In this business and indirect monetization blogging series I have been talking about how you can use blogs to gain attention and generate sales leads. Now we should really take a look at some examples. Here are five great blogs that sell.

english cut: bespoke savile row tailors

Just take a look at this quote.

Because the diary was so full we didn’t get to meet as many new customers as normal. I did think that we wouldn’t take as many orders because of this. However my existing clients kept re-ordering. Thankfully in the end I was busy as ever. I’m very fortunate to now have brilliant people working for me, which makes my average part in the process seem highly skilled. As I’ve said before, you can cut the best suit in the world but if your tailors are poor, then you’ve got no chance.

Read it over again and just be aware of your thoughts as you process what he has written there. In one paragraph he has informed you that

• His service is in demand
• But he is humble and real
• There is scarcity of availability so you had better get your order placed
• Customers are so happy they come back and back
• He has some excellent people working with him

That’s just one snippet from one post. Imagine if you had subscribed and read 7 articles, 20, or more.Would you feel nervous ordering a bespoke suit from this guy? If I ever need to wear a suit again I know what suit I would like it to be!

The Dip by Seth Godin

No “great blogs” list is complete without an appearance from The Godin himself so let’s get his entry out of the way early on. Again, see how you can say so much without any hard sell at all …

It’s a Catch-22 of course (you can’t be a hit until you’re a hit). If you’re in an industry with no bestseller list, do your best to create one. The Dip just hit #1 on the CEO READ daily bestseller list, by the way

Let me translate; “Here’s a useful tip and, oh, by the way buy my book cuz it’s dashizzle”.

Jeffrey Zeldman

Most web designers will have heard of Jeffrey Zeldman, or at least “A List Apart”. In terms of designing with web standards this man is a hero. Therefore while he doesn’t explicitly sell, all that authority has got to work wonders for his design outfit, Happy Cog …

Jeffrey is the founder and executive creative director of Happy Cog™, a web design agency with offices in New York City and Philadelphia. Clients include Advertising Age, AIGA, and Amnesty International USA. Happy Cog publishes A List Apart for people who make websites; a book series is in the works.

If your boss wanted some kick ass standards based design, and you were one goof away from being fired, I think you would be very confident recommending this agency.

Guy Kawasaki

Guys blog is an example of what to do when your product is you.

If you read more of my blog, you’ll discover that I love mantras (as opposed to mission statements). My mantra is: Empower entrepreneurs I try to do this three or four times a week with my blog, one hundred times a year with my speeches, two to three times a year with Garage’s checkbook, and once every three years or so by writing a book.

His wisdom, experience and expertise oozes out of every bit and byte. He sells just by, well, being. There is a saying; “Lions don’t need to roar”.

Woot

It’s all well and good showing you blogs that sell intangibles, what about someone who makes money selling real stuff? Ever heard of Woot?

Woot.com is an online store and community that focuses on selling cool stuff cheap. It started as an employee-store slash market-testing type of place for an electronics distributor, but it’s taken on a life of its own. We anticipate profitability by 2043 – by then we should be retired; someone smarter might take over and jack up the prices. Until then, we’re still the lovable scamps we’ve always been.

People sign up to the RSS, they see interesting product, they stampede to buy before the offer goes away. Every day. The copy is irreverent, casual and chatty not aggressive, the design is elegant and fun, the community is buzzing, and the products are interesting. Woot was launched July 12, 2004 and sold its 1,000,000th item, a 4GB micro hard drive, on February 5, 2007.

Over to you

That’s the end of this series for now, though of course I will still be covering these topics every day in one way or another. I want to hear from you. Do you have comments, suggestions, questions, example blogs I have missed, do you disagree, agree, like, dislike, or… well, just let me know in the comments ok?