Subscribe via RSS FeedBlogging for Retailers White Paper - Why it matters and how to get started
This post begins a series of blog posts of annotations to the White Paper, “Blogging for Retailers - Why Blogging Matters and How to get Started.” Be sure to download the white paper first to follow along.
For organizational purposes, the content is divided into 6 parts (including this one). Each post contains links to the examples cited in the report plus additional resources and miscellanea to help ecommerce retailers get acquainted with the blogosphere.
Annotations are organized by section and sorted by anecdote, and released one part each day this week.
The sections are:
- Determining Reasons to Blog - What’s all this about blogs? & Why Blogging Matter for Retailers
- Breaking Down the Benefits - market research, get the word out, help buy more
- Critical Success Factors - be authentic, be interesting, embrace community, set standards, write to your customers
- Getting Started - choosing a platform, planning checklist, promotion tips, media-casting, vocabulary
- Join the Conversation - an 11-step interactive exercise, more examples, your comments etc.
Comments Ahoy!
Feel free to leave your comment about the White Paper and related resources at any point. Which sections were particularly useful? What is your experience with retail blogging? Which retail blogs do you subscribe to? Which platform do you prefer? How do your determine results?
If you’ve completed the “mini-course” (section 6) and started your own blog, be sure to let us know how the process went and leave your tips to other retailers who are hopping on the blog-wagon.
Got your Paper?
Remember, to participate first grab a copy of the Blogging for Retailers White Paper to read along with these annotations.
Next up … Determining Reasons to Blog, tomorrow …
Update:
Read the Press Release at PR Web “Blogging for Retailers White Paper Provides Practical Advice for Online Merchants”
seo web 2.0 blog blogging ecommerce online retail search engine optimization web marketing white paper online martketing
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Great PDF!
I’ve worked in retail selling Macs and I’m a blogger and this is a great intro to the field for someone in retail. Hits the key points you need to know and the technology aspect and the how to do this. well written, well laid out blog style format. Every retailer should read this.
So is Dave going to be a retail blogging consultant for those who want to take the next step?
That’s a great paper - well done and thank you. We’re overhauling our blog at http://www.lovehoney.co.uk and it will be a great document for the whole company to read so everyone knows why we’re blogging.
One small point on the domain name for the blog - some advice we’ve had is that the blog should live on the same domain as the site so all the in-bound links build the reputation of the site as a whole, further helping in the store’s natural search engine positioning.
If the blog is on a standalone domain, it wouldn’t pass the link love to the main site. (Links from different domains on the same server or IP range don’t pass pagerank, I believe).
Thanks again,
Richard
Sorry, I should add that my personal blog and LoveHoney are NSFW.
Don’t want anyone to get into trouble.
Richard
Richard, I am going to disagree with the blog being on the same domain. External links have more weight than internal links, and external sites will more often link to blogs that are independent in nature.
The notion that pagerank is not passed between sites on the same IP block is somewhat mythical. Yes, there has been problems with link networks being set-up to harvest pagerank. But in todays online retail world, many companies are utilizing a multi-domain domain strategy to establish niche verticals instead of ‘general stores’. The most prominent of these being NetShops. Google and other engines focus on what is best for users. Punishing a company for splitting categories out into niche sites with focus on a vertical of products, reviews, guides, etc IS NOT beneficial for searchers.
All the best in your ecommerce blogging.
This is a brilliant paper! I have been pitching this idea for quite a while and this paper has boosted reditability for the initiative.
Thank you for the direction.
Looks like an awesome white paper dude. I’ll read it asap and get back to you.
My compliments to your white paper writer. This is an excellent example of a white paper that any marketing writer should use as a guide to improve their white paper skills.
You can see a complete review of this white paper at my blog site:
http://www.whitepapercompany.com/blog/?p=216
Great Job!
Jonathan Kantor
The White Paper Pundit Blog
Big thanks to all who commented! Great to see many friends and colleagues (Pete, Chris, Jim) who have contributed to my knowledge and hear from other pros too. And Jonathan, thanks again for your in-depth review - your condor will help me make better papers in the future.
This paper was a treat to write and the feedback has made it a blast to distribute - cheers!
Hey guys,
Loved the paper, very good introduction and summary. I think it’s an excellent explanation for why many online retailers should blog.
However, on the same note, it doesn’t seem to me like it would answer the evilly famous questions Werner Vogels asked Scoble and Israel (http://www.allthingsdistributed.com/2006/03/naked_answers.html).
I never did think that Scoble and Israel had a really solid argument in their blog responses, and I’m not sure yet if the blogosphere has yet really come up with an answer. Realizing that this white paper is probably targeted at retailers that are less knowledgeable about how the new web works anyway (rather than a company like Amazon that has many “blog-like” features throughout their website), but wondering if anybody has thought of anything that could have made Scoble and Israel less embarrassed that day.
Great paper-I have just started a blog for one of my websites and will definitely take on board what I have learned here in future for all of my blogs for all my websites. Blogging is definitely a good idea for retailers who should make sure their blogs are SEO optimized and have lots of links to other related blogs so they get more traffic, because a blog without traffic is just like a website without traffic. A needle in the cyber haystack. I don’t know if I agree with having the blog on the same domain as your main site, I think that it does’nt help the competition.
The link to download paper does not work. Firefox/XP
Curious to read it!
Fixed, sorry we just refreshed our main site and missed a few links here.