gift lists. The gift recipients will have a (rye) laugh. Josh Marshall makes some money doing what he loves. And Blogads gets to pay for some of its new server. Oy to the world, indeed!

Renowned editor Tina Brown, via a Washington Post chat: “I love the blog.s Think they are really channging the collective voice of journalism. People are sick of mediated coverage. They like the noholds barred appraoch.” (Via Jeff Jarvis.)

Publishers often get pushed by advertisers either to run flattering profiles or to kill unflattering exposes. Often enough, publishers succumb to the temptation. (Some publishers have even institutionalized the practice of drafting editorial staff into writing advertorials.)

Journalism professors worried about a blogger’s ability to handle the same temptations should take comfort from the case of blogger Sgt. Stryker, who yesterday sold an ad to author Harrry Helms for his book Inside the Shadow Government.

Stryker reacted by poking fun at Helms’ ad (or site or book?), calling it “basically poorly written fiction that would be funny if it weren’t so passe.”

Apologetic to his readers for running the ad, he commented “…never let it be said that I let principle get in the way of making a buck (25, in this case).”

Helms, an author with plenty of books for sale at Amazon, asked for his money back and we obliged. I understand that it would be galling to have your socio-political analysis trashed by someone who you’ve just paid $25 for publicity. But from a PR perspective, the ad and Stryker’s reaction were a home run. Plenty of other advertisers would kill for Helms’ 18% clickthru.

Blogs are an unedited space where people curse, brainstorm, rhapsodize and generally shoot off their mouths. With individual personality, ethics and accountability on the line and undiluted by the corporate “we,” bloggers seem more likely to bite the hand that feeds them than lick it.

This isn’t your grandmother’s newspaper. And for the right kind of advertiser, that’s the best news in a long time.

Wired magazine’s editor-in-chief, Chris Anderson, explains how he monitors technology news. “I don’t look that much to journalists, not directly. I tend to look at bloggers,” says Anderson. (Via Paidcontent.org.)