Worker Bees Blog

Last year's BlogHer revealed to me exactly how real a community bloggers can form. Women were offering their spare rooms, their frequent flier miles, and yes, cash, to help blogging friends (most of whom they had never met in person) to get to BlogHer.

The same thing is going on this year. You can troll the web and find women selling T-shirts and women who are feeling flush better offering to sponsor women who culd use a little help.

And this morning you'll also find two business BlogHers looking for sponsorship to make the trip.

Jeneane Sessum wants to go to BlogHer, and she's looking for a partner to help her...a corporate partner.

Yvonne DiVita is the subject of a terrific interview over at the blog Synergy, and mentions the same proposition.

Now what's in it for a corporate sponsor? Well, Jeneane has done it before and has this to say about it:

We were humbled and thrilled when Qumana decided to sponsor our SXSW trip. I had been using "Q" for several months before that, and I am the kind of user who generally has some opinions and ideas about the products I use. Sometimes I'm even right. ;-)

And I enjoy writing about the space, because Qumana is, in my mind, a writer's tool first, a thinker's pad, a way to make it easier to get the thoughts from head to pixels so that I can do it more often and without having to take as many naps. You can quote me.

Was the sponsorship worth doing? I would defer to Jon Husband for Qumana's perspective. For me, I wish I could sponsor them right back--in fact I am sort of am in the way that works best, because I continue to use Qumana and provide insight, ideas, and sometimes even good jokes, to the folks there.

Isn't this exactly the kind of customer evangelist savvy Web 2.0 companies say they want to cultivate?

I know, I know...some of you are going to think corporate sponsorship is evil. I so disagree. There are certain services and products with which I have fallen in love. Could I without a qualm in the world represent Apple? Yes. For that matter back when I used a Sony VAIO I was pretty enraptured about that too. Did I used to feel that kind of passion for my Palm? Well, despite how I take it for granted now, once I certainly did feel that thrill. TiVo? Don't even get me started! The list goes on.

When Guy suggested that companies who made blogging tools and services ought to be exhibiting at BlogHer, one clueless commenter assumed he meant because "women like to shop"! What a doofus. Guy had the perfect comeback: "Companies should exhibit at BlogHer because it is an inexpensive way to reach hundreds of bloggers who can spread the word about products and services."

And I would submit that sponsoring one active blogger like Jeneane and Yvonne would cost you so little (probably less than $1000) and get you one very talkative customer evangelist in your corner.

And as Yvonne likes to say: what's not to like about that?