It has taken time for me to truly appreciate how much blogging can affect your work. While I was pretty non-serious about blogging for the past few months, I had quite a few customers/fans of iBegin Source mention how they loved the blog.

It was sort of an eye-opener. I wouldn’t say these people were fans – but I would say they were people who respected and valued my opinion. If you sit down and really think about it – it is a hard task. Yes you can impress, yes you can wow – but when your mere opinion on the possible mundane is valued by someone else – that is quite something.

So – any large site really cannot afford not to blog.

Case example: Anonymous large site. The dominant site in a category. I convinced the owner to add a blog about 4 months ago. They’ve been posting semi-regularly. Not the most amazing stuff – just solid decent stuff. They are getting a few comments. Beyond adding a link in the menu bar, and a little announcement (you can see the bump right around the Sept 28 weekend dip), they have not promoted it at all. No emails to anyone. No linkbait. No submissions to social sites.

Their feedcount:

It isn’t the largest # (482 as of today). But (discounting the bump), you can say they are averaging 100 new subscribers a month. In a year they could have over 1200 receptive and tuned in users interested in what they have to say.

They’ve done the hard work in promoting the overall site. Now they are leveraging that hard work. A more dedicated user base.