A few years ago, I read an article in which the writer questioned the staying power of blogs. At the time, I questioned this “trend” as well. Not anymore. And I’m not alone.

According to Technorati’s State of the Blogosphere: 2008, “All studies agree, however, that blogs are a global phenomenon that has hit the mainstream.” According to the same report, over one million blog posts are created every day, and over 1.2 million bloggers have registered with Technorati.

To Blog or Not To Blog. Is That Really a Question?

Bloggers are a powerful group: they shape public opinion (consider the bloggers involved in the recent presidential election), provide current and relevant information (like this blog), and can effect change (think of the mommy bloggers who got Motrin to change their recent ad campaign; it was a combo of bloggers and Twitterers).

Blogs are–or should be–a key component of your eCommerce company’s social media marketing plan. Why? Simple. Content is still king, and its reign won’t be ending any time soon. As the search engines mimic human behavior more and more, it’s going to come down to the content that’s on the site and the number of other sites (including blogs) that are pointing to it. The better the content and the more inbound links you have, the more relevant your site will be in the search engine’s eyes. This is good news: good, relevant content can’t be faked. While the inbound link angle might smell of a popularity contest, it isn’t. For once, the “pretty” kid (e.g. website) isn’t getting the vote; it’s the kid (website) with the most substance.

What is a blog?

A blog has been defined by numbers of people in a variety of ways. But to summarize, a blog is a series of posts (or articles) on a website by a particular author or group of authors over time pertaining to a particular subject or subjects. Blogs can typically be grouped into two categories: personal and business. Granted there’s going to be some overlap between the two, but typically personal blogs focus around opinions, hobbies, or interest of the author, while business blogs are more professional in nature, dealing with particular industries and business issues.

There’s already a wealth of published information dealing with blogging for beginners, how blogs work, and even how to make money from your blog. So for the sake of needlessly repeating all of these well covered issues, I’ll focus on what all of this means for eCommerce Merchants.

Business Impact

Web 2.0, blogs, social media marketing, viral marketing – if you haven’t been living in a cave the past few years, you should have at least heard of these terms before. It’s all the rave right now, and everybody’s doing it – so to speak. Many companies, in an attempt to stay on course with current trends and technology, have quickly embraced these technologies to help foster their online presence years ago. These pioneers of the “blogoshpere” have helped identify issues and questions any organization should address before starting blog – and we’ll cover a few of them below.

There are an estimated 120,000 new blogs appearing daily (source http://www.sifry.com/alerts/archives/000493.html), and while the pace of this growth in 2007 has slowed from its pace in 2006, we’re still seeing the use of blogs growing as an influential medium on the internet. It is estimated that 25% of eCommerce businesses have used a blog on their website as a form of their marketing mix (source MarketingSherpa eCommerce Benchmark Guide). It’s a mixed bag of those that have seen success with their blog, and those that have not. Let’s first talk about why it seems like everyone wants to setup a blog for their website, and then we’ll talk about some of the major issues you’ll need to work through to establish the success of your blog.

Benefits of a business blog

So what is so valuable about these blogs that everyone is so excited about? Well, let’s talk about what I like to call the “big four”:

(1) Search Engine Optimization: While nobody should go into this with the expectation that setting up a blog on their business website will instantly shoot their site up to #1 in Google, it has been noted that having a blog on a website has had a positive effect on the search engine rankings for many websites. Why does it seem like search engines prefer websites with blogs? Well, they don’t. There are a lot of misconceptions on this issue, in fact, just the other day I overheard someone answering a question about blogs – and in my closest attempt at quoting him – “search engines look for websites with blogs and rank them more important”. This is categorically incorrect. The reason that blogs actually have an influence search engine rankings is the inherit benefits in running a blog on your website, factors that have had an effect on search engine rankings since the algorithms were in its infancy. In fact, blogs merely gave webmasters a tool to easily apply many of these factors to their websites. So what are these search engine benefits associated with running a blog?

Content: In today’s world of search engine optimization, you’ll probably run into the phrase “content is king” everywhere you turn. The fact of the matter is that search engines like content – lots of valuable, fresh, relevant content.

Freshness: Fresh, updated content has long been rumored (nobody knows for fact after all) to influence search engine rankings.

Links: Particularly with Google, much emphasis on the value of your site focuses around what other websites link to you. The more quality websites that link to you, the more your website is considered an “authority” on the topic. Take a look at some of the social media marketing experts that focus around creating “link bait” articles – articles that are successful at generating links to your website, thus enhancing its popularity.

(2) Viral Marketing: The use of social media sites such as Reddit.com, Digg.com, StumbleUpon.com, and more are all on the rise. By creating blogs and submitting your articles to these websites, you are making your information readily available to their community of users. Better yet, by creating articles that are interesting, unique, funny, or just downright valuable, these social media sites’ users can rate and share your articles with other users, with the potential for your article to be exposed to thousands of readers daily. With the proper content, blogging can be one of the most cost-effective forms of online marketing.

(3) Industry Trends (Web 2.0): While I personally despise the use of the term Web 2.0, the fact of the matter is that the trend of internet users is becoming more social. By ignoring these trends, you may be putting yourself at a disadvantage by missing out on the opportunities presented with these new technologies.

(4) Establishing yourself as an industry expert: In order to write blogs about a particular subject matter, you should first possess some kind of knowledge or insight that you have that others don’t – this is what creates the value of a blog, and why people will want to read it – for that valuable information. When you’re well versed with a particular topic, and can demonstrate that knowledge, blogs give you ability to share that information easily. And the more recognized you become in the industry, the more you are going to establish yourself as an expert in that field. When a potential customer now goes looking for some information on that subject, maybe also in need of related services, you’ve already established a level of trust before even coming in contact with the potential client or customer.<

Issues to consider before starting a blog

(1) Technology: While technically, it is very easy to implement a blogging system and integrate it into your website, it is important to carefully review and choose the correct blogging platform to meet your needs.

(2) Resources: While it sounds easy to write blog articles on the occasional basis, you should consider writing a blog from a journalistic perspective. This requires someone with some writing skills, knowledge of proper grammar and spelling, knowledge of the subject matter, and a hint of creativity (the more the better). While you don’t necessarily need to have a Journalism degree to be a successful blogger, it is important to at least understand some of the underlying journalistic concepts. On top of possessing these skills, this resource will need to devote the necessary time to write an article at a minimum of once per week. That means you’ll have to make it a priority for this person to allocate four or more hours per week in writing a well thought out, properly referenced article. From a business perspective, you can consider this the ongoing costs of running a blog (the technical costs are usually minimal).

(3) Commitment: Before starting a blog, it is important to understand the level of commitment necessary for success. Generating momentum for your blog takes time; it may take many months before you’ve created a reader base. I can’t count how many blogs I come across that have been abandoned after 4 months. Similar to starting a business, you have to exercise patience before you can expect to see the results from those efforts.

(4) Purpose: What is your goal in creating the blog? Are you just doing it because everyone else is? What tangible business benefit are you hoping for? Who do you want to read this? By answering these questions, you will be able to provide a direction for the blog and the articles and content can be written around that. To build a reader base, you’ll need to provide them something valuable.

(5) Measuring success: What defines your success? Like any marketing campaign, it’s important to always measure the success your efforts. Make sure you have an analytics package in place or plan on some other method to gauge your results. Again, don’t dispel the success of your blog too quickly; with enough time you will be able to determine the success. But, along the way track it’s progress and use that to determine which types of articles are getting the most hits, what types of articles are leading to conversions on your website, and what types of articles aren’t so successful (indicated by high bounce rates, low visitor depth, short time spent on site, etc).

(6) Promotion: How are people going to find your blog? Does your website draw enough visitors naturally to create a reader base? Promoting a blog and getting people to it is an important aspect that many organizations overlook. Think of it as marketing your marketing materials. This promotion typically needs to take place after you’ve built up a bevy of valuable articles (I’d recommend usually a few months worth), and should be targeted to other social media in raising awareness that your blog exists, and has some valuable content.

At the end of the day, a blog can provide a lot of value for a business website, but it is important to consider all of these factors before you make the leap into the “blogoshpere”.