Common Craft Blog
Professional Weblogs Described to a Friend
By leelefever on July 27, 2004 - 12:20pm
A great friend from grad school and (fellow independent consultant) is thinking about starting a weblog and emailed me about the time commitment and what it takes to do it “rightâ€.
I told her that it really depends on what she wants to get out of it. Goals may be getting readers, higher search results, a creative outlet, new customers, relationships with other bloggers, online community participation, etc.
To add to this, I described my perspective off the top of my head in the email. I'm posting it here to share my recent thoughts onthe subject...
My goal was to get more visibility in my niche- so I write about the subjects in my niche and focus on other weblogs of people in that niche. To be successful in getting readers, it really takes more than writing. It takes being aware of what people are talking about and what value you can insert into those discussions.
It’s a new form of online community where everyone has their own place to speak up on the subjects at hand. I weave personal things into the posts. You learn that people come to your site because they like you, the person, and the more of a person you can be, the better. Once you get into it, it’s amazing how much you can learn and how your concept of “news†changes. This is just my view... I could go on and on….
While I could probably do better, I thought this off-the-cuff description was worth sharing.
Professional Weblogs Described to a Friend
I find that my blog has replaced a lot of my files, and my Internet bookmarks. It's a personal knowledge repository that I can share with colleagues and clients. Many times I'll tell someone, "just look it up on my blog".
I am finding that my blog doesn't get me clients, but it accelerates the relationship once a contact has been made. People can learn all about me and my professional opinions in a short time.
As an independent consultant, blogging is the cheapest marketing there is. I spend about one hour a day, usually 5 days a week on reading my aggregator and making posts. Beats cold calls. Since I started my company blog in February, I have gone from 20 to 2,600 visitors per week.
Professional Weblogs Described to a Friend
My experience running my small blog has been similar... I haven't met a lot of new folks since I began publishing, but I sure have heard from a lot of old friends and collegues who have a new vehichle for staying in touch with me.
I've also found it a great way to get quick feedback on my projects and ideas. Post something up, ask for feedback, and usually have several responses within a day.
kk+
Professional Weblogs Described to a Friend
Thanks for the comments folks. I think you hit on some good points. It is the cheapest marketing there is Harold. When I was about to start consulting, I read a book that said you'd need to allocate time and money to marketing- brochures, yellow pages, web site, etc. In today's world (and in my niche) all I need is the weblog.
I do think it helps me keep in touch with folks whom I've gotten to passively.
For my personal and family relationships though, my personal weblog has become really important to me. My whole family and friends across the country read it regularly.
So many great uses to the simple format.
Professional Weblogs Described to a Friend
Keith Robinson covered something similar recently.
I use blogs as my notepad. I keep ideas and my perspectives on things I have seen or experienced on my blogs. People may comment on my views and that will either teach me something or not. However "right" my blogs are to me, it may not be so useful to other people who may be looking for other things; which is fine.
The question was, "How to do it right?" Well, a lot depends on what you want to achieve. The purpose of the blog. If it's purely a platform to work with customers on some project, then to do it right might mean restricting public access to the blog, and only grant access rights to your team members (employees) and clients. If it's a place to showcase talent, then you may want a blog that displays your talent whether writing, analyzing some topic or industry, web design, etc. If it's a forum where discussions are held and important ideas are shared, maybe "search" and "post categorizing" features become necessary (to make it right), not to mention a database which will ease data recovery, migration and/or backups.