Keep on blogging

This blog began as a trial almost 9 years ago.

When I started in August 2006 it was an experiment in several ways. First of all to gain experience with the blog platform itself, secondly to use a free and informal route to talk about our business - the business of technical marketing - and thirdly to discover whether there was enough to say going forward.  

The blogger platform, now owed by Google, is pretty easy to use and over the years I have also changed the design a few times. Currently I  have gone for a simple black text on  a white page with red the only use of colour, in a style that reflects the graphical look of the Madmen TV series. There is a reason for this too and that is the look is used in an upcoming book. 

I  have opted for blogging weekly, partly because the blog is syndicated weekly to recipients of an eNews service and partly to have something interesting to say each time. Some business bloggers write daily which must demand not just a lot of time, but a  constant quest for something new to say. Over the years I have generated a lot of content which I am in the process of publishing as a book. So the blog has achieved some useful business goals all without cost other than my time. I have also been able to blog when travelling overseas to maintain continuity.

But like newsletters for example, it is hard to discern how much it is read. Of course the Google Analytics  give me numbers, but few people sign up as followers - well there is no real need for that - and few comment either, so mainly one way traffic. But then so were printed newsletters except they don't have any SEO value.

Before the blog, further back in 2000 we published a book - Technical Marketing Techniques - at a time when marketing stood on the threshold of a new age - an age dominated by the Internet. The new title - Technical Marketing:Ideas for Engineers - currently being edited, is a story of three parts. Retained is a whole section discussing the rationale of marketing, a new section integrating offline with online marketing communications techniques and a wide ranging final section based on content from this blog evaluating new ideas, new tools and new opportunities.  I will keep you posted.