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i would like to know if you have started a blog as a way to attract and have conversations with what could potentially become your earlyvangelists and regular customers?

But i mean specifically starting up a blog on a real domain (not free hosted) before any product development, basically as a way to establish yourself and for you to learn from them but also for them to see that you're more than just someone wanting to chat.

Im thinking that a blog could make it easier to find people to complete surveys and more.

A stepping stone basically to build relationships with them, for the customer discovery step of customer development, i think it would be important to have a decent blog design for this, i mean relevant to the initial idea and not to use a free template.

A few questions that i have though are:

  1. Would you setup the blog on the subdomain, with nothing on the main domain for the time being? Im thinking that if the feedback and interest is in the right direction then i would not want to waste the domain or the established blog content by not having it in the right place to start with.

  2. Have you done something like this yourself but possibly done it wrong when you first tried? If so, how differently would you do it next time?

So much that i read about customer dev is about conversations, and my startup will be web based and looking for customers online so it makes sense to me to also start relationships this way, i know blogging isn't the only way but i sometimes wonder at people ignoring the chance to start it this way, especially when the investment is minimal in ££/$$ basically a domain, a custom blog theme, wordpress and time writing, i mean if customers should be looked after and relationships built to last then it makes sense (to me at least) to get used to conversing with them.

Also theres the possibility that someone who said something a few weeks ago (that got you excited) might return to tell you otherwise now, which can keep you on your toes and not making the mistake of forging ahead thinking that you dont need to ask any more questions.

Also it avoids the paranoia of trying to keep it a secret while learning, something that i have read of others making this mistake, and as quite a few people have pointed out to others, that the strength is in the execution of your startup, and that it would be daft to try and hide everything, a hindrance basically.

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have started a blog as a way to attract and have conversations with what could potentially become your earlyvangelists and regular customers?

I personally have not, but when 'managed services' was becoming more of a house hold name I know a guy who did a lot of blogging about it and then ultimately started a company doing it. So, it worked out for him and I think it was a benefit to him and his business. Anything that can help position you as an expert on a subject matter is a plus.

Would you setup the blog on the subdomain

I wouldn't. Run it on the main domain or /blog that way all inbound links (when people link to you) from other sites go to your primary domain. That builds up that domains credit it Google versus blog.yourdomain.com which is a separate domain in Google's eyes. So you build up credit on your main domain, that way when you start a company all your Google page rank etc. can be re-allocated to your product and services pages.

Have you done something like this yourself but possibly done it wrong when you first tried

We have a company blog for general information, tips and tricks. I think if you start it and stick with it with regular consistency you can't really do it wrong. Worst case you don't build a big following and have a low readership. However, you still learn a lot, build up a lot of knowledge, share it, and have a credibility builder. You can still point people to the blog when you are bidding on a job or going to a job interview etc. Shows you know what you are talking about even if you didn't build a big community.

...paranoia of trying to keep it a secret while learning...

The most successful companies are often those who share their ideas versus keeping them secret. You can make a lot of money and build a big name for your self by educating / teaching others. You position yourself as an expert, get speaking engagements, get contacted from large companies etc.

Back when the 'social media' term was just getting used and people wanted to bring in speakers for social media I got to talk in front of many large corporations including JP Morgan Chase. I didn't do a whole lot, I was just using Twitter, Facebook, YouTube etc. and was who people were telling people to talk to about 'social media'

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Hi Ryan, first of all thank you for a detailed reply, what you suggested about anything that can help position you as an expert on something, or at least quite knowledgeable is along the lines of what i was thinking too. – user14718 Dec 18 '11 at 14:04
Also the benefits that you mention makes it appealing to me and worth the time investment, especially when the intention is to make contact with people and establish myself before a product is built, allowing me to find out if the demand is there. Great to read of your own experiences through being open and having done enough within social media that people recommended you. – user14718 Dec 18 '11 at 14:17
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It's a lot easier to get started in blogging then most people think. If you have a topic of interest, which it sounds like you do, then the steps are pretty easy. Even if you don't know anything on the topic day 1. Find blogs that are talking about similar things using Google, Technorati, and find sites that talk about similar things. Buy a couple books related to the subject matter. Start educating yourself... write thoughts and ideas in your own words on your blog. 6 months or so later you'll start to really know what you are talking about. – Ryan Doom Dec 19 '11 at 2:11
Great advice, immersing myself in it, i hadn't thought about books related to the subject matter so thats really helpful too, i will definately take this approach. – user14718 Dec 19 '11 at 13:32

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