Blogs Are Roads; Intersections
by Steve RemingtonJuly 5, 2007
I have said over and over again that blogs are great for business. It helps communicate to your readers who you are and what your goals are. The more you can reach potential clients on a personal level the more apt they are to trust in you and your product(s). Blogging can reach potential clients on so many levels. You can control the content on your site and at the same time become interactive and engage in dialog with them. You can communicate to your readers more about what you are offering than what they can get from a tag, catalog listing, or an advertisement. This is about showing people who is behind the product, why trust in you, and reaching people’s needs and expectations.
But blogs need to be promoted themselves and the best way to visualize blogs is to mimic real life situations. Businesses that sit out on a back road somewhere will have a much harder job getting people to come to them. Businesses that sit right in downtown U.S.A. will be found and your business will have a much better chance of success. Think of your blog as a virtual business on a road. Your best chance of success is not sitting out in the middle of cyberspace where nobody can find you. Landing your blog in the middle of downtown or on an intersection somewhere will give you many more readers and potential clients.
So how do you place yourself at a busy intersection? The answer is simple but it takes a little work and dedication. You need to first view your blog as an important asset to your business. If you can’t take blogging seriously you will probably have a hard time making your blog benefit your business. But your blog can really be a major driving force in building up additional sales and recognition.
The first biggest mistake most business blogs make is not linking out to external blogs. Some people are afraid it will drive traffic away to potential competitors. Actually in some cases it may and that is a risk you have to take. But you shouldn’t be in business unless you trust in your product, and if you trust in your product then you shouldn’t be so scared of the competition. So the first mistake is not linking out. Linking out to other blogs is the nature of blogging. Whether you link in a blogroll or within your blog posts, the act of linking out will be the beginning of developing long lasting relationships with other bloggers and website owners. These relationships tend to be a “scratch my back, and I will scratch your back” type of relationship. In other words, soon enough people will begin linking to you. The more roads that are coming to your blog, the more traffic that comes in. If you can link to related content and have those links being reciprocated then you are developing an online strip mall if you will.
So the mentality of you sending business away is something you need to push far away from your mind because in the end, once you begin getting traffic from other related sites you will be getting in 10 times the traffic which will ultimately lead to more clients. It’s a way of getting your blog to be recognized by sitting in the middle of downtown.
And people tend to follow the same roads both on and off line. We are all creatures of habit and most people who come online visit a lot of the same sites over and over again. So get your blog sitting on a familiar road through links. Look at Burger King and McDonald’s. You will always find them across the street from each other, or at least on the same strip of road in any given city. Burger King may lose some business to McDonald’s but in the long run they would actually be losing more business by moving out on a back road somewhere hoping people will come to them. Don’t be afraid of your competition and set up across the street. Get links coming in and out and get your blog right on a busy intersection. You are guaranteed to get more traffic and, in turn, you will find more clients.
Interesting analogy, Steve. I especially liked the part about McD and Burger King.
This is another article that I think beginning bloggers should read. Blogging, more than almost any other form of marketing or publicity I’ve tried, is all about relationships. If I support other bloggers and they support me, we all win.
I also think a lot of businesses are wary of blogs because they fear the exposure. You could probably write a blog in a typical press release fashion, but it isn’t likely anyone would read it. A blog has to have presonality, and it has to be honest. Those companies who have tried to create blogs that weren’t real found out quickly that wasn’t the way to go. The public wants honesty. If they find out you’re not being honest, they’ll go somewhere else, and they’ll go quickly.
Hsien glad you liked. I would choose McD’s in most cases. But the kids like Burger King.
Kristine, I have geared this post towards beginners, as most of my readership right now are still seeking out the idea of blogging. There are so many people in the hunting industry that have yet to capitalize on blogging. It can be a great tool for your business.
And I think you are right. Honesty is crucial. Blogging will reveal a lot about yourself and if you aren’t in the business for the right reasons your true colors will shine in time and people will see it and run like the wind.
Thanks guys for the comments.
[...] Read his full post at Blogs Are Roads; Intersections [...]
nice analogy – interesting – I do trackbacking all the time yet to wait till I get the downstream of traffic
[...] Read his full post at Blogs Are Roads; Intersections [...]
[...] Read his full post at Blogs Are Roads; Intersections [...]
The road metaphore is great! I know that when you are not looking for shortcuts (using a multilane highway) you can build a lot of favor with other bloggers by just adding comments that are relevant. If you are getting in on all of the conversations that are going on and adding value then everyone will notice when you add your own posts
I have it on good authority that it is standard policy on a lot of big institutional sites that they are not to link out to other sites unless the go-ahead is given, sometimes at the committee level.
This lack of nimbleness is precisely why blogs and social networking sites are so popular these days. And where goes the traffic, goes business.
[...] Read his full post at Blogs Are Roads; Intersections [...]
Hi Steve,
very interesting post. In fact I am a beginning blogger and I know I still have a long road to run, I will apprecite it very much if you could send by mail some tips on how to make this … blogroll and be interactive with others bloggers by linking.
Thanks a lot.
[...] Read his full post at Blogs Are Roads; Intersections [...]
I love well-thought of analogies. Your analogy qualifies as one of them!
Iantrepreneur – Trackbacking is a good tool. I used to use it a lot more but not I find pingbacks work just as good on similar type blogs.
Fitness Guy – Quality comments is definitely value added. What annoys me is when people comment just to comment so they can drop a link. I think it’s fine but leave a decent comment while they are at it. But relevant comments is a good tool.
Chris – Yes, that is some of the drawbacks of big corporate blogging. Blogs are great for CEO’s and small businesses. It helps level the playing field a bit.
Paulo – There are some decent tactics that everyone can use and it takes time and loyalty in almost all cases. It is about building relationships and with all healthy relationships it is about give and take.
Hung – Glad you liked the analogy. I do have more where that came from but this one I always seem to fall back on the most.
Thanks guys for stopping in.
Loved the article, I had never thought abut it quite that way. The McDonalds and Burger King analogy fit perfectly. Thank you.
Great post–reminds me of the movie Cars where a once booming town on Route 66 gets bypassed by a new Interstate and their traffic drops to zilcho. You just need a celebrity race car like Lightning McQueen to put you back on the map…or in this case, a top-notch blogger like Darren Rowse linking to you works ok too!
Chronicles of a (Wannabe) Pro Blogger
[...] was having a read at Darren Rowse’s Problogger site and Darren had linked back to a blog post Blogs Are Roads; Intersections by Steve Remington at Skinny Moose Media (cool [...]
I link out because
I don’t talk about anything truly new.
Sure I put my spin on it,
tell my personal stories,
give fresh examples,
but the business concepts I cover are basic.
I think its a sign of vanity
or perhaps ignorance,
to believe we’ve written anything
that hasn’t been discussed before.
BTW…love, love, love
the irony that you didn’t link out
when you’re advising others to link out.
[...] Blogs Are Roads; Intersections [...]
Well said. Better than Zhun Zhi Phing Fah (War strategies).
Link Love! It is always good. Linking out some link love will bring you some back.
I wrote a post that covered a similar topic about a week and a half ago at http://www.walletrehab.com/finding-a-niche-location-location-location/
There, I compared categories/niches to cities/suburbs. It makes it easier for me to visualize how niches work, and also my relationship with other bloggers and webmasters.
[...] Blogs are roads; intersections Une réflexion à propos des blogs : comme pour les commerces traditionnels, il est important de bien positionner son blog pour connaître le succès. [...]
G, thanks for the comment.
Zen Zoomie, my kids loved that movie. We don’t own it yet but we will.
K, that is funny. I didn’t link out did I? Well if you take a look around the blog you can see I have linked out several times and plan to do more of it in the future.
jamy, thanks for the kind words.
Laurie, I love the link love phrase.
Wallet, thanks for the related link. Sounds like a great analogy. I love analogies and try to think of them all the time.
We use this topic as a lengthy discussion point with our clients as we talk through best practices for blogging. Sometimes they get it; sometimes they don’t. But each time they practice what we preach, it seems to work for them in the long run. Nice article.
I found it interesting that different subject matters seem to bring different responses when seeking link swaps.
I write a DVD review blog. When I started, people with similar sites saw me as competition. I received responses from maybe 10% of the people I emailed and still have few decent reciprocal links.
With a sports site I manage, something like 40 out of 50 bloggers got right back to us and cheerfully accepted the link swap.
[...] myself personally on a busy intersection. [via [...]
Intresting and it is related to my topic here:
http://komirad.com/using-authority-indicators
Please tell me what you think of my post, I am just starting out in blogging.
Interesting idea which in a way I had thought of as well. What’s even more challenging I think – after getting past the point of being afraid to link to other blogs/sites – is to be able to link to the _correctly_ to websites. “Correct” can take a number of meanings here but basically it means to relevant and high(er) traffic destinations and at the right quantity (so that people actually click on them).
Hey ! I like your Idea . The example of Mcdonald’s and Burger King in last para was more usefull to achieve success .I will going to follow this.
[...] Read his full post at Blogs Are Roads; Intersections [...]
Steve
I have been trying to run my own business for a year or so, as well as a couple of blogs. I have had some experince in getting your sites in the right place. However never have I seen it put in this type of context. It really clears things up for not only myself but for anyone just starting out with their own site or blog!
Thank you
In keeping with your road analogy, How does one work around major roadblocks such as the net nanny aka “The Great Firewall” which leaves a lot of the major highways inaccessible? Blogging on blogger and blogspot is not always possible outside of the US, thereby cutting off the I-95 of blogging for me.
Well sometimes there are things we have no control over. If you are blocked from blogging on blogspot can’t you purchase a domain and hosting company for little money and begin blogging? If you can’t afford to purchase these things in your country then maybe looking to join a blog network who will set you up for free. Lastly, if you are not legally allowed to receive a check for blogging you can always blog for free with no costs for the blog network.
Excellent post!
[...] Connection – 25 July 2007 July 25th, 2007 by Deceth Place Your Blog on a Busy Intersection in order to gain more exposure and increase traffic to your website. Read the post by Steve [...]
[...] an article I wrote last month called Blogs Are Roads; Intersections, I address the fact that other blogs in your niche are not necessarily competitors but sites you [...]
Hi Steve-
Thank you for your helpful commentary. I’ve been blogging for about 1 month, and keep searching for ways to make my blog better and to increase traffic. Your article was easy to understand, concise and full of good imagery. Best of luck to you in the blogging world.
Warmest Regards-
Kathy
[...] This is where I am going to test some popular ideas I find recurring on various blogs about increasing traffic by commenting on other blogs. I originally thought about this after reading Rowse’s article which was really a comment on another blog he read, effectively driving my own “traffic” to that article. [...]
[...] Blogs Are Roads; Intersections [...]
[...] of business. I wrote about this a while ago on the Skinny Moose main blog in an article called Blogs are Roads; Intersections. Networking is done in many ways and we will cover this later in future posts but it can help you [...]