Our MyST Blogsite generates highly qualified leads compared to other venues of online lead generation. One of the primary reasons is we have a trust factor, which we built (and continue to build) by providing dependable and accurate information through the blogsite. As a result, actions are more meaningful for business and the customer."
There's not much debate about this in the blogosphere because most blog tools don't have the agility to easily create and display pen names. But it's an important question to consider in a business advertorial blog.
A customer recently asked if they could have all posts shown as written by the same person - namely a faceless person such as the "BlogMaster".
Consider these points:
Your blogsite may include a pen name for each credentialed author contributing content. So even if you have a username of “bfrench”, the authored-by pen name could be whatever you like including “BlogMaster”. But it could also be “Bill French, Co-founder”.
People that read weblogs do so in part because they typically provide a connection to a real person – a deeper connection that can't otherwise be established in faceless marketing and press communications. Disguising the author’s name erodes the benefit of customer dialog and monologue.
Search crawlers identify with discrete terms such as a person’s name. Masking every post’s author as “BlogMaster” will never allow anyone to search for what “Bill” thinks about a particular subject.
Using each author's name is a key ingredient in the success of your advertorial's marketing-communications strategy. Failing to publish the author's names diminishes - ever so slightly - the benefit of a business blogsite.
I spoke with a group of bloggers in Phoenix recently. What I found is that very few had any business from their blogs despite a lot of effort. I have 5 closings and 7 active buyers directly from [our MyST blogsite] in 2008. I know because I ask. One person told me they have been reading my blog for almost a year before they called me to buy a property."
