Almost a month ago I posted to my blog at MaineToday.com Can Blogging Help Maine’s Tourism Industry? One commenter questioned whether blogging makes any impact on a business, while another said he had experienced a lot more business because of blogging. The bottom line is, results differ for a number of reasons:
- Frequency of posts
- Search engine visibility
- Competition
- Time of year
- Audience
- and so on.
Although I’ve found blogging to be the most rewarding of all the Web marketing activities we do, it can be time consuming. (Here are some tips, courtesy of Copyblogger, for those of you who have trouble finding the time to blog.)
More than once, I’ve seen business bloggers with the best of intentions slow their posts down to a crawl because they aren’t seeing immediate results based on the amount of work they are putting in. Unfortunately, at the beginning, you’ll be doing a lot more work and getting a lot fewer results than you would like. (But isn’t that how everything rewarding is?) However, over time, those two results will begin to reverse.
I’d like to share with you an (unsolicited) email I recently received from Gray Cabaniss who writes the Agatha and Louise Blog, a blog that supports his retail and online shops that sell gifts and products for dog owners and dog lovers:
Hi Rich-
I thought I would share with you an example of our blog working with google. I was thinking you might be interested in this to share with clients and perspective clients, etc… According to our Analytics (Urchin) on our website the term "Wag More Bark Less" is typically in the top 3 (usually number 1) terms used in search engines to find our website.
In fact a while back I saw a Wag More sticker on a car and liked the expression and tracked down the manufacturer on line. I also thought to myself that if I googled the expression…then so would a lot of other people would too. And I wanted to carry the products and for it to be on our website for that reason. I figured it would be a good way to get people to our website. I was right. (Weird…to be right). Numbers wise the stickers are now our number one seller. We actually sometimes have people order up to 25 at a time and will order the hats and shirts,etc.. but they will also at times order other more expensive items as well (This the idea since the stickers are only $1.95…). People who want these sticker are dog lovers…
I also took out a google ad for wag more bark less as well….it more than pays for itself…anyways the point of this email is…
Last week i did a blog entry on wag more bark less products. If you Google: Wag More Bark Less Sticker…My website is #3 AND THE BLOG IS #7 on the 1st page…
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=wag+more+bark+less+sticker
If you Google :Wag More Bark Less Baseball Cap…My website is #4 & #5, Blog is #6
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=wag+more+bark+less+baseball+cap
Another search term which is also usually in the top 3 is a product we sell for dogs. The Puppia Soft Harness. I recently did a blog on the harness. If you Google: Puppia Soft Harness: My website is #6 and blog entry is #9 on the first page:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=puppia+soft+harness
If you Google: Puppia Harness (with out "soft") our website is #7 on the first page and the blog is near the bottom on the second page:
http://www.google.com/search?q=puppia+harness&hl=en&safe=off&start=0&sa=N
There are other examples I can give. But these are good examples since they reflect products for both people and dogs which is the crowd we want.
Thanks for your help. It appears the blog has the potential to have positive benefits for our business. I just checked Urchin and for the last week (Aug. 15-Aug. 21) "Wag More Bark Less" was the #1 term used for people finding our website and "Puppia Harness" was #2
Best,
Gray
