I was recently approached by my former employer and friend for some tips on writing the first blog post for a corporate blog. This company blog is written by members of the team and announced to a mailing list of previous and current clients, prospects and business partners so the first post really needed to set the stage for why the company has ventured into blogging, what topics will be covered and an introduction to the blog authors.

I asked a few experts in the blogging world to share their thoughts on what makes a good first blog post:

Jeff Quipp from Search Engine People

• Tell a little about each of the people who will be blogging: a brief profile, what their expertise is, pictures, etc. You want readers to connect with the bloggers.

• Talk about the breadth of subjects that will be covered along with reasons why they should read your blog. How is your blog different from all the rest? What benefits can they expect from reading it?
• Begin to set expectations about frequency of posts and themes (Friday Funnies posts, Monday Modelling etc).
• Explain how they can subscribe in feed readers or via email.
• Build anticipation by including a list of upcoming posts to pique interest and get them coming back.
• Ideally your first post will also discuss something truly new within the industry to kick-start subscribership.

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Corporate Blogging: Tips for Writing Your First Blog Post »

Not long ago we posted a list of ecommerce blogs from 2006’s Internet Retailer Top 500 List, with many blogs only days old! Well it’s been a few months and we thought you might be interested in how many RSS subscribers (readers who sign up to read each post through a blog reading service like Google Reader, Bloglines or Netvibes). Because Google and Bloglines allow you to check out how many subscribers you have through their readers, I was curious to see what kind of following the ecommerce blogs have, and have reported my findings below.

If you’re wondering how you can check out your own Google Reader and Bloglines stats, I’ve got a tutorial for you as well. Of course, you can always sign up for a Feedburner account (recommended) and get more information on which services your subscribers are using, but make sure you read “Stay Master of Your Feed Domain” first.

Top Etailer Blog Subscriber Leaderboard

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Which Etail Blogs Have The Most Subscribers? »

Many retailers are starting to use blogs to interact with and market to shoppers. In fact, 15% of the Top 500 Online Retailers have ecommerce blogs. Some are fresh out of the gate, while others have thousands of posts and comments. We rounded them all up and have listed 75+ ecommerce blogs for your retail inspiration. Alright, let’s check out who’s blogging now…

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ECOMMERCE BLOGS: 75+ Community Sites of the Top Online Retailers »