What Is It About The Content On A Blog That Makes A Blog Successful?

Content is very important to the success of a blog. We asked the bloggers what it was about the content on a blog that contributed to the success of a corporate blog. Two very important factors that the bloggers mentioned the most were writing transparently and writing content that is entertaining and/or personal. This issue is discussed in greater detain in Section Three.

Compelling Content Comes from Unique Experiences

Content that is unique and gives readers a view of the world they would not gain from anywhere else is an important factor in the success of many blogs.

Tim Jackson, writing for the Masi Bikes blog, writes about the Tour de France. The irony of the success of his posts about the Tour de France is that he writes about what is happening on the Tour from his office in San Diego. Tim reads news reports about the race and gives his updates and opinions about what’s happening. Readers in the bicycle world appreciate Tim’s insight highly, even if Tim Jackson is not even attending the major cycling event.

The Stonyfield Farm blog was the most successful blog run by Stonyfield Farm. Jonathan the farmer, Stonyfield’s organic farming blogger, writes about whatever is happening in his life, the calving season or maple sugar season. The success of the Stonyfield Farm organic farming blog is because it is all about a farmer’s unique experiences in farming an organic farm. What must seem mundane to the farmer is refreshing, compelling and entertaining content to most readers.
The content on the Masi biking blog and the Stonyfield Farm organic farming blog really defines and reinforces the stature of each company brand. Masi is associated with the most famous cycle race in the world, and from reading the organic farming blog it is pretty clear that Stonyfield makes its yogurt with organic milk because you can read all about how the milk is produced on the farmer’s organic farming blog.

Industry Content Provides Great Relevancy for Audiences

Content that is industry related on a blog can be the content that brings success to a blog. Several bloggers interviewed described how their blogs’ themes changed over time to relate even more to their industry. Content can be very compelling to an audience when a blog author writes about their industry in general as opposed to just their own product line.

Eric Anderson of Adobe writes unique industry content for his audience, who are developers interested in reading about Adobe’s technology. Deborah Franke and Jim Cahill of Emerson Process Management and Dr. Ron Lasky of Indium Corporation focus most of their blog content on their industries (process automation technology and electronic assembly materials, respectively), and in the process hope to demonstrate the skills and expertise of their bloggers through the good coverage of their industry, thereby associating their company’s brands with a blogger who is a thought leader in their communities. In contrast Zane Safrit of Conference Calls Unlimited makes sure he specifically does not write about his company’s industry, rather Zane writes about his customer’s marketplace, the small business environment.

Eric Anderson from Adobe said that publishing content that people need is very important to building a successful blog. Eric said the posts that generate the most traffic are those posts that discuss Adobe's competitors and content about a product’s future direction. Eric said that his style of blog writing has progressed over time. He used to write about new releases etc., all content he had not written, and he got tired of referencing this type of material. Now Eric writes about technical information not covered anywhere else.

Rick Short from Indium Corporation explained the biggest reason their blogs are successful is because of the stature of Dr. Ron Lasky in the industry. He also said that controversial subjects garnered more interest on the blog, but that is not what the Indium blogs aim for in terms of content. As time has progressed, Dr. Lasky has grown in his blog writing; he is now more comfortable writing in this medium. His posts are longer and more detailed. Rick thought he was more comfortable because Dr. Lasky had a better idea of what people wanted to read on his blog. Rick said, "You need to know what people want to hear. You know, you need to know what interests people."

David Paull at MSInteractive described how he started a blog at his company and quickly realized that to be authentic he had to write about more than just his company's products and services. David writes about his clients’ markets and industry, he ensures that the blog provides useful information for his customers. David stated that it took a few iterations before he found the right voice for his blog.

Max Goldman of SuccessFactors stated that he stays on topic about the human resources industry in his blog. He does not post a lot of articles about personal issues because his audience would not be interested.

Deborah Franke and Jim Cahill of Emerson Process Management keep their blog focused on making it as easy as possible for customers in the process-manufacturing world to talk to experts at Emerson Process Management. Deb said, "The best way to get visibility to your expertise message, we believe, is to blog." Both Deb and Jim said that the posts that have generated the most interest are those where there is already some discussion and interest on the web. The Emerson Process blog has added something to the discussion through the bloggers perspective on an issue.

Sometimes The Most Random Content Generates The Most Interest

A common theme discussed by the bloggers was that it is not always predictable which blog posts will attract the most attention. Oftentimes, they are not the posts one would expect, and sometimes not even related to the industry or company at all. Many bloggers described how it was often personal posts unrelated to the main topic of the blog that generated a lot of comments and traffic. A post that is about unrelated subject matter demonstrates the connections between an audience member and a blogger, and so builds a closer connection between blogger and their readership, precisely because the post is less about business and more about living life.

The content that generates the most comments can be very random on Janet Johnson’s blog at Marqui, and she has been surprised that her personal posts have generated some of the most surprising comments.

Put Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Marketing at the Center of Your Blogging Content Strategy

A blog can be a great way to develop a lot of content, but also a way to help a company achieve top rankings on search engine keywords their audience uses to find a company on the web. Many companies hope to gain a lot of traffic from search engines and aim to achieve higher search engine rankings in order to get more traffic. In addition, customers sometimes perceive a top ranking on a search engine to indicate that a company is a stronger brand than their competitors. Thus, to the extent that high search engine rankings help with brand perception it could be stated that blogs help with brand perception.

Both the quantity of Web content and the proper use of keywords used for search are important factors in achieving a high-ranking search engines. Donna makes SEO strategy really pay off for her blog. She is diligent about writing content that targets the keywords her audience finds relevant. The payoff is top rankings on search engines for the keywords she targets. Donna stated that her blog has achieved a number two ranking on the keyword "gourmet dinners" in Yahoo! The Gourmet Station blog has played a big part in helping Donna’s company to achieve those high rankings.

The topic that generates the most conversation and interaction from readers on the Gourmet Station blog is romance. Donna said the reason for traffic success with romance-related keywords is the high search engine volumes for romance, and that romance is so closely associated with dinner in terms of romantic dinners.

Seasonality can also be a factor in search engine marketing. Searches on particular keywords rise and fall with the season depending on the industry and products. As seasons change, Donna changes the content on her blog to target the interests of her audience by targeting different related keywords. Timely publishing can also have an effect on the rankings of a web page related to a keyword. Donna makes sure each of the 14 categories on the Gourmet Station blog has a fresh recent post in each of the categories, so that she can generate a volume of content around a set of keywords.

Top Content Strategies Archive

The Blogging Success Study was conducted by Dr. Walter Carl; the students in his Advanced Organizational Communications class (Spring 2006) at Northeastern University and John Cass and his colleagues at Backbone Media, Inc. The objective of this research was to determine the reasons, conditions and factors that make a blog successful, and to create a list of criteria to help companies assess whether and how they should engage in blogging.

In order to identify the elements of a successful blog, the research team interviewed twenty corporate bloggers from companies of varied size and industry, and asked each blogger a series of standardized questions. (See Appendix 2.0) Only bloggers who had been blogging for over one year and considered their blogging efforts successful were eligible to participate. While the selection of participants was, therefore, somewhat subjective and limiting (without the resources to determine the most successful bloggers on the Web), the research team was able to identify common elements among the subject group and distinguish a number of factors for blogging success. These elements are discussed at length in sections two and three of this paper. Herein you will also find case studies detailing how the twenty corporate blogs achieved success. New and veteran bloggers alike will find the case studies and anecdotes enlightening, as they reveal a variety of different paths to success. Thus, we have included summaries of all twenty blogger interviews within the study’s appendix.

Interview results were transcribed and summarized in twenty separate case studies. Each was then studied and analyzed with three questions in mind:

• How does the set up of a blog contribute to a blog’s success?
• What is it about how you blog that makes the blog a success?
• What is it about the content on a blog that makes the blog a success?

After careful review, the research team identified five factors for success. The majority of the twenty participant bloggers pointed to these factors as important to the success of their blog. We focus in on these factors in Section Three.

The five factors identified by the participants were:

1. Culture
2. Transparency
3. Time
4. Dialogue
5. Entertaining Writing Style and Personalization

A company should carefully consider all of these factors before making a decision to blog:

Culture:

If a company has particular cultural traits worth revealing, or conversely, a bad reputation they want to repudiate, blogging could be an attractive option. A great example of the latter is Microsoft. Microsoft had a distinct problem—distrust on the part of many customers. The company was seen as being very big and unresponsive to customers. Microsoft used blogs to reveal that individual employees do care about customers, and they are willing to provide a lot of value by way of product and developer information. Blogging at Microsoft has worked well because Microsoft and Microsoft bloggers were able to show the public what Microsoft's culture was really like behind the big company image.

Transparency:

Transparency is crucial to establishing credibility and trust with an audience. While you do not have to be completely open—it is okay to set boundaries—people want to see an honest picture of a company, and know there are not ulterior motives behind the posts bloggers write. Blog audiences respect a willingness to disclose all points of view on a subject. Thoughtful consideration of all viewpoints demonstrates an expertise, and it shows a willingness to engage in a dialogue rather than just pressing an agenda. Successful corporate blogs are those that establish their credibility well. The level of transparency depends on the industry and audience, but citing other sources of knowledge and perspectives will always bring more credibility to a blog.

Time: It takes a lot of time to set up, research and write a quality blog and engage the blogging community effectively. A company that wants a successful blog needs to identify a person who has the time or free up that person’s time, or needs to leverage its resources so the responsibility is shared among a group of bloggers.

Dialogue:

A company’s ability and willingness to engage in a greater dialogue with the blogging community is an important determinant in the success of their blog. The Stonyfield Farm blog is a perfect example of a corporate blog used to engage an audience through discussing topics not just related to their products but also, related to organic farming, healthy lifestyle and other germane subject matter. Despite the fact that these topics are not directly related to the yogurt they sell, Stonyfield demonstrates an expertise in areas of importance to their customer base.

Entertaining Writing Style and Personalization:

The writing style and how much a blogger is prepared to reveal about their life, experience and opinions in a blog post bring a human side to a blog. This helps a company build personal connections with their audience. Entertaining content, especially content that contains humor, will also bridge the gap between writer and reader. Personal connections and entertaining content help turn casual readers into return customers.

We believe that the study has identified many factors that will make a blog a success. We provide a more in-depth analysis of these and other factors in sections two and three of this paper. The reader can use this list of factors to determine the readiness of their own company to start blogging and as a roadmap to plan a strategy that will bring them the most success in current and future blogging endeavors.

How Does The Set Up Of A Blog Contribute to a Blog's Success?

We asked some questions about how a blog’s set up affects the relative success of a blog. We chose the most important reoccurring issues described by the interviews. The culture of the company was another important factor that can play a major role in helping to make a blog a success; the issue of culture is described in section three.

Strategic Planning

A number of the corporate bloggers thought that without a reason to blog, it is not a good idea just to start blogging. They felt it was important to develop blogging goals in advance. There has to be some reason as to why a company should blog. There are a variety of reasons why companies start blogging, including building a company’s brand and increasing a company’s search engine rankings. One of the bloggers, Heather Hamilton of Microsoft, thought that corporate bloggers should have a real business goal behind their reasons to blog. Heather stated, "The reason why I’m successful as a blogger at Microsoft is I have a job that can be accomplished through blogging, which is building our employment brand."

Other bloggers, however, did not think it was as important to develop initial blogging goals, These bloggers felt that engaging an audience online today was enough of a reason to start blogging. Dave Balter from BzzAgent said, "It’s a dive right in philosophy. No matter what you think ahead of time, people will not cease to amaze you. So, it’s best to learn over time."

Blogger Selection

In preparing to blog, it is important to pick the right people to begin blogging for your company. Several of the corporate bloggers gave their insights into what characteristics to look for in a good corporate blogger. These characteristics include:

* The ability to listen to your audience
* Passion for the topic
* The ability to communicate a personality online
* Perseverance and commitment
* Expertise in a field or variety of topics
* A warm and friendly approach
* Good writing ability
* The necessary amount of time for blogging
* Openness to criticism


A company can use these insights as a yardstick when identifying the right corporate blogger.

Zane Safrit from Conference Calls Unlimited thought that, "The best blogger is a person who’s the most honest, the most passionate, and the most committed."

Here is an example of how Emerson Process Management selected Jim Cahill to be their corporate blogger. Deb Franke explained that decision makers in her company had two main concerns: Would their bloggers understand their brand and messaging? And how do you associate a single real person or a number of real people in a very large company with huge brands like ours? Deb said, “Jim Cahill became the obvious choice, however. He has an engineering background; he has grown into a position where he is the hub of so many stories; and Jim knows so many people across the entire company. In addition, Jim is the brand manager for many of the most popular brands. The objections and concerns went away."

Jim from Emerson continued, "We didn’t expect the people who did have the expertise to begin blogging and building up a number of posts. So, the strategy was that I would be a connector to the experts around the organization where I could tell their story individually and pop back on them in a few months based on what was going on there. From other people in the organization they looked at it as a pilot for the company, but we wanted to show people both internally and externally that this could be effective and kind of a building block to get more bloggers going overtime."

Reading Other Blogs

Reading other blogs in your industry is crucial in gaining an understanding of your industry’s blogging community. Many bloggers suggested monitoring other blogs for an understanding of their blogging community, ideas for posts and uncovering industry trends.

David Paull of MSInteractive's own readership grew the more he read and commented on other blogs. David said, "I think it’s critical, if you want to have a successful blog, to comment on other people's blogs. I think you have to engage in other blogs, otherwise just getting the word out about your blog is very hard to do."

Practice With An Internal Blog Before Going External

Starting a blog internally helps your employees to become familiar with blogging. Ultimately, this makes the launch of a public blog smoother and its implementation more successful.

Deb Franke and Jim Cahill at Emerson Process Management specifically recommended an internal blogging strategy. Initially Emerson set up an internal blog so employees could get used to the idea of blogging and podcasting. The more employees that became interested in blogging and began to write on the internal blog, the more writers were added to the external corporate blog. Once the company had set up their blog, Deb and Jim worked with the HR and legal departments to set up a policy for the company, and then everyone could blog.

How To Receive Goods For Free 3

PATIENCE GAME

You must bare it in mind all along that you have to, no matter how long it will take: stay calm
and patient. Mark my words, you will have to send emails back and forth a couple of times
after your initial request, this is good because the companies do reply and tell you exactly
where you stand. Patience is the key here if you are to succeed.

In Britain and United States, we do everything punctually. Our attitude is “Let’s get it done
quickly - no time wasting!” and we stick to a strict schedule. On the other hand, in some parts
of the world, including Asia, it’s not like this. You might not receive a reply to your email for
a week, two weeks or even up till three weeks later. This doesn’t mean they’re ignoring you.
That is how they conduct business there and they reply just as slowly to large corporations
too.

Below are two pictures of actual invoices (notice they have no charges listed?)…

OK, when you do receive your free samples, they will usually be delivered as a “commercial
sample – no value” so you do not pay any duty/customs tariffs on them. This is a very good
thing as tariffs can sometimes be almost 40% of the product’s value!
Remember, RESPECT and CONFIDENCE plays a great role in helping you to successfully
get what you want. Make the companies think they are going to make money off you and you
will see the rewards in return.


WARNING: anybody pretending to be a company and is asking you to send money to them
by Western Union because they have to pay for “expedition” taxes or for blah, blah, blah at
their end before they can send you the sample(s): avoid them! They are most likely to be
scammers who will walk away with your money after promising to send you a free sample
and handing you a fake UPS tracking number. These scammers are most likely to be East
Europeans, e.g. Romanians, or even from Spain. A few of them pretend to be based in US but
when it comes to sending them the money, it turns out they want you to send the money to
another country, e.g. Romania! So be cautious when making contact with anyone.


So there you have it, you now know how to get free sample products!

Here’s a brief rundown of tips and tricks to bare it in mind:

1) Be patient, calm and approach in a professional manner.

2) Start out by requesting for low value items, i.e. $20 or below. This will give you the
experience you need for future. It is vital that you follow this step.

3) Get in touch with companies that do not have any of their products pictured. Click on
the “View More Suppliers” when you have come to the last page of the pictured
products in a category. Contact them by email and have them forward you their
product brochures first.

4) Paying for delivery costs will definitely give you a greater success rate.

5) Bare in mind there is no limit to how many different companies you can request
samples from. The more you contact the more free samples you will receive.

6) Having gained your experience, you could start contacting companies by locating
them with search engines such as Google.com or Yahoo.com.

7) In some cases, you may want a free sample of a product that you must have. In this
case you could always purchase one or more at true wholesale price.

8) Start getting lots of free bits and pieces to begin with. This will help you gain
experience. Some of my favourites are:
a. Premium pens and stylish desktop clocks
b. Health and exercise supplies (electronic ab belts, etc)
c. Golf/Football or any sporting accessories
d. Novelties
e. Things for your house, e.g. extension cords, smoke alarms or even door
knobs

9) If you receive a product and you don’t like it or have too many of, sell it!

10) I must stress it again: stay calm, don’t rush things and act professional.


Some extra personal advice:

Please make sure that you use this information within the law. It can be used entirely legally
or quite illegally. Be honest! Make sure you follow this document exactly. In addition, do not
be naïve and think that people are not scammers; I have encountered a couple myself and if
they have poor grammar or just talk about getting payment then do not bother. Even if it
sounds like a great offer, you will lose more than you gain when you send off payment and
get nothing in return!
A good tip is to scan your handwritten signature and put it at the end of your emails to
produce emails that are more professional.

Also start doing this with a little bit of money behind you – say £150 – £200, this is not
necessary at all but it will help you pay any shipping costs nice and quickly.

GOOD LUCK TO YOU AND HAVE FUN!

How To Receive Goods For Free 2

MAKING CONTACT

You have several ways to make contact with companies to receive your samples. Once
you’re on the page of a specific product of interest, you can click on the company’s name
which will take you to a page that will have their contact information, including at lease one
or two email addresses. You could then email them from your email account you made
earlier for this guide.
There is another way to make contact with them, by clicking on “Request a Sample” just
under the picture of the product you may be viewing, or above the picture where it says
“Inquire Now”; these links will allow you to contact the companies through this website
instead of emailing them directly from your email account.

When contacting these companies, you have to approach them in a professional manner.
Introduce yourself and mention that you are interested in their product(s) and you would like
them to send you more information regarding the product(s) as well as a sample unit for
inspection. Be sure to include your mailing address.

Here I have enclosed an example picture of an actual sample correspondence. The censored
text is due to company policy. What you write in your letter is entirely up to you, it doesn’t
have to be long; maybe a paragraph or two will do.

I do not advocate nor support you writing any type of fictional information in your
correspondences. Include your FedEx, DHL or UPS courier account number as well as your
preferred delivery method, if you have created an account. Some companies may require you
to provide them your courier/shipping account number so it is good idea to include it, but it
isn’t essential.

sample contact :

Dear,

My name is {Your Name}, Chief Marketing Director of Krakatau Electronic, Inc . We have reviewed the printed media your company distributed at their booth during the Indonesian International Electronic Trade Expo last month. We are interested in a quarterly purchase of 16K unit of model laptop X30. Please mail me any additional information regarding this model, your best PPU on the quantity stated, and one or two sample units. Also please let us know if the price per unit stated includes royalties on applicable patents to this product.


Warm Regards,
{Your Name}

To Be Continued...

How To Receive Goods For Free 1

How to Receive Goods: FOR FREE!
3650, 7250, 8910, T68i, Plasma, PDA, DVD and much more!

INTRODUCTION
Let’s start by thanking you for having confidence in buying my guide. What you are about to
discover in this guide is actually no secret in the business community, and soon you will be
thanking yourself too for buying this guide. I really mean it because once you have read this
guide; you will be convinced and will treasure this information.

Let’s remind you of something to start this wonderful guide off with. Remember those free
samples of shampoo, soap or even cat food that sometimes we get through the door? Those
samples are worth nothing but the idea behind them is the same as what I am about to explain
to you.

Companies (manufacturers/suppliers) are busy marketing hard; they want you to buy their
products. In order to persuade you to buy their products, they give you a free sample! I know
this may sound ludicrous and you must be thinking, “Huh! Free sample of shampoo is one
thing, but to get hold of a £400-worth FREE mobile phone is just impossible!” It’s not
impossible! There are so many companies and suppliers using this sales practise. I highly
recommend you carry on reading this guide because it CAN be done! You just need to do
what is shown to you below. Read on, my friend…

If you’re either a distributor, wholesaler, retailer or basically interested in selling a supplier’s
or a company’s specific product, you will discover that they are usually very keen to send you
one or two free samples beforehand.

All it usually takes is a request for price, quantity and a sample or two and the companies are
more than willing to comply – it’s that easy! (I’ll explain that in detail below) Hey guess
what? Once you have contacted a company regarding a product, it’s not uncommon for them
to automatically ship you a similar or related new samples in future.

Anyway, onwards we go! A phone costing you £400.00 may only cost a manufacturer £50 to
produce or the supplier £100.00 to acquire, if not less. However, these companies think they
stand a good chance of gaining more out of you, so they take a gamble and send you a free
sample in no time, usually by UPS 48-Hr delivery, and most of the time they cover the
delivery costs – not you.

So, are you interested? What do you mean you have wasted your money on my information
and you are giving up already? Come on, you know you want to find out how you can get
your very own free goodies!


TIME TO GET ROLLIN’
I recommend you re-read the following information over again before you start!
Right! Let’s get started – it’s easy! First thing you must have is a mailing address like your
home address or wherever you live. This is needed because the parcels would most likely
need a signature upon delivery.

Secondly, you need a good email address. I know you have one already since you received
this file off me, however, I suggest you set-up another email account for ‘business’ use. Your
new email address that you’ll be setting up soon must look professional, e.g.
“th3dud3@hotmail.com” just won’t look good and the companies will probably ignore you.
What you need is a good email address, one that won’t get you ignored, e.g. if your name is
Peter Piper, then an email address like peterp@executives.com would be ideal to have.

Below is some of the ideal email hosting services that I know of. Don’t use the common
services like Hotmail or Yahoo considering the usernames that you can think of is taken and
they are well known for spam.

www.mail.com - free

http://www.econofinance.com/free_email.html - free

www.xrs.net - free

www.techemail.com - free

www.joinme.com - free

Next thing I would suggest is you open a free account with UPS, FedEx or DHL courier. You
will get issued an account number. This number will come handy on the off chance that a
company wants you to pay for the delivery costs – can’t be bad for something you’re getting
for free!

Anyway, if you’re not familiar with this method, imagine it as your credit/debit card for
delivery. You can include this account number with your emails to companies. If they want
you to pay for the delivery, they can simply enter your shipping account number on the
international airway bill for the parcel. Then the delivery costs will be billed on your
credit/debit card on your shipping account. Bare in mind that you don’t want these parcels to
be shipped overnight or by any other expensive means! I mean you wouldn’t want to be
billed for an arm and a leg if you’re getting a widescreen television sent overnight by UPS
from Taiwan!

The best thing to do is check with your courier/shipping company that your account is with by
phoning them. Speak with customer services and find out which international shipping
method would be the cheapest. DHL is one I know of being the cheapest since they offer
slower delivery than FedEx courier.

Make sure you know the name of the type of shipping you want, e.g. International Economy
Rate. Mention this in your email to the manufacturer/supplier that you want this type of
shipping method. Bare in mind, the paying for shipping is not necessary to receive free
products. The cost of the sample is usually not a problem for the manufacturer or supplier;
the problem for them is the delivery/shipping costs.

To be Continued...