Together with Jason Schramm from Shiwej, I’ve decided to start a guestblogging series which will run on both our blogs at about the same time.
Today (December 4th, 2005) is the seventh installment of the series and this time we go to the Netherlands to meet up with Marco W.J. Derksen founder, heart and soul of MarketingFacts, a notorious resource for all Dutch marketeers. Together with his army of bloggers, Marco tries to cover all important (interactive) marketing-related topics that are happening ‘now’, often scooping up the rest of his country.
1. How did you get into blogging?
It depends on what you call blogging. I started to maintain an online diary on a business-related topic back in 1997. It was a html-site that was updated almost every day. It was in november 2002 that I used for the first a real blogging tool with trackbacks, pings, rss-feeds and comment functionality. I started with a new job and was looking for a more convenient tool to maintain my websites. Until that time I didn’t know that I was blogging ;-)
2. What is your blog’s name, what is it about?
In november 2002 I started with Marketingfacts [rss], a Dutch blog about interactive marketing and new media. Over time, MarketingFacts expanded into a group blog. Traffic built to over 50.000 unique visitors and more than 200,000 page views per month.
3. Are there any policies you follow when reporting on an issue?
There are many marketing blogs in the Netherlands nowadays so I try to cover actual news and to be the first blog with scoops. To be the first I don’t always have the time to check the facts, for scoops especially, that is done afterwards (sometimes with consequences). For the remaining postings, I always check the facts. Issues have to be related to interactive marketing and/or new media.
4. What guidelines do you follow when linking to an outside source?
It is common practice to refer to both the original source and the source where I got it from. The postings are a mixture of content that is found elsewhere and personal opinions. Occasionaly we post related press releases as well.
5. Do you think you are trustworthy? Why do your readers trust you?
Marketingfacts is one of the leading marketing blogs in the Netherlands with traffic built to over 50.000 unique visitors and more than 200,000 page views per month. We have left the time behind us that we didn’t check the facts and the readers know that. And when we are wrong (we are still humans), our readers are the first to let us know in either the comments or by email.
6. Do you think bloggers should be treated as journalists and be privy to the rights and protections that journalists enjoy?
Marketingfacts is already treated as a serious publisher of marketing news by both the communication departments of companies, PR agencies and traditional publishers. This means we get the same press releases that are sent also to traditional magazines and get invitations to events just like the traditional journalists do. I don’t know if I want the same rights and protections that journalists enjoy as I’m not a journalist but a business blogger which means I have no educational background in journalism but in marketing.
Initiated together with Jason Schramm, this guest blogging series will continue to make people aware of the power of linking and the need to give credit to the people who earn it.
Together, we’re improving the Blogosphere, you can help too if you start linking here !
And be sure to check out Jason’s post here.
Note :
Jason and I are not related but have a common field. Jason writes for the BlogNewsChannel, and takes care of Apple Watch, very surprisingly the Apple section of Nathan’s network.
I sometimes write on Inside Google & Inside Microsoft.