
Ask HN: Is a blog clever marketing or just a waste of time? - p0d
I am one guy with a web app which makes $14k per year. Is having a blog alongside my website clever marketing or just a waste of my time?
======
oliwarner
There isn't one answer. Just as there isn't for having a social media
presence.

The main reason to start a blog should be having something interesting to say,
on a regular basis; _something that appeals to your market_. A message that
either converts into sales or (if a service) converts into an impression you
know what you're talking about.

The SEO benefit isn't automatic. Just having more pages about something on
your website doesn't turn into positive SERP. It only helps if people in your
industry share it around, discuss it. And that not only depends on the quality
of your message but also how "bloggy" your audience is.

I have clients whose market is furiously corporate and they insist on
blogging. It's just such a dry topic, there's nothing but a "we're a real
company" benefit, and even that isn't obvious.

And that leads to the biggest issue here. It's often not easy to see if you're
wasting your time. It's easy to throw terms like "sunk cost fallacy" around
but it really applies here. Plus there is auxiliary value from blogging, some
people enjoy writing.

But if your time is finite and not worthless, focus on finding an audience
that directly feeds into your bottom line.

~~~
oliwarner
I'll add that I agree with the others re: bad blogs.

A blog that sees little activity or insight does more harm than good. One that
misjudges the customer would also do harm. A corporate client doesn't want to
read about the results of the weekly office water pistol fight.

~~~
solarkraft
Company blogs with badly written articles about something completely unrelated
to the business are just great.

------
superasn
Your blog is one of the best sources to get new traffic for your app. Search
content marketing if you're not doing it already. I knew a client who go at
least 20 signups per day using a blog post that ranked #1 on Google.

Of course your content has to be amazing and needs a few backlinks from
industry leaders or authority sites. Also the most important part of your blog
post is the bottom section where you have your call to action to convert the
reader into a subscriber, so don't ever use a generic click here type CTA.

E.g. If your blog post is about 10 ways to lose weight, then add a resource
box below which says "It's time to get started, download this FREE time-line
pdf I prepared for you which helped me and 1000 members of this website lose
over 10 lbs in 22 days" and bam.. there you have a new signup!

P.S. Goes without saying but you must give good advice. You have to win their
trust, the article, the pdf must give them what they're searching for (give
them 80% and remaining 20% after payment).

~~~
paulpauper
Yeah but how much did your client pay to get that ranking, now many years of
blogging, etc. You have to take into account all the people who also tried but
failed. One successful example does not prove it's worthwhile.

~~~
graeme
It can really depend on the niche. For some niches, it's basically as simple
as "write an article, and you'll be #1". For others, it's a case of "more
money than you'll earn in your lifetime is spent each year fighting for this
spot"

Obviously, though, the rewards in the former are far lower. But, it certainly
means it's worth trying one article to see how big the rewards are. Basically
just search like a user would, and see if the results are satisfying. If none
are, then it should be straightforward to rank #1 or near the top.

------
ecesena
There are 2 main strategies imo.

1\. A blog that makes you a thought leader. People will like you, check out
what you're doing, and perhaps start using your app. This is the typical way
to go for b2b, or if you have a big ego :) Another pro is that if you change
your app, you still (may) have your readership.

2\. A blog that extends the content of your app. This fundamentally is a set
of landing pages that improve your SEO. One common strategy is to talk about
problems that people may have, and that your app solves. Whether you want or
not to be too explicit about your app it's a matter of tastes.

~~~
vadimberman
> A blog that makes you a thought leader

I keep hearing that, but... Has anyone here actually seen it working?

Not nitpicking, just looking for actual examples to learn from.

~~~
sireat
The list is practically endless:

Joel on Software, patio11, DHH, Seth Godin, Tim Ferris, countless SEO blogs,
and so on in increasing order of cringiness.

It is the whole modern melting of personality/advice/authority/promotion .

Some are really sincere some are really good at faking it.

~~~
vadimberman
OK, thank you.

For these guys the blogging seems nearly a full-time job though. I wonder if
it's realistic to get there with a small slice of time.

------
douglaswlance
Don't: "Have a blog."

Do: Answer highly relevant, frequently asked questions in such a way that
people will either find you through a search engine or impulsively share your
content.

~~~
stevoski
> Answer highly relevant, frequently asked questions in such a way that people
> will either find you through a search engine or impulsively share your
> content.

This is excellent advice for anyone starting an online business.

People new to running an online business too often neglect the approach you
suggest. And yet, it is much better than trying to get lots of upvotes for a
'launch' on Product Hunt, Hacker News, and Reddit.

The problem is, producing good content doesn't give an immediate thrill. It
takes time and persistence to see the payoff.

------
11eleven
A lot of blog articles out there = fluffy content on topics tangentially
related to the product or service.

Instead of blog articles per se, I'd recommend creating high value resource
articles on topics people who'd benefit from your app may search for. For
example, if you offer a goal progress app, people with interest may search for
resources on 'long-term strategies to boost productivity that you won't give
up after a few days'.

High value = it should provide a comprehensive breakdown of the topic _and_
cover points the top ranking articles on the same topic don't. This will boost
your article's search rankings and help it attract more backlinks and social
shares.

You can also offer a PDF download of the resource in exchange for an email
address so you can nurture these leads.

Examples of these resource articles:

[1] [https://mailshake.com/masterclass/find-email-
addresses/](https://mailshake.com/masterclass/find-email-addresses/)

[2] [https://artofemails.com/sales-follow-up](https://artofemails.com/sales-
follow-up)

------
pryelluw
Disclaimer: I do content marketing consulting and used to own an agency that
did same.

Don't think of it as a blog. See it as your own media platform. Whose only
purpose is to broadcast information that drives sales.

It is also an always-ready salesperson who never sleeps and can be trained to
overcome any objection to close sales.

A properly managed blog is definitely worth your time. However, the content
must be clearly integrated with your marketing and advertising.

The best type of content? Anything that helps current users better use your
product. Tutorials, guides, docs, videos, etc. The second best is content that
shows how your product solves a specific problem.

You don't need to limit yourself to one blog either. A multi-outlet approach
works really well and typically helps corner a market.

------
zeofig
Yes, both! Just make sure you don't enjoy writing it, or you might actually
achieve something worthwhile.

------
krapp
>Is having a blog alongside my website clever marketing or just a waste of my
time?

I used to blog all the time, but that was back when blogs were just a way for
people to communicate things they were interested in, not primarily a means of
marketing. Just do it - if you enjoy it, keep doing it, if you don't, stop.

Chances are if it's just for marketing purposes, and unless you care enough
and are at least a decent enough writer to be engaging, then it's not going to
get a lot of readers anyway, because you won't be writing anything worth
reading.

So to me, the question you should be asking yourself isn't whether it would be
a clever way to market the app, but whether or not you _want to blog._

------
capkutay
One of the things i use to evaluate a company's legitimacy and ability to
succeed is their ability to be a thought leader through content marketing and
influencing. Not just blogging...but a mix of blogging, youtube
videos/tutorials, meetups etc...and above all else actually be an influencer
with that content. meaning lots of people subscribe and share that stuff.

That being said, blogging is just a medium to show the world what you know and
how good you are at teaching others as well. If you don't know anything and
don't have anything valuable to share, then your blog will probably be a
'waste of time'.

------
amorphid
It probably depends on your product.

The more expensive your service is, the more you'll probably need to offer
proof that it's worth the price. If your service is going to cost me a one
time purchase price of $1, I'm going to buy it regardless of what you say. If
it's going to cost me $499/month, I'm going to research the heck out of it,
which would probably include reading your blog and/or the best parts of your
site to find the information I need.

The harder your product is to use, because somethings are just complicated no
how simple you try to make them, you'll need an efficient way to educate your
customers. One use for a blog is to have a place where you can tell stories
about people using your product. "How Susie solved use getp0d.com to double
her income" or "Using getp0d.com as a CRM for your motel's reservations". You
can use a blog as a place to put any ol' random thought you have until there's
a better place to put said thought. My company's old blog was mostly for
making it sound like my services my be worth what the price I quoted you.

------
pknerd
Blog is always the best way to get leads whether you are a business owner or a
developer/other professional, provided you love writing.

I use my blog to promote my skills and for last couple of years my site and
blog helped me to earn some good contracts/gigs. Even my current job is due to
my blog which someone read and contacted me.

<Shameless_Plug>

I am not an SEO expert but these tools did help me in early days. I wrote how
I used them:

[http://blog.adnansiddiqi.me/3-free-seo-tools-you-should-
use-...](http://blog.adnansiddiqi.me/3-free-seo-tools-you-should-use-for-your-
next-blog-post/)

</Shameless_Plug>

------
lettergram
Here's a blog post for my startup:

[https://blog.projectpiglet.com/2018/03/refer-friend-using-
st...](https://blog.projectpiglet.com/2018/03/refer-friend-using-stripe-
rails-15-lines-code/)

I provide value to someone else, while also advertising my product. This gave
me net 1 user last month. At lets say $10 / month, that's $120 / year. If I
can get 12 people a year (1 per month) to register. Year one I'll have made
$780 ($120 + $110 + $100 + ....).

I personally try to do at least one post a week, and some have a lot of
success, some none. The value comes from then marketing that post and ever
improving what people from your niche want to read. You can only convert
people who read the post.

My example would be a failure (in my case), but it builds financially. As you
advertise and get people coming to your stuff, more people typically come.
They then tell their friends, share my posts, etc. You only need two or three
big posts a year to get you tens to hundreds of users At once.

------
jeiting
It depends on your customers. If your potential customers are likely to be
interested in reading things around the problem you are solving then maybe.
But as others have mentioned, it needs to be "content first". If the content
isn't good and just a thin excuse to talk about your product, it won't work.

I've been doing basic content marketing for my service
([https://medium.com/revenuecat-blog](https://medium.com/revenuecat-blog)) and
it is my #1 source of new signups.

I have a lot of expertise in the subject. It is a wide domain with lots of
adjacent problems I can write about. And, it is something that people search
for and read about. All these together has made it worthwhile.

That said, it is very time consuming. I try to average one post a week but a
good post that is worth publishing takes me probably 5-10 hours of work
between research, drafting, proofing, and promoting. This is time taken away
from product development, so you need to consider the ROI.

~~~
p0d
Thanks. You raise a good point. My solution is not sexy and I’m not sure
people would want to read around it. I’ll add that to my list of pros and
cons.

------
Endy
I think it depends on how you use it. I look at app blogs for very specific
things: roadmap posts, changelogs, bug reports filed and fixed, etc. I like
knowing that the devs of various apps I use are not only active, but willing
to make changes public. If you already have a user forum, you probably don't
need a blog; assuming you have one specific pinned news thread that you keep
up to date. If you don't you're misusing your forum.

If you can include a series of user guides for various topics related to your
app, or prove (preferably with visual examples) how your app provides a
solution to some issue or whatnot, then your blog will have value. If you
already have a wiki or a forum, you probably don't need a blog.

If you think you have something worth sharing that's important to others
outside the specific niche your app fills but tangential to it, go for it; but
you'd probably be better off on Facebook or Twitter.

------
gkya
Not really a waste of time if you have any news to share about your product.
Not everything you post needs to be a great article, it can be an interesting
feature you added or some details about a nontrivial change. If you have the
blog and the news on the same channel (e.g. on the same RSS feed, etc), it'll
presumably be likelier that the nice, detailed, intriguing actual blog posts
will be seen by much more people, and you won't need to write too many of them
to get people to read/backlink your blog posts.

My main mode for following anything online is to add a news RSS feed or a
commits RSS feed if applicable to my feedreader. IDK how many people do it
like me though, I guess, depending on the product, often the bulk of the
customers will be using the prominent social media instead. Nevertheless
having it there for the important news and the occasional blog post should not
be that big of a waste of time.

------
z3t4
Remember that PR/marketing is about _spending time_ with the public in order
to be seen. Blogging is one of many ways to get attention. But maybe your time
is better spent on something else then blogging ? Think of something that
might be news-worthy. It doesn't even need to have anything to do with your
product.

------
rahoulb
I use mine (which also goes out as an email) to consolidate the things I’m
working on in my mind.

The benefit to me is I write reflectively on what I’ve learnt, the benefit to
my audience is that it positions me as an expert (you only need to be one day
ahead of someone to be an expert).

I do post daily though.

I also really enjoy writing, without that it would be a chore.

------
jeffinpdx
When I'm working with tech companies, the most frustrating concept is whether
to blog. On one hand, the blogging zealots think blogging is this panacea and
want to spend all of their time blogging about fun but ultimately irrelevant
topics that generate traffic (e.g., "Why I Hate Ruby!" when they're selling
software to banking execs). Or on the other hand, the curmudgeons are cynical
about blogging because they "tried it once and it didn't work." The best
advice I've received is every startup should try blogging at least once, but
measure the results. Not just visits to your site or sign-ups from tire-
kickers on P.H. who want to test your onboarding strategies. Did the blog post
yield paying customers? If not, try another marketing strategy, but measure it
too.

------
paulcole
The fact that you’re asking shows me that it is a waste of your time for you.
You can’t fake/brute force your way to a great blog. Unless you’re really into
writing it, it’s not going to be enjoyable to write or read.

You can get some value out of it, but odds are you’ll be frustrated and hate
doing it.

~~~
p0d
That’s maybe a little too black and white but I hear what you are saying Paul.
If I just see it as means to an end I may be missing the point. Point taken.

~~~
sgc
I personally love writing but don't have the time for a real blog. If you want
to add content but not be strapped into regular updates, well written articles
added to your site never need to be labeled as such.

For example I decided to write once every 6 weeks to my mailing list this year
(I hate more than that, so I'm not sending what I wouldn't accept to receive).
Once I have a few built up, I will then add them to my site and not hesitate
to rewrite the content if I have feedback to integrate.

I think you need an internal metric for regularity or your content writing
will just slip away from you and won't happen.

~~~
ijidak
This is a good perspective. We have been conditioned to think of content
marketing as only one thing, regularity. But since most posters agree that one
great article can pull all the business, it might be worth asking whether we
should be going for one big article versus the steady stream approach.

I think I would prefer the one big article, every month or so, to the pressure
to put out "something" every week...

~~~
sgc
I think most people on HN are paid for their expertise. You don't garner much
respect by pushing fluff. So most of us should err (heavily imo) on the side
of too few rather than too many articles. I am also B2B, and no professional
wants a cluttered inbox.

------
kerrsclyde
Blogging also allows you to commit information / concepts / marketing about
your product into written form. I've found this extends my understanding,
gives me more ideas, is a source of feedback and this written information can
be reused for other things at a later date.

------
DoreenMichele
_Is having a blog alongside my website clever marketing or just a waste of my
time?_

The only real way to know is to try it and see if it works.

I will note that you can pay for writing. You typically give someone a topic
to write about and maybe a link to include or some key words. There are people
who do this as freelancers and there are services that do this.

It doesn't completely get you off the hook, but it can reduce the workload
involved. If it makes more money than it costs you, it can be well worth it.

Edit: You also might be interested in reading this:

[http://www.doreenmicheletraylor.com/2018/02/actionable-
conte...](http://www.doreenmicheletraylor.com/2018/02/actionable-content-
marketing-tips.html)

------
seltzered_
Another strategy (I can't find the post, but HN regular mbuckbee evangelizes
this) is to create small free tools / indexes to get inbound traffic. They
might be small byproducts you made while creating your business.

Examples: AWS in plain english, foragoodstrftime.com, everytimezone.com, the
various 'awesome' lists, etc. I've personally thought about writing batch
scripts for dumb little tasks. Books that lead into your business are also
common.

Make it something your audience will value. Then the general idea then is you
can share it to your mailing list (i.e. in amy hoy parlance an 'ebomb').

------
rfolstad
If you want to acquire users from google search its absolutely required that
you have fresh and frequently updated content with links from other reputable
sources to even be considered to be displayed on a search result.

If you don't care about acquiring users from search as you have other means
then yes a blog may be a complete waste of time.

If your site already has some crawl-able content and your already receiving
some traffic from google, rather than create a blog your time is probably
better spent doing the following:

creating more content pages to help google understand your site

creating a sitemap

decreasing the load time of your site

spend money on google ads

get high quality back links

~~~
a13n
If you want to acquire users from Google search you can always just run paid
ads too. Much easier than writing evergreen content.

------
pascalxus
Sure, if you have a successful blog there's no better way to get traffic than
free traffic! But, look at how many people are successful with it. What like
less than 1%? I don't know what the figures are but I know it's really really
low. The vast majority will fail to attract any meaningful amount of traffic.
Someone correct me if i'm wrong, I wish i was.

------
fapjacks
Hey! An engineering blog is one of the things that could push me over the edge
in a decision between two otherwise equal projects or products. Not to mention
how helpful your posts could be to others, just describing your technology
problems and how you have overcome them. If you have the time for it, there's
nothing but good that could come out of it.

------
ebellity
Really depends on the topic and if you're able to write something that will be
interesting for readers... or not

------
taprun
It depends upon how you write your blog. If you're focusing on helping your
users, you're probably doing it wrong. Here's a detailed guide on how the pro
bloggers do it: [https://taprun.com/content/](https://taprun.com/content/)

------
whereismypwd
It's worth it for developer marketing. People are constantly googling for
anything that solves their problem, so if you can post useful solutions that
tie into your product, preferably with some soft of freemium hook, its great.

I have no idea how often people google specific keywords in other verticals,
so ymmv.

------
bdcravens
Let's say you double your revenue via your blog. Do you feel like the time
you'd spend writing content is worth more or less than $14k? (Obviously you
can hope you'd more than 2x your revenue, but unless you already have a
massive following, I think you have to be conservative)

------
gthompson1
I have done a decent amount of marketing for several companies, I've been a
data scientist and now I'm a software engineer. I am currently trying to get
traffic to my side project
[http://www.careerminer.co](http://www.careerminer.co) I have tried:

email marketing, social media posting, reddit posts / sub reddit comments

My last job I worked at a lending company and we would spend like $10,000 on a
direct mail campaign and it would result in like 50 website sessions. We kinda
shot down blogging and content SEO stuff as to vague with unpredictable
results and the few blog posts we did had like 10 sessions. We focused on
email marketing, cold calling, paid ads and direct mail. We would spend like
$50 per session on paid ads.

But heres the kicker.

Before the company stopped operations we decided to give content SEO one last
shot, we went after long tail keyword content pages, stuff like "what is a
good apr" we saw our competitors doing this. All our previous blog posts were
like "mini profile : meet joe blogs founder of joes coffee" which never really
generated much traffic, it was way to specific and people just don't google
that.

Its been a year and I still have access to GA. I looked at it and those long
tail keywords pages that we went after are absolutely crushing it like one is
generating 1000 new users every month (which I know is still not huge but for
a small lending company (boring) its huge) and here is the double kicker, we
got a text broker [https://www.textbroker.com/](https://www.textbroker.com/)
to write each post for like $50. So 1000 a month recurring for $50 or like 1
session for $50. Its just crazy.

I listened to [https://www.indiehackers.com/podcast/038-dawson-whitfield-
of...](https://www.indiehackers.com/podcast/038-dawson-whitfield-of-logojoy).

>So our first like five months, our growth was 100% fueled, apart from Indie
Hackers, by AdWords. We would spend $1.00 to acquire a customer and about four
days later, we would get a $1.10

>Now-a-days about 55% of our new users come from organic SEO, we've really
pushed hard on that

I feel like this has been my experience with so many companies and friends.
But agree with the general sentiment that if you don't have a really clear
strategy, keywords, topics etc it will be a "waste of time".

------
Giorgi
To be honest, lately it seems platform hosted blogs are better option (such as
medium and wp.com) rather than host-your-own. Mostly because there is already
some traffic on those platforms

~~~
kjksf
That wouldn't provide any SEO benefits for his website, which I imagine is one
of the primary goals.

Medium is good if you care only about having your articles read.

Your own website is good if you want to boost your website's Google rank.

------
jensenbox
It is great if you keep it up-to-date but can be a liability if you let it
languish - many times when I see new releases on something but their blog is
from 2014 it sorta looks bad.

------
musgrove
It, of course, depends on how well you use it. If you develop a good marketing
plan, which you should have, and execute it well, it will be time and effort
well-spent.

------
xtracerx
The book Traction : A Startup Guide to Getting Customers was pretty good at
explaining an all encompassing framework for asking and answering this kind of
question.

------
slipwalker
AFAIK, John Sonmez ( simpleprogrammer.com ) made his career jump to the multi-
million-dollar status starting with his blog. So, i would look into it
seriously.

------
jppope
not trying to be "that guy" but the answer to your questions is "it
depends"... distribution strategies vary by market. but Normally with Niche
and Technology products. (Won't leave you hanging without an example:
Basecamp's main source of marketing is their blog and social media, but as a
comparison Cintas (CTAS/NASDAQ) does very little blogging)

------
lprubin
Do you enjoy writing? Are you decent at it? If you answer no to either of
those questions, you might be in for a struggle.

~~~
p0d
I enjoy it and write ok. I reckon I’m pretty slow though. I have this bad
habit of re-reading what I have written too often.

------
known
Both; After certain stage people expect your product to stick/comply to your
words in your blog;

------
tyrex2017
for a mobile app: absolutely not worth while

for a product like a “food supplement”: yes, totally

the model is: right something useful which will get very relevant traffic via
google, and be able to convert this traffic immediately to money

~~~
dmitrybrant
...but first, learn how to right.

------
justboxing
Done right, a blog is a very cheap and powerful marketing tool.

As @superasn has mentioned, 1 huge win (again if done right) is you can keep
getting recurring signups / new users if 1 or more of your blog posts ranks on
top for keywords relating to your web app / product offering.

I've successfully grown a blog to over 100K monthly visitors in less than 6
months, all using organic SEO techniques. Too bad I didn't (still don't) have
a product to market on that blog. It ranks on 1st page for several tech
related keywords, incl. a couple related to apple and steve jobs.

What's your web app / domain? Without knowing much about it, I can't give you
domain / topic specific advise. My email is in bio if you wanna chat more.

------
tytytytytytytyt
Is it really that hard to blog every week or two about something interesting
and related?

------
drharby
It depends

