A new service that lets agents create
their own blogs came on the market last week.
The blog
template, called You! the Brand, is the brainchild of Scott
Ahlsmith, president and CEO of Magellan Travel Group of Glen Ellyn,
Ill.
The blog service
will be offered through Magellan's eSmart Communications
unit.
Ahlsmith said
agents benefit from launching a blog, which is basically an online
journal, because the blogging medium, unlike typical Web sites,
provides a dynamic, two-way conversation with customers and enables
agents "to shift the focus from a specific 
cruise at a given price to
the services of a travel professional. It elevates the
conversation."
In sum, it turns
the travel professional into the product, he said.
Ahlsmith said his
inspiration was Thomas Mahon, a London tailor who launched his blog
at www.englishcut.com about two years ago. He said Mahon
talked about himself and about his expertise generically. He even
occasionally recommended competitors for niche products -- and his
business grew fivefold in 18 months.
"People were
buying him," Ahlsmith said.
Ahlsmith added
that while there are 80 million blogs in existence, about half of
all new blogs are abandoned in about six weeks. For one thing, many
are boring and meaningless to readers.
In any case,
Ahlsmith said he spent the past year researching and experimenting
with ways to make blogs successful, with the participation of about
50 to 55 agents. He said he learned scores of things that don't
work. For one thing, going blatantly commercial "will turn people
away."
For $40 a month,
or $360 if paid annually, a You! the Brand subscribing agency buys
the following:
" A domain name and robust e-mail account,
both using the name of the individual. Ahlsmith said he is
considering adding a phone service component with telephone numbers
that find the owner of the number no matter where he or she
is.
" Weekly Web seminars to teach subscribers
how to create good blog content and write good headlines. The
program envisions subscribers making one posting per week to their
blogs.
" Three or four weekly blogs written and
posted by Ahlsmith. He said he writes generic pieces about news or
other relevant matters "to boost each agent's image as being an
expert."
More details on
the template appear at www.you-the-brand.com.
Characterizing
the blog as a "perpetual newsletter," Ahlsmith said it works well
for agents, whether they are agency owners, staff specialists or
home-based individuals, when they focus blogs on core
customers.
If done well, the
blog could, due to word of mouth, bring in considerably more
readers and ultimately more travel buyers, he said.
Ahlsmith said he
is talking with suppliers about getting involved with agent blogs.
Ahlsmith is proposing that suppliers sponsor blogs for their best
home-based producers, in the expectation each of these agents will
advertise the blogs to their core customers.
Blogs should
generate additional e-mails, said Ahlsmith, who has a blog at www.ahlsmith.com. "I don't mind the messages if they
come from customers," he said.
To contact the reporter who wrote this article, send e-mail
to Nadine Godwin at [email protected].