Blog into $$$

It’s no secret to the young music, art, fashion creator that the road to fame and exposure in today’s marketplace begins online. Serious creators reach out to fans and gain new fans on popular social networking sites (MySpace, Facebook), perform on video sharing sites (YouTube), and may even have their own website and blog. The online world generates an organic muse to keep the undiscovered creative, representative of “the people” and true to their art. I love the starving artist. But as I sit day in and day out figuring out how to create shareholder value and ROI, I can’t help but wonder…when does the starving artist get their piece of the pie? My heart aches for the artist who has the loyal following, more marketing savvy than YUM! Brands, and yet is forced to only make cents on the dollar.

So I surfed. And after diligently “researching” my favorite blogs (check out Fashionation and Notes from a Different Kitchen) I realized that while the artists were getting great free press, advertisement and exposure there is no measurement to determine if the awareness translates to sales. I decided my assignment is: Help the artist make money.

Here is my 5-step plan for the next big thing to be a trendsetter and measure revenue.

Step 1: Find your biggest advocate. There’s a ton of people out there using YOUR brand to affirm THEIR in-the-know trend status. Let them work for you(they already are!) by maintaining your blog.

Step 2: Give them the inside scoop. Don’t forget about your customer (aka fans). They want to know all about you and how you relate to them. You want to hear from them. They’ll love endorsing your latest creation.

Step 3: Be vehemently viral. Go all out! Put links to your YouTube fashion show, MySpace link, Second Life store, etc. on your blog page.

Step 4: Be exclusive. Here you go, this is the test. SELL exclusive creations only through your blog. These limited creations will not only generate the buzz you crave, but now you’ll be able to measure exactly how much of your online traffic generates sales.

Step 5: Evaluate. Use the blogs sales as a metric to determine what percent of unique hits to the blog resulted in purchase of exclusive content and determine if buzz-building impact overall sales.

Voila!

Assignment: Evaluate my and share your step-by-step plan to measure buzz .