In the dentist’s chair, waiting for an X-ray to be developed, I scanned the April issue of Travel and Leisure Magazine. Lucky on two fronts, I left the office with an all-clear, no-drilling-needed verdict from the dentist and a blogging idea from the magazine.

A blog-sized advertorial for rain boots began with a great opening line:
 
"Here in England where it rains, the waterproof Hunter Wellington has quietly served the nation since 1856 as a sort of rubbery second flag." (Those last three words alone vindicate all the emphasis I’ve been placing in my blogs on using powerful word tidbits to convey concepts.

"Our men braved the muds of the Great War in Hunters, and since 1977, the Royals have refused to tramp their estates in anything else." (Talk about skillful use of customer testimonials – you can’t get better than Buckingham Palace!) "Why? Because nothing fits or lasts like a Hunter." Using client testimonials and customer success stories in your blog and on your website builds credibility for your product or service.

In a way, your blog helps you stand tall, because your blog posts give "voice" to your business belief systems and goals. Too often, I find business owners who are so over-anxious to get on the blogging bandwagon, they don’t devote adequate thought to how blogging will fit into their overall marketing 
                                             strategy.

"If you had only a couple of sentences to describe why you’ve chosen to do what you do in the way you do it," I ask new business owner blogging clients, "what would those sentences be?"

Hunter Wellington spokesman Brian Maddox is all over that one.

"The fact is, any old wellie can keep your feet dry, as can a pair of plastic bags if you tie them right," he says, "but only a Hunter can make you grateful for the rain and for that and for those upon which it falls." (Can’t you just "hear" the sincerity of his belief?  Maddox is "all wet" and proud of it!)

“Good”, or “good enough”?  That’s one of the big debates in business blogging circles these days. As a professional ghost blogger, I’m always reading what other bloggers have to say, and just the other day, I found two blogs representing the two extremes of business blogging strategy.

Computer programmer Robert Plank calls himself a fast food copywriter.  That means, he says, he can write sales copy “that’s good enough”, and he can do it quickly and consistently.

When you go to a fast food restaurant, you go there to save time and money, Plank points out. You get your food in a matter of minutes. The food doesn’t have to be healthy, nor is it necessarily unhealthy, either.  It just has to be fast, and taste the same every time.

I must confess that, before coming upon Plank’s blog, I’d never thought of my blog posts in terms of restaurant menu items. I would hope every blog post I create conjures up an image of a maitre d’ and linen rather than one of golden arches! To be sure, Plank writes sales letters for clients, not blogs. Anyway, Plank’s big on seven word sentences and the “copywriting equivalent of a McDonald’s fast food worker…and NOT an artsy fartsy gourmet cook.”

Representing the total opposite end of the business copywriting thought spectrum was a blog by Roman Jelinek (writing a guest post on David Risley’s blog) Jelinek shares his view that few but quality posts are better than frequent and rushed posts.  He recalls the 19th century scientists Gregor Mendel who collected data and studied results for seven years before publishing the paper that led him to be recognized as the father of modern genetics.

Before you make a post, says Jelinek, do research, looking in odd places for sources to which most people don’t have access. Make connections in your blog post.  Show your readers something they don’t see every day. Time spent preparing will be returned to you in blog readership, and in driving business to your website, is the implication).

So where do I stand in all this?  I agree with David Risley when he says “If you take forever to write your posts, you will probably not see the rewards for your time.” Fact is, search engines reward frequency and recency of blog posting, so one very high quality blog post each month or even each week simply isn’t going to even “place” from an SEO standpoint.

I’m probably closer to Jelinek’s corner of the ring, though. Blog posts are out there, and stay out there, representing your business. Blog posts do need to be well-researched, they do need to make unusual connections to create interest and to keep readers coming back – you definitely want to aim for quality. After a couple of years and thousands of blog posts on behalf of different business clients, I can tell you, quality beats fast food – forks down!