Sitesell, Blogging and Listening to the Customer

I’ve been hosting my websites with an awesome company called Sitesell since 2001, and there’s a reason. First, I’ve always blown my competition away in the niche content sites that I’ve built. Second, they are not a Get Rich Quick type of business and supply a business building plan along with tools that would otherwise costs thousands of dollars a year. Lastly, they have a huge and involved user community. I know my product review sites are going to be a force to be reckoned with in the next few years and have a few friends that have already proven that.

My CRM website is another thing altogether. This site revolves around my career and chosen profession. When I began building it, I used the same tried and true template I’ve used with other sites, and still use in my newer sites. A lot of research and planning goes into it’s structure, keyword selection, link partners and monetization. Unfortunately, I’ve become distracted by a new concept in the CRM world called social. Sure, CRM is still CRM, and there is much to be written about functional CRM, but I’m not able to stay as focused on that these days. So, I made the decision to add a traditional blog which allows me to keep my content site on target, and allows me to wander anywhere I want on my blog.

Sitesell versus Blogging

So the question was should I keep building my website or start blogging. In this case, I want to do both. Hands down, if I build a website properly with Site Build It!, I will ultimately dominate the search engines for the terms I have selected. In order to do that, a lot of content has to be written, and that takes a ton of my time (and that doesn’t include link building). Blogging, that’s much easier although I’m still not inspired to write regularly but I’m trying to change that. The thing about my website is that there are still a lot of people out there searching the web for answers as it pertains CRM. Some are searching for software, others are searching for things about customer service. All of these searchers provide me with an opportunity to redirect them to a more strategic way of thinking about CRM.

On the other hand, I see blogging as self-promoting. That’s the only explanation I can come up with. Sure, my CRM site is that to some extent, but it really began as my forced journey from traditional software focused consulting to customer-centric strategic CRM. Just doing it has helped me move forward. Part of moving forward is taking the time to do this blog, though. Here’s why…the people I follow and respect need a more efficient means of establishing a dialog with me, if they so choose. Unfortunately, SBI’s Content 2.0 feature, which is great for product reviews, is not so great for discussion purposes. And I’ve found that the newer concepts like Social CRM are still being developed and require a great deal of discussion and debate.

Listening to my Customer

In this case, my customer is my visitor, my reader. Unlike most of my websites, the followers of my blog postings, at least some of them, are well-known in the industry. I want these people to dialog with me at the source of the topic, my blog. Doing it via Twitter and Skype is an interesting new experience, but it’s not always open to the public, and at least part of my purpose is educating lurkers. These followers have hesitated to do this because of issues they perceived with the vehicle that Site Build It! provides. I’m listening to my customers and making this slight change to accommodate them.

An Otherwise Cutting Edge Company

Sitesell is always talking about over delivering. They do it, and they want us to do it as well. But sometimes you can get yourself in a technical pinch. I’m not sure, maybe with such a clever idea (Content 2.0) for their customers they forgot their customers customers. I find CRM companies do that a lot too. For content oriented websites, which is really what drives the web, this feature of allowing visitors to create their own properly interlinked web page, with its own commenting feature, is something that blows the competition away. In my case, it’s blowing my potential contributors away (not in the good sense), which in turn means other visitors won’t benefit from their input.

I’ve posted my thoughts, and suggestions from the Social CRM Accidental Community to the Sitesell Forums. Hopefully, they see where I’m coming from and can take at least a few of the suggestions I’ve made and improve the user (website visitor) experience dramatically. Eliminate some clicks, remember visitors and get a dialog flowing.