Peter Fletcher

Maybe a blog is not the best option

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In his post entitled 23 Questions for Prospective Bloggers – Is a Blog Right for You, Darren Rowse of Problogger suggests that blogs don’t suit all situations. Of note, he mentions that some web audiences are best suited to web forums, where people can start their own discussion topic rather than responding to a conversation started by a blogger. In the context of a giftware shop, this is a thought provoking point. Would people respond better to someone discussing the merits of crystals or incense, or would they prefer to start their own threads about something that was mutually interesting for each other?

Another point he raises is the importance of having regularly updated, informative (and entertaining?) information posted to the blog. In the context of a primarily bricks and mortar focussed business, this may prove problematic. Issues may arise about who becomes “blogger-in-chief” and where their information will be sourced. These are fairly typical resourcing issues faced by most businesses when opening up a new avenue to the market and are certainly not insurmountable.

Where does that leave our project? I believe it now rests in a broader context of site content generally, and what sort of content would be most attractive to visitors to the site. Stay tuned as I start to research what this content may be and how we’d go about bringing it online.

Just do it

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Rather than wait around until I design the perfect site – which could take the rest of my life – I’ve decided to get something online for the business. It will be a simple “brochure” style site with 4 or 5 pages and some static content. Although it’s nothing flash, at least it gives the business an online presence. But the question of how we can utilise the power of the web to build an online business still remains.

I read a great article today from a Jon Symons entitled Why I’m Giving up on Making Money in which he suggested that money was a poor motivator and that there are other much more fundamental reasons why you’d want to build a website and write a blog. His thoughts are endorsed by Darren Rowae at Problogger in his post Giving up on Making Money where suggested that it’s best to focus on providing content that will solve a readers problems. Although he concedes that this can be a frustrating – and at times unprofitable – way to proceed he suggests that it’s the best way to proceed. Although many of the comments attached to this post argued that it’s important to focus on making money one of the more thoughtful posts suggested that content is king, and that leads to traffic, which then leads to a pre-sell and that leads to an income stream. Makes sense.

Where does this leave the website for our retail business? Well it all comes back to that Marketing 101 discipline of market research. We have an existing customer base, we sell products in real life, and now the job is to find out what customers would want to know about online. It would be worthwhile to listen to the sorts of questions customers ask about products in store, especially the more obscure requests that can’t easily be answered. Perhaps a little bit of in-store market research wouldn’t go astray.

I’m a skeptic

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I’ve read, heard, and seen lots about the power of blogs. They provide us with the tools to be an author, critic, and publisher – you name it, it can be done with a blog. Sure, I buy into that part of the story. If it makes someone feel better to tap away at a keyboard late at night, writing about something of little or no interest to anyone else in the world, then I say go for it. After all, that’s exactly what I’m doing right now. But I for one have a question to ask before swallowing the bait, hook, line and sinker. How can a blog benefit a small retail business?

My wife owns an interest in four new age giftware stores. They’re charming and well thought out, with a slick, yet peaceful feel about them – and they’re doing just fine as far as businesses go. The next step is to take them online and that’s where my inquiry begins. You see, I could easily (and cheaply) set them up with a plain vanilla website; the type with Home | Our Products | About Us | Contact and a home page featuring a middle age couple running through the surf and some sparkling pictures of crystals and jewelery laid out invitingly on a piece of velvet. It would do the job, but would the business be missing out on all of the much-talked-about benefits of web 2.0? Would it simply walk past the holy grail of customer-generated content, the market as a conversation, social networking – the list goes on? And if these are important strategies for a business then how can a small new giftware store adopt them without going broke trying? In other words, what’s the best bang for the buck?

So if you, like me, have an interest in this rather dull and dry subject, then add a comment or two. Share your thoughts, as I share mine. Who knows, we might find out something new.

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5/170 Burswood Road
Burswood WA 6100

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