Interviews with Digital Media Thought Leaders
Blogging Success in Local Markets
Podcast Video | Posted by Phil Leigh on April 16, 2008
If you would like to learn how one blogger became a leading source of information about his local community, this interview is for you.
Subject: Our guest today is Tommy Duncan who is the Founder of the Sticks of Fire blog. Through it, Tommy has become a go-to source of information about events, history, and news affecting his home town of Tampa, Florida. From an “unknown” four years ago, Tommy quite often now sees his blog writing republished by the local metropolitan newspaper. Tommy shares his thoughts about what it takes to be a successful blogger in both a content and platform technology context.
Summary: Mr. Duncan became a successful blogger because of a deep interest in his native community. Sticks of Fire provides a constant flow of information about events, history, and news relating to Tampa. Over the past four years the site attracted a stable of additional local writers who often provide information that is hard to find elsewhere.
As a result of his experience Tommy developed valuable insight into the future of blogging from both a content and technological perspective. Although he is a good writer, he would not likely have achieved success without getting under the hood enough to gain an appreciation for the best technologies. For example, after starting with Google Blogspot, he gravitated to WordPress and is likely to remain on the platform indefinitely.
In the future, Tommy believes that corporations will embrace blogging as a way to develop a conversation with their clients and prospects. He also feels that video & audio podcasting will enhance such efforts.
Phil’s Take: When I ask others who have been successful with blogging and podcasting they often mention the same two points (1) a passion for the content, and (2) the regularity of periodic updates.
Additionally, Tommy’s experience provides further evidence, if such is needed, that WordPress is becoming a standard. Importantly, it is powerful enough to include both audio and video podcasting as well as text blogging.
Categories: Podcast Video
Tags: Blogging, Corporate-Blogging, digital-media, Internet-video, Phil-Leigh, podcasting, Video-Blogging
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Hey Phil,
Thanks for the opportunity to speak to your audience about the advantages of blogging for companies and the ability of WordPress to fill the need.
For anyone interested, I’d be happy to speak about WordPress and blogging in general – contact me through Phil.
tommy
Hi Tommy,
Question.
I’d like to get your thoughts about what it takes to be a successful blogger in terms of content? There’s a school of thought that many bloggers are perceived as just a bunch of self-centered pontifcators in need of a good “old-fashioned” editor?
Your thoughts?
Thank you.
Peter
Peter:
I Will forward your question to Tommy, but here’s what I say.
Many bloggers are self-centered pontificators, just as many book reviewers are at Amazon.com. However, some of the ordinary readers who post reviews at Amazon.com do a brilliant job and we quickly learn to ignore the pontificators much like we do spam email.
Hey Peter!
That’s a real good question.
Of course, the answer depends on what you consider “successful.” Your goal will determine much of the content. However, the basic foundation of getting visitors to a blog is the content and the consistency. Getting those visitors to keep coming back takes talent and commitment. Simply put, if many people like the content, style, and/or personality, you can attract many repeat visitors to your website.
If you choose a uninteresting overall topic, or are a terrible writer, or are inconsistent, your visitors will find another place to go – there are too many choices. Even consistently average bloggers must continue to work hard just to keep the visitors they get.
I really dislike lumping together all bloggers. There are so many styles and topics to discuss, not to mention a vast range of quality. But to answer the detractors you mention, being self-centered is not necessarily a bad thing in attracting an audience. Many “experts” are expert because they know what they are talking about – and they usually know it. Even those people who are obnoxious about it can offer valuable and compelling content.
I would also say that MOST bloggers are in serious need of an excellent (and patient) editor. And Phil is right – those blogs do not attract a significant number of readers – they are crap, and get ignored by the masses. The cream will rise to the top based on basic free market principals.
But that still leaves a huge number of bloggers who are doing quality work, and finding a sizable audience.
If you want to start a blog for your company, I would highly recommend finding a blogger that YOU find yourself visiting on a regular basis, and commissioning their assistance…
tommy