I was recently interviewed by a journalist on business blogging and its benefits. He wanted to know specifically what it's done for me to have a blog. Here's what I told him:

• I've gotten inquiries from prospects who found Netconcepts through my blog.
• My blog helps me get speaking gigs and PR. In fact, I recently got one of my blog entries taken verbatim by a well-respected US magazine — DM News — and published as an article.
• It builds credibility and establishes me as a thought leader in the eyes of prospects and clients. For example, one of our recent clients choose us over a competitor for online marketing services partly because of my blog.
• It's helped upsell existing clients on additional services, as many of them are regularly reading my blog. For example, some of our clients are going to start a blog and use us for blog design, blog consulting, etc.
• I've gotten links from popular bloggers, like Robert Scoble of Microsoft. It's much more difficult to get a mention from Scoble (or other prominent bloggers) if you're not a blogger. Scoble's blog, called Scobleizer, is one of the most well-linked blogs on the Internet. Some bloggers have even included me on their blogroll, like Toby Bloomberg of Diva Marketing Blog (Thanks, Toby!)
• It's helped me with recruiting panelists for Thoughts Leaders Summits that I organized and moderated for MarketingProfs. For example, the lineup of panelists for one of the recent summits included Internet marketing gurus: Seth Godin, Doc Searls, Robert Scoble, Steve Rubel, and Debbie Weil. My blog played a role in establishing my credibility with them and getting them to respond to my "cold call" email message.
• Blogs are also great for SEO (search engine optimization). Links are important to the search engines, and the blogosphere is richly interlinked with bloggers linking so much to each other. Blogs are also rich in content, which search engines also like. If I blog about RSS and SEO (which I have), for example, next thing I know I'm #1 in Google for [rss and seo].
• I've also built some great business relationships with other respected bloggers. They have referred business to me, shared speaking opportunities with me, etc.

I had yet another experience with that last item, just today in fact. I'm speaking at the Frost & Sullivan Sales and Marketing East conference in Boston, and a fellow blogger from a competing SEO firm who was sitting at the table I was facilitating earlier today on blogging very kindly publicly commended my blog to the rest of the group for its content and thought leadership. (Thanks Stephen!) There's a guy who understands the benefits of coopetition (rather than competition)!

The journalist also wanted to know how my blog's traffic had grown over time. Here are the charts I shared with him showing the growth trends in pageviews and visitors:

Pageviews:

Visitors:

A pretty respectable trend, I'd say. If you're curious what the actual numbers are, I will give you a hint and say that the both charts measure into the tens of thousands of visitors per month. Hopefully the trend will continue.

One thing I really need to do to keep the numbers heading northward is to blog more frequently. I'm sure traffic growth will accelerate once I do. I just need to buckle down! I guess I'll just sleep less... (sigh). You other bloggers out there know what I'm saying here, don't you! More often than we'd like, it's the wee hours when we're blogging.

How might a blog pay off for you? For some general ideas, read this article of mine, on blogging, published in last month's issue of Multichannel Merchant magazine.

Nice article in today's New Zealand Herald about businesses blogging. I'm quoted extensively in it (yay!). Here's a summary of what I had to say:

• Good corporate blogs can develop a loyal readership, which means a company can build relationships with its current and potential customers and get them to interact more closely and more frequently with its brand/products/services.
• An example of a big business that's joined the blogosphere and done it well: General Motors' smallblock engine division. Their blog is effective in making GM look like a bunch of human beings instead of some faceless corporate giant.
• The key is to be transparent and real - if it's just some highly sanitised PR message coming through in a blog format, nobody wants to see that.
• Blogging increases your likelihood of getting blogged by other bloggers. Getting mentioned in a popular blog, such as gadget-oriented Gizmodo, can cause a company's sales to skyrocket.
• Microsoft's Robert Scoble is one of the Internet's most-credible corporate bloggers. I'd go so far as to say that he's the new voice of Microsoft. Scoble has been given a loose leash by Microsoft in what he reports about the company, a position he has used to become something of a legend among bloggers. But, it also puts him in a tricky position. He recognizes that he's playing with dynamite. He could say something that sets people or the media off. So he's got to be careful with his blogging. But on the other hand he really can't hold back too much because then he's no longer being 'real'.

The article mention was a result of our (Netconcepts') PR initiative relating to the launch of our business blog consulting services in New Zealand (we've already been offering such services to the U.S. market for a while now). To my knowledge, there are no other interactive agencies in New Zealand besides Netconcepts that are offering blog consulting. Am I right in that assertion? Please post a comment if you know of any.