What's the Blogging Equivalent of "Phoning It In?"

As regular readers of this blog know, I'm a big fan of Seth Godin. His ideas about Permission Marketing are tremendous. I have an RSS subscription to his blog. I eagerly await his next postings.

Recently I've been a little disappointed. Today's topic talks about the two best ways to make money blogging.

In short, the answers are:
1. Develop a readership (which doesn't really make you money, although you could use AdSense to make marginal revenue through ad views).
2. Sell something.

He then links to a blog that details how combining your blog with e-commerce makes good sense.

Am I missing something?

The combination of competence, consistency, expertise, credibility, trust and a product/service offering that fulfills a demand has been the foundation of great business since the beginning of time. Whether you "lead" with expertise or "lead" with a great product/service is irrelevant.

It's like debating whether to start a long walk with your right leg or your left leg. It doesn't matter. You need them both. (Unless you plan to hop!)

You know what I call an e-commerce site without the requisite "company personality", credibility, industry expertise, customer relationships and additional product/service information?

I call it a vending machine.

You know what I call someone who builds up a level of trust, credibility and rapport with his/her audience, then delivers no goods or services whatsoever?

I call them politicians.

I know it's tough sitting in front of a blank screen, thinking about your next blog topic. But I'd rather not post, than be lame. Hopefully, I'm just missing the point of Seth's post.