The Power of Blogs and Forums

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Twitter and Facebook Aren't the Only Word-of-Mouth Platforms

You would almost think blogging was dead, the way headlines are dominated by Twitter, Facebook, and social media in general. I've always considered blogging to be a part of social media anyway, as the commenting factor lends to engagement between author and user.

But blogging is so five years ago right? It's all about microblogging and status updates now isn't it? If you think that's the case, think again, because blogs can still drive big-time traffic to websites. An example of this has been illustrated by the launch of e-commerce site Alice.com.

If you are not familiar with Alice.com, it is a site where consumers can buy everyday household items like toothpaste, toilet paper, laundry detergent, etc., right from the manufacturers, rather than through middleman retailers. It launched in June, and by July it had doubled its traffic to 387,000 unique visitors, according to Compete.

Guess where the majority of that traffic came from. According to Compete, it came from word-of-mouth from blogs. In fact, its number one traffic source was Blogger.com. Not Twitter. Not Facebook. Not search. Although each of these no doubt played valuable roles as well., Blogger.com has been the biggest factor in driving traffic for this site, and from the looks of things, that traffic is showing no signs of slowing down.
Blogger accounted for 18% of Alice.com's referral traffic in July, and obviously there are plenty of blogs out there that aren't hosted at Blogger.com. On top of that, Compete says Alice's conversion rate jumped to 3.5% in July as well.

Of course, you have to give bloggers something to talk about to get valuable blog traffic. It's no different than getting people to talk about you on social networks or through any other form of word-of-mouth marketing. It starts with your product. Clearly Alice.com, has something that many people find worth talking about.

"Anyone who has previously shopped online for household products knows that prices are generally higher (sometimes considerably) than those found in stores," Compete's Matt Pace says of Alice.com. "By selling directly to consumers, manufacturers are able to price their products below those found on most online retailers and more competitively to those found in stores."

Clearly this is a void in the lives of consumers that Alice is attempting to fill. It's still early to tell if this site will remain a success. As long as it keeps the bloggers (consumers) happy, it could enjoy a long life. Because one thing to remember about word-of-mouth is that it works both ways. Reputations can quickly move in different directions online. So can traffic.