Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Blogging Matters, Doesn't It? #LetsBlogOff

Certainly blogs are important if your name is Huffington or Perez Hilton, but what about those of us who don't write about Justin Bieber and the latest Republican to have some dirty laundry set out on the clothesline?

The Cupboards blog began as a bit of an experiment and a bit of strategy. Few local kitchen and bath shops have a consistently updated stream of aimless stuff carefully thought out information that shows a current online presence and really, that's what the mission was from the get go. The past couple of months with a fairly good increase in traffic, the mission hasn't really changed but the new wrinkle of staying interesting has emerged.

Not everything on the Cupboards blog is relevant to the kitchen and bath industry. Because our business is a very personal one, lots of the personality of the real people that work here comes out. Is that a bad thing? Does it make us look less than professional?

Part of what has made the Cupboards process work is that we are real people that want to help our customers achieve the end result of the project at hand. That always takes a personal touch. Potential customers can look at our blog, our twitter, come by our shop and they'll see the same thing. Real, live people who do real life things.

Measuring the success of our blog is a different monster. Everyone measures success in a different way and fortunately, the good folks at Technorati did the research for me-


So... you Hobby Bloggers just revel in your blog, eh? I tried to figure out where Cupboards fit in- we'll say "all". I don't blog as my full-time job(so part-time), it is a business blog and technically since Cupboards is our venture it's kind of a self-employment, too. 

Looking over Cupboards blog statistics for the past couple months I have decided to measure success based on one metric that probably falls under "Business Leads" or "Other". My measure of success is how much traffic we get based on people that are either looking for us specifically, or end up on a page because of a specific topic search. If people use a search engine and find us that is a win for me. Fortunately, the statistical software that I use shows what's being searched for and on what search engine.

Are we making the grade? Who's to decide, really? Each month traffic gets better and more people say, "Oh, I saw **** on your site!" Win.


Love this one. See that "I am better known in my industry" category? I'll gladly take a seat there, though the one right above it is a bit tempting, too.

So to wrap up the ramble, bloggers to me have a bit of a narcissistic streak about them. Most love their own blog and probably view it higher than most others do. Other's are truly there to share expertise and some just clog up the stream with chatter. Blogs are one cog in the ever-changing social media world and blogging is the social media long-hand. We're just glad to play along!

Click on this tag and then go read other bloggers take a shot at this topic.

8 comments:

  1. I'm glad you're playing along, too: the sandbox wouldn't be nearly as fun without you in it! I think the "I'm not as focused at work now that I'm blogging" is my downfall! Oh wait, blogging is my work! Scratch that (loved you marked-through in the second graph)!

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  2. It's about the personality behind the product. If I have a choice on where to get what I need, I'll start with the person I have a connection with.

    Great post.

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  3. I was not really focused on reading your blog as I was busy replying to comments on my own and RTing mentions about my own blog and .... hehehehe... I think a lot of bloggers miss out on some benefits of blogging because they lack focus. For me, we have several company blogs that only focus on the industry we are in, but to counter that, I have DWB which is a huge can I can put pretty much anything in. Keep me sane.

    Oh, look, there I went and talked about me, me, me, me even in a comment about your blog post.

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  4. Saxon- I've only missed one of the #letsblogoff weeks and really enjoy it. Always interesting to me to see the different takes!

    Bob- Agree 100%. Thanks for reading!

    Rufus- Of course it's all about you... I'm surprised you didn't try to move some of your stickers(which I like, btw)in your comment.

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  5. I agree, Nick: it's amazing how different the responses to the topic are. Like giving a room full of students one challenge & they all look at it with a different lens.

    Good post!

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  6. Hello Nick, thanks for sharing those analytics. I dont look at those in this detail yet, largely b/c my intentions are different. I will eventually, still warming to whole idea, seeing if anyone's reading, working it into the schedule. Its hard to keep quality and the pace. I admire you for doing it, and for being so accessible about it. very useful to see these stats. so that's how to think about traffic, eh? cindy @urbanverse

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  7. I really like the personal touch of your blog and your style. Although we've never met, I know things about you that I don't know about my neighbors. You have a plane made and used by your grandfather that you honor. You make wicked good ice cream. And, I have to be careful what I say on Twitter when you are listening or I'll have to blogoff with you.

    The point? At the end of the day, we do business with people. And, more often than not, we choose people we like to work with. Kudos to you and your great blog that allows us to get to know you and like you! Keep on posting.

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  8. I think the world needs to hear more from real people, especially ones like you, running real businesses. Blogging does takes time... and is hard to keep rolling, especially while running a business. But, if it's driving traffic to your site....and your message is resonating with more and more people, I say that's all the measurement you need. Who knows where it will take you? Great insight and I LOVE the charts.

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