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* The Business of Software

Patrick said in a previous thread "Note on blogging: its helpful to blog for the audience of your software."

Now, I've seen several blogs from people on BOS, but rarely do I see a blog targeted at customers instead of other mISV's or developers.

Why not use this thread to show us your customer-focused blogs?  Link to your blog and business site if possible or describe how you try to bring in customers using a blog.

It's not my blog, but I did think the textmate blog at http://macromates.com/blog/ was quite a good example of this.

My blog is pretty young, but I'd say I'm about 50/50 between customer focused posts and business of software posts. Many of the customer focused posts are just links to new articles I've released, though.

http://www.breezetree.com/process-flowchart-blog/index.php

I doubt you'll find many people on this forum who can actually back up their claims and advice.

"actually back up their claims and advice"

I am also starting to notice a trend to just regurgitate the same lines people have read, rather than tell their own experiences. Perhaps the people that really know stuff are too busy running their businesses to post here. There are very few posters here that put a disclaimer in when they know their experience is limited or not universal. (thanks Patrick McKenzie for your rare honesty).
When the _specific_ questions get posted, it's interesting to see how many people post waffle rather than actually ANSWER the question.
my 2 cents.

My blog is aimed at my customers.  Primarily it provides tips  and info on using Macro Scheduler, product announcements, case studies, and info on what's going on in the company. 
http://www.mjtnet.com/blog/

A couple of hours ago in another thread here I wrote:

BTW I am yet to be convinced that blogging helps - but I guess it depends on you[r] market.

I haven't changed my view in the intervening period...

I've just started mine - still trying to get the tone right.

My blog is directed towards users:

http://www.e-texteditor.com/blog/

It is still very new, but I am using it to highlight and explain the more unique features in my program.

I feel that a user focused blog can be compared a bit with the tip-of-the-day pop-up that many applications use. It just has the major benefits that you can be much more in-depth and get feedback from your users.

I'm trying something dangerous (especially with little blogging experience).

I'm mixing articles pointed at BOS types (they are interesting for people I work with, to build critical mass, to gel my thoughts) and my industry (the blog must ultimately help them like the company and feel we're pretty competent).

For the moment, I've only mentioned the blog to software types (where I know fewer people, but I suspect are more blogging-savvy).  I will probably send an email invitation to check out the blog (to my industry contact list) in a week.

What do you think?  Do two themes bore people?  Drive them away?

http://profitdesk.com/content/

Mike

Most of my blog posts are about my latest product and targeted at our users and prospects. This has been very much an experiment on my part but I have to say I'm pleased with the results and the number of users reading it and commenting on the blog and via e-mail. My only problem is not posting as often as I'd like to. The blog is http://blog.surfulater.com and product site http://www.surfulater.com

So I was sort of inspired by Ethan's earlier post and wondered if you could write a blog to promote language software.  I've got an unhealthy interest at passing a certain language exam at the moment, and thought a blog focusing on issues like that would work great as a marketing vehicle for one of his products (which I'm incidentally a happy user of).  Then I thought, what the heck, I'll write some mock posts for the blog, and then write a meta-post on how I would use blogging as a marketing tool, if I were to use blogging as a marketing tool.

http://microisvjournal.wordpress.com/2006/09/07/writing-a-customer-focused-blog/

Disclaimer: Mine is not a customer focused blog, and it won't ever be.  The ideas will have to stand or fall on their own merit rather than having any personal empirical experience to back them up.

You can find some good examples at Microsoft -- I like this one on the new Office interface: http://blogs.msdn.com/jensenh/default.aspx

It has articles explaining why things were done and how features can be used. This shows people what Office 2007 can do while also telling them how to do it, and occasionally includes responses to misleading news stories.

My blog is about the Business of Software, rather than an area related to a product, for a few reasons.

One, buying a product doesn't imply fascination with the area that the product serves.  Blogs built around products feel culty and can easily drive customers away because the blog is so apparently self-serving.

Two, personally, I prefer blogging about the Business of Software rather than a product or area.  And I need all the motivation that I can get.

Three, I'm trying to build a recipe for bootstrapping businesses, not just bootstrapping a particular business.  I'd rather think, know and write more about how to build a business, than think, know and write more about a particular product or area.

In the beginning my blog was oriented toward web developers (in part because they were more likely to be interested in the product I was building).

Now I try to not mix genres. My customers don't care about Ajax, so I limit my posts to feature announcements, tutorials, etc...
 
http://www.formassembly.com/blog

Started a blog recently focused on our customer-base (small businesses).

http://www.smallbusiness20.com

Dharmesh, I guess that is kind of what I was looking for (although I don't know what product you are selling).  It's a blog oriented towards your customers, but not necessarily directly about your product.

I guess I don't see how a blog either about a non relevant topic (BoS) or a blog about your product drives new customers to your site.  Sure, product blogs may be a handy way to showcase certain unique features (or tip of the day), but it's not something that's probably going to get a high page rank or be linked to from sites your customer reads.

In fact, I would think blogging about features probably isn't the most effective way put reference-type information about your product on the web.  How easy is it for your customers to find that blog post on the details of your widget back from 2004, especially since you've changed blog software twice since then?

A good example of that problem is on the db4o developer blog at http://developer.db4o.com/blogs/  It's updated quite frequently with useful nuggets of information that can't be found elsewhere on the site, yet it's quite difficult to come back and find that information months later.

Whenever I see Bob Walsh talking about blogging to drive traffic, I just find it odd that I don't see it put into use or put into use effectively.

Dharmesh -

First, congrats on your blog.  I've been reading it since the beginning and it is well-written, plus focused on an appropriate business area (I think BoS-types are a good beachhead for your product).

How are you finding the split into two blogs?  Can you develop audience there?  Does it dilute your writing effort?

Mike