The Microsoft folks have a saying… “eating your own dogfood” - using the software products that they develop in their daily working lives. If it is good enough to sell, it should be good enough to be used.
What does this mean to bloggers?
I think it means that we need to follow our own advice - not only talking the talk, but walking the walk as well. In short, we should practice what we preach.
In practical terms, this means:
- not recommending a product that you have not used or have no intention using: this is why I don’t write for ReviewMe and the like - not that I object to paid reviews in principle, but if products aren’t what I use, then I don’t feel right reviewing them. This doesn’t really apply to websites/blogs in a niche that I currently read - as a user centered design professional (day job), I’m used to reviewing other people’s sites
- recommending the products, platforms, plugins, phones, you name it, that you do use: if it is what you use, and you are happy to recommend it to friends, why not recommend it to your readers? The only advice that I would offer (and I hope to follow myself one day!) is this: keep it within your niche, or you’ll confuse your readers. I don’t bang on about moblogging via my Nokia e61 because I am not in that niche (yet!).
- following your own advice around monetization and marketing strategies: and more than this - there is a good argument to the effect that you shouldn’t start talking about monetization until you are making money. Fair enough.
I think that eating your own blogfood is something that you can do right from day 1.
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