Million-Dollar Blogging (Your Results May Vary)

Okay, so “Million-Dollar Blogging” sounds like one of those weird spam blogs that sometimes show up in search results. But we were pretty happy to see Debbie Weil’s recent post in which she describes the return on investment for Forrester Research’s Charlene Li. Charlene is a Principal Analyst at Forrester, and according to her recent speech at the NewComm Forum, her well-regarded TypePad-powered blog has resulted in $1 million in new business for Forrester.

Now, we’re not claiming that everybody who signs up for TypePad for their business is going to book a million dollars in new business. But what we do see is that low-cost, easy blogging tools, combined with smart writing and thought leadership in an industry can have a direct, measurable impact on getting new customers.

The important part here is understanding that blogs can help build relationships with potential customers, and those relationships are what people remember when it comes time to buy products or services. Reading someone’s blog over time and then hiring them to do work for you is no different than being a “regular” at a restaurant and then wanting to take your friends there when deciding where to eat. You reward the people with whom you have a connection. And if you’re the company providing that relationship through your blog, the rewards can really add up.

(Thanks to Debbie for the link — these are the sorts of examples we’re looking forward to seeing in The Corporate Blogging Book, her upcoming book on, you guessed it, corporate blogging.)