The article "A Marketing Geyser: E-retailer blogs aid branding, marketing and search, as long as they stay on message just came out in this month's issue of Internet Retailer. A great article about how retailers are taking advantage of blogging for marketing purposes. I'm quoted in the article, and so are our (Netconcepts') clients: Steve Spangler Science and DMSI (HomeVisions.com).

(As an aside, I'll be speaking on the same topic -- blogging for retailers -- later this month at the ACCM conference along with panelists Pinny Gniwisch of Ice.com and Steve Spangler of Steve Spangler Science. Ping me if you're going to be at ACCM... I'd love to meet up with my readers.)

Thought you'd also enjoy reading the transcript of my interview with the journalist, Elizabeth Gardner, of Internet Retailer, which was conducted over email:

What are the potential benefits of blogging, specifically from a retailer's point of view?

1. Search engines - Google in particular - love blogs. So anything you have to say or sell, if done as a blog, will rank better in the search engines - all else being equal.
2. If you have a good blog, you can get readers "hooked" and coming back for more (either via your RSS feed or via your email 'blogletter'), thus further burning your brand into their minds and increasing the likelihood of repeat purchases.
3. Having a blog helps get you links. If you are a blogger, then other bloggers think of you as "one of them". As such, they will be more likely to link to you and to give you favorable coverage on their blogs. It is also more likely that you will be "on their radar", because bloggers are more apt to follow your company's movements by subscribing to you blog's RSS feed than by subscribing to your email newsletter or periodically visiting your site.
4. Having a blog helps get you press from the mainstream media. That's because journalists read blogs. For example, I received unsolicited interview requests from journalists from the New York Times and the San Jose Mercury News because of blog posts I wrote.
5. A blog builds your credibility and can position you as a "thought leader" in your niche. For example, a blog about stamp collecting (with interesting trends, news tidbits, insightful commentary, etc.) would position an ecommerce shop selling collectible stamps as a credible, trusted expert source for stamps.
6. A blog can help you get invited to speak at conferences and to author articles.

How time, effort, cost, etc., is involved in doing it right?

A blog, in order to be viewed as active, should have at least a few blog posts per week. The higher the quality of the posts, the less frequently you have to post. Posting daily is ideal. You should allocate a minimum of 5 to 10 hours per week to blog writing. Allocate another 5 to 10 hours per week minimum to commenting on others' blogs.

Developing your blog strategy should probably involve a blog consultant and will likely run in the $5,000 to $15,000 price range. Don't skimp on the blog strategy: as much time and energy should be put into that as any offline marketing strategy. The initial web development and search engine optimization can run in the $10,000-and-up price range.

I'd also suggest hiring a blog consultant on a retainer basis, to help guide you through that crucial first year of blogging. That can cost anywhere from $1000 to $5000 per month.

If you're going to recruit non-employee evangelists to blog (e.g. passionate customers), then you should allocate some small amount of budget to swag and little gifts through the year in appreciation of their contributions to the blog.

Can you share a few tips on how to go about doing it right?

1. Really let your personality shine through. You blog should have a human voice, and should show there are real human beings behind the blog. Introduce your blogger(s) with an About page on the blog, and include a photo. People buy from people, not from faceless corporations.
2. It really helps if you can come up with an "angle". For example, jewelry retailer ice.com came up with a "gossip rag" angle with their Sparkle Like the Stars blog -- the blog has a trendy fasionista / gossip columnist writing style, talking about what jewelry celebrities are wearing and how to replicate the "look" yourself. That is much more buzzworthy than a "here's what's new in stock" blog.
3. Don't just regurgitate news and content that's already out there on the Net. Share your own insightful commentary too.
4. It's good etiquette to cite your sources and to credit the blog that led you to find the newsy tidbit you are blogging about (this is known as a "hat tip").
5. A good blogger is one who participates in the blogosphere and doesn't write in isolation -- commenting on others' blogs as much as they write on their own blog. Also build relationships with other bloggers within virtual communities like MyBlogLog and in the real world by attending conferences like BlogOn, BlogHer, and Blog Business Summit.
6. As far as retaining readers, recency is more important than frequency. A couple weeks of inactivity makes the reader feel like nobody's home. Conversely, having the latest post be only a day old makes the blog appear "fresh". Personally I don't like keeping RSS feeds in my newsreader that haven't had recent activity.

And any warnings about what not to do?

1. You need to do it with sincerity and transparency. Don't hire a ghost writer to pretend to be someone they are not. Blogs have been lambasted for trying to fool their readers (e.g. Raging Cow, Wal-Mart).
2. Abandoned blogs look very bad. If you're going to blog, you have to be committed to keeping it going.

Any examples of retailer cluelessness in this area?

Hmm... http://www.blogmagazine.com -- It's from Magazines.com and it comes off as sales propaganda that isn't even thinly veiled. It looks like they've abandoned it too.

You may also want to check out my "5 Tips for Multichannel Retailers Entering the Blogosphere, which is the transcript from an interview I did last year with Multichannel Merchant magazine.

I was interviewed for a piece that just came out in Multichannel Merchant magazine called Defending yourself against the blogs. I contributed some tips for multichannel retailers who are considering blogging. Here's the full version of my tips (In the published article, my comments were edited down for space):

1. Create a "safe haven" to experiment with blogging. Set up a private blog on your intranet or extranet, or start a blog that's password-protected. Then offer access to that test to a selected audience. That will give your inexperienced bloggers comfort because they won't have having to worry that all of your customers, competition, and the media are watching their every move. They're trying to find your feet, so help them feel safe while they're doing it.

2. Decide on a permanent home for your blog. The web address you choose for your blog should be one that you will be happy with for years to come. Remember the early days of the commercial Internet, and many a business card included an earthlink.net or aol.com email address? It made it very painful to switch email providers. (I know people that to this day still pay their AOL subscription only because they don't want to lose their long-standing email address.) Similarly, it will become difficult to switch blog services if you allow the service to be part of your URL. For example, ehobbies.blogs.com, backcountryblog.blogspot.com, and sethgodin.typepad.com are all examples of blogs that are forever wedded to their blog platform – for better or for worse! If they switch platforms, all the links they've earned will be unavailable to their new blog. Links are the lifeblood of your search engine visibility, so the significance of this cannot be overstated.

   You may want to utilize the domain name of your online store (e.g. blog.ice.com). Resist the temptation! In most cases, your blog will be more successful in acquiring links from other bloggers by being at an arm’s length from your storefront, in other words by having a unique domain name (e.g. www.justaskleslie.com). Let me supply a hypothetical example. If a life insurance company has a blog about health and wellness and it’s at www.stayinghealthy.com, then that will most likely garner many more links (and consequently superior search engine rankings) than one at blog.lifeinsuranceco.com – particularly if the former isn't too much of a hard sell for its life insurance products. (Remember, mastering the soft sell is the name of the game in the blogosphere.)

   This may seem like an oversimplification, since I haven’t discussed the branding implications, but I believe the "link-ability" of the blog is what will give your blog a long productive life in the blogosphere.

   Once you've settled on a URL for your blog, publish something at that URL straight away. Even if it's merely some "Coming Soon" verbiage. This will help you establish a history for your new blog site and will help you avoid the "Google Sandbox" when the time comes for you to launch your blog for real. The Google Sandbox is a term used by us SEOs (search engine optimizers) to refer to the penalty Google applies to new sites with new domain names. Google created this as a deterrent to search engine spammers, but unfortunately legitimate marketers are often caught by this algorithm too.

3. Select a scalable, flexible, and user-friendly blog platform. There are so many solutions to choose from! Some are hosted services, such as TypePad, Blogger, and WordPress.com. Some are software packages that you install on your web server, such as WordPress, Drupal or Movable Type. Rather than pour over comparison charts, my advice is simply to go with WordPress (the software package, not to be confused with the hosted service at WordPress.com). WordPress is free, so the price is right. It's highly configurable, since it's "open source" and has a plethora of free, useful plugins written for it (I've compiled a list of my favorites). And it's got all the functionality you'd ever need, all wrapped up in an easy-to-use interface. After I and my team at Netconcepts did extensive research on blogging packages, we came to the conclusion that WordPress really is the best.

4. Decide on a posting schedule. Try to post at least three times per week. Allow several hours per week for this. I typically spend 2 to 3 hours per week blogging. Don't hire a ghostwriter for your blog, or you'll get slammed by bloggers for lack of transparency (an unwritten rule in the blogosphere). As far as retaining readers, recency is more important than frequency. A couple weeks of inactivity makes the reader feel like nobody’s home. Conversely, having the latest post be only a day old makes the blog appear "fresh". Personally, I don’t like keeping RSS feeds in my newsreader that haven’t had recent activity.

5. Get respected bloggers on your side. Building relationships with respected bloggers is absolutely key. Not only will they be more likely to link to you, but they will also offer advice and bolster your "street cred." Posting thoughtful comments on their blogs is only the first step: do it enough and you may get on their radar, but it's not enough. Attend blogger conferences like BlogOn and Blog Business Summit and meet bloggers in person. Keep the dialogue going through email and through phone or Skype conversations. Become an evangelist for businesses blogging and you will really get them on-side.

   Don't be afraid to enlist the help of an expert. Many highly regarded bloggers are available for paid consulting. I'd also suggest you work with a web designer who's very familiar with WordPress (assuming that's the blog software you decide on). That way they aren't learning on your dime, and they aren't trying to steer you towards an inferior package because they are more familiar with it.

My executive summary of the MarketingProfs thought leaders summit on "blogs for marketing" has been published on MarketingProfs.com as a two-part article series (part 1 came out last week, part 2 came out this week):

• A Business Case for Blogging: Thought Leaders on Marketing Blogs (Part 1 of 2)
• A Business Case for Blogging: Thought Leaders on Marketing Blogs (Part 2 of 2)

Sorry, it's premium content so you'll need to be a MarketingProfs paid premium subscriber ($5/month) to read 'em. Over the next month I'll drip-feed some of the highlights from this summit to you who are not subscribers (although I see no reason why you shouldn't sign up as a MarketingProfs premium subscriber... it's certainly affordable!).