Okay, I’ve updated the auction.

It now indicates what’s obvious to far too many bloggers: that I’m the blogger for hire.

Why am I doing this?

To be honest, I’m doing this to raise the profile of blogging, plain and simple. Plus, being a writer as well as a consultant in a past life, I know I can help companies figure out if blogging is the right space for them to be looking at.

What’s in it for companies?

One of my business blogging friends sees it as an opportunity for companies to team with a well known blogger who will, at the very least, help them figure out if / how blogging fits into their culture. In addition they’re getting a regular content stream and, finally free consulting. After the 3 months it’s my goal that they’ll know if it’s for them and, hopefully, they’ll know if they have internal resources to carry on blogging (as, to me, that’s the ideal).

Shouldn’t companies have internal people blogging?

Given the choice, yes. In the same way that, given the choice, companies should have all marketing and branding materials created internally. That’s the ideal. However the reality is very different. Employees may not know the segment, may be constricted by marketing principles which simply won’t work in blogging and may end up doing more harm than good.

This is a dry run with an industry expert. If you were learning to golf you’d hire a pro, and that’s all this is. Someone to teach a company to blog, if it fits them.

Isn’t this all a little stupid?

Maybe. But, like all free market stuff, you never know if there’s a demand for something until you try. If there is a demand for this, there may be a demand for more blogger trials at more companies in which case – who knows – maybe I’ll end up brokering such deals for other bloggers with other companies.

You just don’t know until you try, and I’m quite happy to put myself out there as a guinea pig to see if this works.