The New OnSIP Blog: A Jason Fried Approach

The Junction Networks Team has been planning to revamp the blog for a few weeks now. Recently, we came across a Jason Fried of 37signals video that not only articulates our approach, but contains great guidance for all business blogs.

It doesn't take much to qualify Jason Fried's knowledge. Fried and his colleagues at 37signals have created web apps now used by over 3 million people [1]. Yet, 37signals does not have a PR Team. They do not have traditional marketing campaigns. They do not spend money on advertising. Instead, they simply share information about their expertise, including their product features and business efficiency, in their blog.

   

One specific example Fried gives is a small blog post he's written on the Yellow Fade Technique, which is a feature in the Basecamp application To-Do list. When a user adds a task to the To-Do list, the task is highlighted with yellow that fades. This effect signifies to the user that the task has been added. "It's a small little tiny thing," says Fried. "But, we thought it was really effective and we thought it was really interesting...We decided to write about it and document it... so you can do it in your own product... Now we have 800,000 people who have seen this article, which has some educational value to it, but also has our company name in it."

The bottom line here is that people aren't interested in sifting through a bunch of online advertisements. You, and everyone else, are interested in information that is useful to you; it's what helps you run your business and enhances your life in some way. So, if businesses would like to build an audience, they should focus on providing educational content in their area of expertise.

Now, it's our turn. We will build a blog on what we're good at: Implementing VoIP technology, building web apps, and growing a business. We're going to give you a look into our methodology and thought process - from marketing decisions to business management software to code implementations.

You will see we have separated the blog into six new categories:

Industry News- business web app and VoIP news
OnSIP News - OnSIP feature releases, news coverage, customer reviews, and future plans
OnSIP Tips - webinars, How-To's, and Tips on using OnSIP products
Reviews - IP phone reviews, chat client reviews, business web app reviews
Tech Talk - all things code and IT related from our OnSIP engineers and sales team
Network Alerts - notifications on network maintenance, etc.

We hope you'll find what you need, comment on blogs and keep on reading. But, most of all, we hope our writing will help you in your business ventures!

Add a full RSS feed

Posted by: Guest
Mon, 3/22/10 4:28 pm EDT

While I like the new setup, your RSS feed is still partial. People who follow your feed only see a summary of your content. Since your blog is not a profit center, and you are most interested in delivering content, not adds, please publish a full RSS feed, making it easier for your content to be seen and shared.


Alex Scrivener


Re: RSS Feed

Posted by: nicole
Tue, 3/23/10 10:57 am EDT

Alex - We have edited the RSS feed such that the first blogs are full. Please review and let us know. Thanks for your comment!


Great Blog

Posted by: Jason (jwsokol.wordpress.com)
Sat, 3/27/10 8:43 am EDT

Nicole,


I love the OnSIP blog. You have a big task ahead of you, but it sounds like you are up for it.


I love the direction you are headed in. This is something that the 37signals team does better than anyone - sharing their business insights with others to help them improve their own businesses. You have a great opportunity here.


In your post, you state that "Now, it's our turn. We will build a blog on what we're good at: Implementing VoIP technology, building web apps, and growing a business. We're going to give you a look into our methodology and thought process - from marketing decisions to business management software to code implementations." Here's my question for you: If this is the story you are going to tell, then why not drop all of the unrelated categories from your blog and concentrate only on this effort? I think you nailed the point in your statement - talk about what your guys are doing well and how it might be used in other businesses. Talk about your amazing products and how they can simplify your customers' lives.


As a customer and blog reader, that's what I want to know about.


Can't wait to see what you do with your blog. Keep up the great work!


Thanks!

Posted by: nicole
Mon, 3/29/10 3:45 pm EDT

Jason,


Thanks for reading the blog and commenting! We are aware this is a big commitment ahead of us. Luckily, I have a diverse team of people who are willing to take time out of their busy days and write.


I like your suggestion on the categories. This may be a direction we will move. (You'll see soon that we'll add a tag cloud just under the categories for a more organic approach to browsing the blog.) For now, the categories are helping structure our writing goals in making sure we cover the different aspects of our business.


I see from your website you are a very good source for social outreach questions/suggestions. Please let us know if you think of more, and I'll be sure to tune into Marketing Matters,


Nicole