Martin Frost is the latest candidate to run BlogAds, joining fellow Texan Morris Meyer in tapping this market. I’ve been wondering ever since Ben Chandler’s much-ballyhooed (and now copied) success at running BlogAds how other candidates would do now that there’s more of them in the mix and almost none of them are in a high-visibility special election in which their candidacy and fundraising needs have been shilled all around the blog world. So, I took it upon myself to ask all of them campaigns that have run these ads what their opinion of them was. I’m a bit annoyed that I only got three responses – you would think that if a candidate’s strategy includes this kind of Internet outreach, they’d be a bit more solicitous about replying to email – but that’s the way it goes. I’ve reproduced the questions and answers below the More link. Short answer: Good news for BlogAds and the candidates who want to use them.
UPDATE: As March comes to a close, you can help all of the BlogAds-buying candidates make their quarterly numbers look better. Kos has all the links.
1. Have you raised more money via BlogAds than you spent on them?
– From Martin Matheny on behalf of Doug Haines:
“Yes, we have recouped our investment and then some.”
– From Clay McReynolds on behalf of Morris Meyer:
“Yes, about 10 to 1.”
– From Jeff Smith:
“Yes.”
2. Have you gotten any other favorable result (volunteers, good publicity, etc) from the ads?
– From Martin Matheny on behalf of Doug Haines:
“The benefits we have received from blogads go far beyond fundraising. Doug Haines is a grassroots candidate, and one thing that we are very serious about is having a real discussion with voters in the 12th District and across the country. Traffic on our blog has increased, especially since Doug has started blogging himself (taking questions and answering them on our blog). From my perspective, we have gotten a number of great stories in the media, both local and national media outlets, actually.”
– From Clay McReynolds on behalf of Morris Meyer:
“Yes, both good publicity and volunteers.”
– From Jeff Smith:
“A little PR and notoriety.”
3. What if anything would you change about the experience?
– From Martin Matheny on behalf of Doug Haines:
“I can’t think of anything that we would change about our experience. Honestly, Doug is very pleased with the response we’ve been getting.”
– From Clay McReynolds on behalf of Morris Meyer:
“I would have gotten started sooner. When we first got out there, we were one of a very few. Within weeks, we were part of a crowd.”
– From Jeff Smith:
“Better ad placement!”
4. Do you think this is a fad, or do you think BlogAds are here to stay?
– From Martin Matheny on behalf of Doug Haines:
“I do think blogads and blogging in general are here to stay for political candidates. Television had been around for quite awhile before Eisenhower ran the first political ads. I would imagine the same is true of radio. More recently, the web had been around for years before candidates starting putting up their own sites. Blogads are a very good way to reach an informed and engaged electorate, and candidates blogs are another way to talk to voters.”
– From Clay McReynolds on behalf of Morris Meyer:
“No fad, but their nature is sure to change over time. They will become more sophisticated.”
– From Jeff Smith:
“Here to stay.”