You've heard the wisdom:
"Your business should have a blog."
"Blogging helps your SEO."
"Why aren't you blogging yet?"
According to the experts, a blog will solve all your Internet woes. Blogging will increase your traffic, expand your audience, improve your engagement, position you as an authority, and allow you to shape the message in your space.
In fact, blogging is so hyped as a panacea, you'd think that simply adding a blog to your site would also help you find the perfect spouse, cure the common cold, and even turn lead into gold.
While I won't deny the power of a good blog on the right site (seriously, as a writer, I'm pro-blog in general) to do all of those good things and more, you should always question anything that's touted as the right answer for everyone (and everything). So should you blog?
When a blog is NOT necessarily the right form of content marketing
Now that you're asking whether all that time and energy you're putting (or planning to put) into your blog is really the right investment, let's look at a few examples of when blogging is a bad idea (or is simply unnecessary).
1. You own your market
Johnson & Johnson. Amazon. Target. Google. These companies have already captured the hearts and minds of so many consumers that their names are nearly synonymous with their products. Here's why blogging would only offer each of them a marginal benefit.
Traffic
Does Johnson & Johnson really care about traffic to its site when you already have Band-Aids (and all their other name brand products) in your medicine cabinet? Sure, they produce infographics, but there's no real blog, and you were going to buy their products anyway, right?
Audience reach
Ordering anything from books to pet-waste bags online? You didn't need a blog to discover Amazon, it's so ingrained in your Internet history that you probably went straight there and those products will be on your doorstep in two days or less.
Engagement
Target mastered engagement when Oprah and Tyra started referring to the store as Tarzhay and shoppers only got more loyal as they added designer labels at discount prices. It didn't matter that most of their products weren't even available on their website, let alone that they didn't have a blog. Their site has gotten a lot better in the past decade, but they still don't need a blog to get customers in the door.
Authority
And Google… Sure they have a blog, but Google is such an authority for search queries that most of the consumers of their search results have no interest in, or need for, the blog. So if you have little or no competition or your business is (and you expect it to remain) the top-of-mind brand in your market, you can skip blogging.
2. You have a better way of getting customers into the top of your funnel
A blog is only one way to attract new customers. For example, I live less than a mile from the nearest grocery store, and I can get there and back with a spare stick of butter before my oven even warms up. If the next nearest store had the most amazing blog ever, I'm still not going to go there when I'm missing an ingredient. But if they send me a coupon in the mail, I might just try them out when it's less of an emergency.
The point is that different types of businesses require different types of tactics to get customers to notice them.
My mom, a small-town accountant who knows all of her clients by name, doesn't blog. She's much more likely to get recommended by a neighbor than to be found on the Internet. If paid search brings you $50k in conversions every month and your blog contributes to $10k, it's easy (and fair) to prioritize paid search. If you find that readers of white papers are the hottest leads for your SaaS company, offering a 50:1 ROI over blog readers, write those white papers. And if your customers are sharing your deals across email and/or social at a rate that your blog has never seen, give them more of what they want.
None of that means you'll never have to create a blog. Instead, a blog might be something to reassess when your rate of growth slows in any of those channels, but if you've crunched your numbers and a blog just doesn't pan out for now, use the tactics your customers are already responding to.
3. The most interesting things about your business are strictly confidential (or highly complicated)
Sure the CIA has a blog, but with posts like "CIA Unveils Portrait of Former Director Leon E. Panetta" and "CIA Reaches Deep to Feed Local Families" it reads more like a failed humanizing effort than anything you'd actually want to subscribe to (or worse, read). If you're in a business where you can't talk about what you do, a blog might not be for you.
For example, while a CPA who handles individual tax returns might have success blogging about tips to avoid a big tax bill at year end, a big four accounting firm that specializes in corporate audits might want to think twice about that blog. Do you really have someone on hand who has something new and interesting to say about Sarbanes Oxley and has the time to write?
The difference is engagement. So if you're in a hush-hush or highly technical field, think about what you can reasonably write about and whether anyone is going to want (or legally be able) to publicly comment on or share what you're writing.
Instead, you might want to take the example of Deloitte which thinks beyond the concept of your typical blog to create all kinds of interesting evergreen content. The result is a host of interesting case studies and podcasts that could have been last updated three years ago for all it matters. This puts content on your site, but it also allows you to carefully craft and vet that content before it goes live, without building any expectation associated with an editorial calendar.
4. You think "thought leadership" means rehashing the news
There is a big difference between curating information and regurgitating it. True life confession: As much as I hate the term "thought leader," I used it many a time in my agency days as a way to encourage clients to find the best in themselves. But the truth is, most people don't have the time, energy, or vision to really commit to becoming a thought leader.
A blog can be a huge opportunity to showcase your company's mastery and understanding of your industry. But if you can't find someone to write blog posts that expand on (or rethink) the existing knowledge base, save your ink.
Some people curate and compile information in order to create "top 10" type posts. That kind of content can be helpful for readers who don't have time to source content on their own, but I wouldn't suggest it as the core content strategy for a company's blog. If that's all you have time for, focus on social media instead.
5. Your site is all timely content
A blog can help you shape the message around your industry and your brand, but what if your brand is built entirely around messaging? The BBC doesn't need a blog because any reader would expect what they're reading to be timely content and to adhere to the BBC's standard voice. If readers want to engage with the content by commenting on the articles, they can.
If you can explain the value that blogs.foxnews.com adds to the Fox News site, you've got a keener eye for content strategy than I do. My guess, from the empty blog bubbles here, is that this is a failed (or abandoned) experiment and will soon disappear.
6. Your business is truly offline
There's one final reason that blogging might not fit your business model, and that's if you have chosen not to enter the digital realm. I had lunch with a high-end jeweler in India recently where he was debating whether to go online (he was worried that his designs might get stolen) or continue to do business in person the way his family had done for at least three generations.
If you are successful at selling your products offline, especially if your product has as much variation as a gemstone, an argument can be made for staying offline entirely.
When you should be blogging
Now that we've looked at some times it's okay not to have a blog, let's take a quick, expanded look at five reasons you might want to blog as part of your content marketing strategy (just in case you thought you'd gotten off scot-free by almost fitting into one of the boxes above).
1. You want traffic to your website
Conventional wisdom goes that the more pages you build, the more chances you have to rank. Heck, the more (good) content you create on your blog, the more collateral you have to showcase on your social channels, in email, and anywhere else you want to.
2. You want to expand your audience
If the content you're creating is truly awesome, people will share it and find it and love it. Some of those people will be potential customers who haven't even heard of you before. Keep up the excellence and you might just keep them interested.
3. You want to connect with customers
That blog is a fantastic place to answer FAQs, play with new ideas, and show off the humanity of all those fantastic individuals you have working for you. All of those things help customers get to know you, plus they can engage with you directly via the comments. You might just find ideas for new campaigns and even new products just by creating that venue for conversation.
4. You have something to add to the discussion
Do you really have a fresh perspective on what's going on in your industry? Help others out by sharing your interesting stories and thoughtful commentary. You're building your authority and the authority of your company at the same time.
5. You're ready to invest in your future
Content is a long game, so the payoffs from blogging may be farther down the road than you might hope. But if a blog is right for your company, you're giving yourself the chance to start shaping the message about your industry and your company the day you publish your first post. Keep at it and you might find that you start attracting customers from amongst your followers.
The gist
Don't blog just because someone told you to. A blog is a huge investment and sustaining that blog can take a lot of work. But there are a lot of good reasons to dig in and blog like you mean it.
What's your decision? Do you have a good reason that you've decided to abstain from blogging? Or have you decided that a blog is the right thing for your business? Help others carefully consider their investment in blogging by sharing your story in the comments.
One of the mistakes that people make with blogs is that they don't do anything special to build the blog content into their website. So when a person visits their blog they simply find a "conveyor belt of content in chronological order". Even when they visit a blog category page they find a "conveyor belt of content in chronological order".
If they took the time to design exciting category pages that present their blog posts with attractive images, placing the ones that are most popular or that they want to get the most attention at the top they would be serving themselves and their visitors a lot better than allowing the blog to present a "conveyor belt of content in chronological order".
Blog posts can be built into other parts of your site to market your best, newest, most relevant, most popular, most profitable, most whatever you need to accomplish something. This can be done using widgets that mine content from your database of articles and match them to your content in an appropriate way. Then when you write a blog post about a fancy watch... BAM... that post is immediately out there being shown to every person on your site, every person who is reading about watches, every person who is reading about jewelry, or everyone who viewed a watch page during their last several visits. (Some of this can be done manually if you don't want to write programs, server-side includes will facilitate.)
Be sure you are marketing your content to the most important people - your visitors. If you don't do that then your blog is a racehorse pulling a plow.
Yes, that is the problem that I've had--a site with content in chronological order and no organization or curation. It ended up this way because the content is first sent out by email and then the email content is archived. We are in the process of changing this , but it is not a straightforward process.
Linda I'm so glad you're fighting the good fight. It sounds like a tough process but I bet the end result will be worth it.
Dear EGOL, I love you. Seriously though, you're right in that we pay so very much attention to "the blog" that I think it's easy to exhaust the attention we have for content right there in one place. I'm pro informative and/or entertaining content wherever a visitor will find it useful. Thanks for your thoughts!
Amen. I get so tired of people confusing "content" with "blogging". There is so much more to content than just blogging...and if there isn't a really great, engaging topic to blog about, well...is that really the right outlet? I agree with you 100%. Market to the right people AND with the right vehicle! Well said...
EGOL - you couldn't be more on point with your thoughts. Bravo!
The "conveyor belt" is definitely a problem, I think it's tied into the fact that often the problem with blogs is that topics and content are churned out and so the conveyor belt fits.
I think often just changing how you work on content pieces can be the beginning of something. i.e. If you spend more time on a piece on of content you're more likely to be frustrated if it just gets buried by new blog entries. You're more likely to structure your blog (or ask your web developer for changes) to provide more categorisation and less chronological structure.
So for example at the moment the Moz blog is date ordered and has a category filter. If you were to restructure it and maybe use category ajax facets (with a lot of accordions to allow for more options) and some weak date facets (1 week, 1 month, 3 month, 6 etc.) I would imagine it would probably drive more traffic to older posts just because of the heavier focus around categorisation.
:-) Nice one, split.
I think that Moz should definitely do this with their blog. Lots of fantastic content gettin' buried.
Thanks for the thoughts! It's definitely something we're looking into and it's very helpful to hear how others conceptualize it :)
"But if you can't find someone to write blog posts that expand on (or rethink) the existing knowledge base, save your ink." This is a great point. There's certainly a place for curated content, top 10 lists, etc. But that shouldn't be the bulk of your content. The purpose of a blog is to share your own voice and opinions, not just to rehash what others are saying.
So glad we're on the same page, Nick :)
I'm like, addicted to everything you push out Isla... lol
In my case, I'm still at the starting point of my business blog so I totally get everything you mentioned.
When speaking to clients and they demand that they want a "blog" because they heard it's a must...
I tell them "Ok, but you need to commit to it" - they usually don't in the long run.
Thanks for this! I'll be sharing it out shortly.
Awww, thanks Dennis! Glad to hear it's a useful tool for helping your clients make informed decisions :)
You bring up some really great points, thanks for sharing!
While a blog may be a good idea for businesses who do have something to add to the conversation, another consideration is whether that business sees the value to invest resources into blogging long-term, and consistently. It's a shame to see a blog start out with posts every few days, then quickly dwindles until the last post was almost a year ago.
I think your post provides a strong framework for the initial decision of whether blogging is a good fit for a business, and can be an excellent precursor into the discussion of whether the investment is possible. Thanks again for your insight!
Thanks, Tiffany! It's totally key to be able to make an informed decision about blogging (because it really is a big commitment), but it's also hard to see what the commitment really is until you're there. I can only hope this post saves one company from leaping before doing that analysis or that it reminds one content creator who's fallen out of love with their blog what the benefits can be.
Isla,
A giant fist bump for this post.
One of my biggest frustrations with online marketers is we too willing pass off experiences, theories as fact. No. "It happened to me" is empirical to the person it happened to, but extrapolating future outcomes based off those experiences isn't sound. So when people see reports that companies that have a blog are 62,000,000 times more effective, they immediately think, (a) I can trust this source and (b) that's what I need to do to increase sales.
No. No. No.
That's been the experience for others; it may or may not be the experience for you. What I've found is the "you must blog" mindset is very harmful to many small and midsize business, who come to believe that because they cannot blog, they cannot be successful with inbound marketing.
A blog can be and is a great tool. But the best tool is the one you have when you need it most. Often that's not a blog.
RS
Very well said, Ronell! It's heartbreaking to think that well-meaning dictums can actually turn people away from the very thing they need most, but I know you're right. The more we can help people get the information they need to make the decisions that work best for their businesses, the better off we'll all be. Thanks for adding your voice to this discussion!
Thanks for the content Isla! I'm pro-blogging but you are right: the blog is not the big solution. But for example even for the point number 2, a local store would want compete with big companies that send the product to your door directly :-). What do you think Isla?
Thanks!
An argument can really be made either way. For example, while I spend a good deal of time with Netflix, I still visit the video store in my neighborhood for new releases (and because I like them - knowing the name of the guy behind the counter is a pretty special thing). I have no idea if they have a blog, because my relationship with them exists in the offline sphere of my brain (and as of about five years ago their website really sucked). Plus I like the paper coupons they send out.
So I'd suggest any local business really think about how they interact with their customers and what can be useful in augmenting and improving that existing relationship. A blog could be really awesome if, in my case, one of the video store clerks who has a degree in audio engineering decided to blog about his unique take on films. But I'm still going to go there if they never start that.
a local store would want compete with big companies that send the product to your door directly
I don't think that approach is for everyone, but if you are a person who is full of enthusiasm and panache (really, healthy amounts of just one of these is required), then you are in a perfect position to compete in a second space.
If you have a local store and can attract some traffic to a website you can place a few items online and offer them to anyone anywhere. You might not want to try selling toothbrushes online, but if you have valuable, unique items such as paintings, antiques, designer jewelry, memorabilia, custom furniture, etc., the online channel can open an entirely new market for you. Let's say you just acquired a nice painting. You take a full view photo, photos of a couple special details, a couple flaws, the signature and a label on the back and a frame shot. Publish that with your expert commentary, a little history and descriptive statistics and you now have a way to sell that item. And, since you have done such a good job you also have a piece of evergreen content that features this artist's work, educates your visitors and will attract traffic. Do this with the pieces that you really love and have a lot to say about. Over time you will build a big gallery of nice work, that gives tours to your website visitor and features your expertise online that will attract visitors to both your store and your website, both from great distances. "Wow, they have really sold all of this great stuff!" The traffic into this gallery part of your site can be monetized by Adsense, blocking ads from anyone who is your direct competitor (if you fear them, but since this stuff is unique they really might not be your competitor).
You can also do this with a niche ecommerce site. I have a site that sells niche merchandise but I have built a large content resource for a parallel topic. A huge number of people are interested in this parallel topic so that gives me the opportunity to attract a nice amount of traffic. People who sell my type of merchandise are natural advertisers to the parallel topic visitors but the number of sales that you will get from them is small. But, I put a lot of work into that parallel topic. Why? Three reasons: 1) the nice amount of traffic allows me to make nice money from adsense, 2) a few of these parallel topic visitor will purchase the stuff that I sell, and, 3) if I do a good job on the content resource my visitors will share it widely and that will help my site's popularity and rankings - for what I sell it is easier to develop these assets in the parallel niche.
Lots of people make a living creating content that will be monetized with ads.... and some of the most powerful retailers on the web have either: A) a big content site with a small store, or, B) a retail site with a big informative library of content. The local business person can sell merchandise locally then use content to sell merchandise online, collect publisher ad revenue and fuel the keyword reach and rankings of his website. A diversity of income streams is insurance and... more income!
Great content Isla, That's such an important point about Blog Content Marketing. The Blog is surely the most adopted concepts to reach the potential customer for newcomers. It’s a fact that most popular brands who have conquered the market do not require blogging to attract the customers. But, for newcomers blogging does help. But, to get the appropriate result of this kind of tactic, you require high-quality content. The keyword rich content certainly attracts customers and give positive results to businesses.
A Helpful Article for "Misha Infotech" Digital Marketing Team
Many Thanks
Thanks, Zeba!
Wonderful post that's easy to read and very easy to understand. And no code anywhere in it! Thank you for this breath of fresh air this week!
I'd like to add that blogging is really the only way to become one of the dreaded thought leaders. If you have a content schedule you stick to, you are guaranteed to run out of ideas. Nothing is better for coming up with new ones.
Thanks, Greg! It's relatively safe to say that any post I write will be light on code (though I can't promise I won't delve into literary theory). You make an excellent point about a blog being one way to push yourself beyond your own obvious ideas and into the extraordinary things that come next. It's not easy but it can be very worth it.
LOVED this article, Isla! Very informative for any business person dealt with the decision to blog or not, and more importantly, whether their efforts will be effective. If a business does choose to blog, there are of course many steps that need to be taken before starting that process. Feel free to check out this blog that explains in details what a business should do before attempting to blog:
https://experience.stratusinteractive.com/blog/bid/391050/4-Things-You-Must-Do-Before-You-Begin-Business-Blogging
Cheers!
I really appreciated this post. I know that we recommend a blog to most of the clients and it is one of the first things we look for, but it is far more important to consider what will help the business the most. Each company and client should be look at individually. I think number four is the most important point to remember. Even if a blog would benefit the company and could bring in a large amount of traffic, if the content is not worth a reader's time it does not help. It takes large amounts of money and time to keep up with a blog and you must communicate that to the client. If they are unable to do so, then they can consider other strategies. These strategies could be a local focus to unite all of their marketing efforts. It could be a paper coupon and an email coupon. All their budgets and efforts should be working together.
So glad you liked the post. You make excellent points all around.
For the Italian audence: you can find the Italian translation of this post, here: https://www.ideawebitalia.it/sem/6602/
It’s my pleasure to have a look on the search. I would like to spend my time worthy on the essential tips and advice shared over here.
jack
[link removed]
These "exceptions" to blog benefits are all thoughtful and true; just reinforces the importance of being intentional and proactive in crafting a marketing plan that fits the business scope and objectives.
Muy buen articulo Isla, gracias por compartirlo con nosotros :)
Es verdad, ayuda mucho tener un blog pero se tienes que ser constante a la hora de publicar y no lo es todo. Aparte de eso, el contenido tienes que ser de mucha calidad y conseguir llegar a la gente, que interactúen , que dejen comentarios, que compartan .....
Muchas gracias, Elena! Soy de acuerdo que calidad es muy importante :)
Im agree, sometimes bloggers write and write and don't think about it, but for example careful formatting will make your blog posts easier for people to scan. If we write the posts with the page layout in mind or edit them to make sure they’re well formatted for scan reading. Or Use lists: Numbered lists or bullet pointed lists help people scan blog posts fast and find the information they’re looking for quickly. To tell a history, images, there is a lot os tips!!
The only mechanisation is a miniature crane that scoots across the ceiling and one slow-moving short conveyor belt.
hy-rubbers.com
Interesting, some articles that I have read on this subject are not so complete, but this post has helped me a lot, thanks for the information you have given us
thanks very interesting
Hello Isla,
True to publicize a business there is nothing better than creating a good blog. Having a good blog can win customers. It also depends on the kind of business you have and what kind of customers looking. As you say, a blog has to be seen as an investment and there is much work behind. We must consider many factors, such as positioning the business in google, blog content that is attractive to the client and interesting and much more ...
Very good post Isla, It's easy to understand. simply the lireune times to remember the lines.
I personally liked this post. You shared good of your knowledge.
I think this is a very important topic and to cover especially with some people talking about whether or not blogs are still worthwhile. I have to say I love the way that your organized this post because it made it much easier to scan through (sorry I don't read everything thoroughly) and get the information needed. I'm all for bullet point style blog posts.
Thanks, Oremo. We aim to please :)
Really liked the article, especially the last part about when you should start blogging. I think that last part is key to people who are new to blogging. Blogging isn't an instant gratification activity, building an audience takes blood, sweat, and tears that many people don't want to expend to make it successful. Thanks for the article!
Thanks, Justin! Glad to hear you're excited about the work part of blogging. I think it's so worth it :)
Content marketing is getting a new dimension every day. The SEO industry is fragile and search engine masters are changing rules for business owners to be listed on the top of the results. The marketers are continuously hunting for new resources from where they could get the ideas for content marketing. This post should give peace to some of the search marketers like us as I have greatly benefited after reading this particular one. Thanks for the great help.
I'm so glad it was helpful. The way I like to think about it is that if we take control of making good content for the sake of customers, then we don't have to worry about search engines changing the "rules" :)
Really useful information. Thanks!! looking forward to some more
This is excellent, Isa!
We knew that creation and consumption of content makes digital work. But hell yeah, content doesn't necessarily equate to blog.
Should I write a written content on my blog or should I record a podcast for YouTube instead? Maybe, infographic on Visual.ly is better? Should I email my content to all my prospects and contacts? Definitely, cross-channel messaging is vital but choose what channel/s will best connect you to your prospects and target audience. Play effectively on unique strengths of each channel. And blog is not the only way to do content marketing.
Isa, I love the examples! Though I would love to argue about reason #5 (5. Your site is all timely content).
Thanks, Veronica! What's interesting about blogs, especially well managed ones, is that they can eclipse the other site content. While we always strive to strike a balance on the Moz Blog between timely and evergreen content, we actually have a whole section to help people learn about Internet marketing :)
I would love to add a blog to my friend's website about Zumba Fitness [link removed] but she already has one on the other website. I know it might not be the best place to ask such basic question but if anybody knows how to integrate blog (on weebly) with an existing website and whether such an operation makes any sense than I would appreciate any help. Thanks!
This is great & informative post and moz always has great relevant content for me. Some of my other favorites marketing blogs toping after moz are: Quicksprout, Hubspot's blog, Social Media Examiner, Content Marketing Institute, Kissmetrics' blog. How about you folks?
Thanks, Sam! I've really been enjoying Contently lately (because I love content most of all). A lot of what I read is articles I find on Twitter (and I can't always remember where they come from). If you want a good summary of the best articles we find every two weeks on a range of subjects, sign up for the Moz Top 10 email newsletter.
I remember Hubspot pushing blogging as the answer to getting more traffic, more leads etc.
I have found for the right company under the right circumstances blogging is a great tool.
But for others it has caused more damage to their websites rankings.
For one website I worked on I did the unthinkable - I deleted 1000's of their blogs (all of them in fact) - their website had been in position 1 for many years, but had started to drop over the past 2. Once all the articles were removed their website recovered within a week and was back in position 1.
Fascinating story! Cutting out content is always the hardest thing, but I'm really excited to hear that you took the risk and it worked out.
Excellent post, Isla, especially for a content marketer like me who is currently at the ground floor of a new effort, trying to determine which way to go first. Many thanks.
Very glad it was helpful. If you want to chat sometimes about that new effort, hit me up on Twitter. I love the beginnings of projects.
I definitely agree Isla and thanks for the great article!
A blog is also a great way for a company to be humanized and seem less cold and corporate. So from a public relations stand point it gives the company a friendly voice and a way to provide expert advice to their audience while also becoming more relatable.
Do you agree?
Thanks again!
-Leah Drayer
Issuer Direct Corporation
[link removed by editor]
Thanks for this great article.I have an important question related to blog and SEO which usually is asked-
What URL structure would you recommend for a blog named "Top 5 reasons to blog"?
www.abc.com/top-5-reason-to-blog or
www.abc.com/blog/top-5-reason-to-blog or
blog.abc.com/top-5-reason-to-blog
Hi Deepanshu,
You'll find a really good discussion of that here. Cheers!
Thanks Isla McKetta for the help!
Hi Deepanshu,
Thanks for contributing, but this really isn't the place for a question like that. We try to keep the comments on blog posts relevant to what the author discussed. If you've got questions about other things, I'd recommend heading over to our site's Q&A section, where you can find all sorts of expert help. Fortunately, this question has already been raised a number of times -- here's a great example for you to check out. Hope that helps!
Hi Trevor Klein, agree with you. But I can see the answers to the question made by others, sometime will fulfil my question, may be not. I'm not a pro member, that's why I can't participate to the forum. Yes I'm going to invest in future as Isla McKetta discussed since I've started my personal blog few days back, this question really matters for me.
Q&A being paid doesn't make much sense in my eyes either, I think everyone should be able to ask and answer questions in the community! In my eyes it would make more sense to restrict comments on blog posts to a certain number of Moz Points to avoid comments that only say 'thank you' or 'great post'.
A blog it's very useful for many purposes but in big companies and brands it's unnecessary. One blog give power to SEO but you can make great posts with more than 800 words, interesting, well formatted, visual, keywords optimized, etc. Many people think that write a post with no quality it's enough because content it's the king.
Great article, cheers
I agree that simply to post a blog is not enough and that we're abusing the whole "content is king" thing. The world would be a better place if we all tried to do content well for it's own sake and rewards and not just because we think some robot will reward us for it.
Point 1 is completely wrong, i don't agree with that. It's negative thinking. If they are not doing anything than one day they will vanished.... and their competitors will overtake.
That's definitely the risk they run, and I think it's instructive that all of these brands seized their market positions before Internet marketing was really a thing (one of them did so well before the Internet even existed). Time will tell whether the hold these brands hold over their markets is strong enough to endure blogging by competitors and whatever the future of Internet marketing holds.
Great post. Blogging is a powerful SEO technique by which you can get more traffic on your website.
Thanks