CT Biz Blogs

For a project, I had to find some blogs in the retail space — those supporting stores, as opposed to supporting services.

I’d put blogs such as The Orthodontic Center and Andrew Ewalt’s Law Blog in the supporting services area.

I’d consider Signs Never Sleep, Lincoln Sign Co’s blog, in a middle area. The blog is certainly about a product — signs — but they’re made-to-order. I’d put English Cut in this space, too. Not sure what to call this area, though.

In the retail area, besides Aldo Coffee, and Heather at Eie Flud, who are some of the ground-breakers in this area, I found a few more.

• eHobbies
• Ice Blog, a jewelry retailer, who has some associated blogs:

• Sparkle Like the Stars
• Just Ask Leslie

And also,

• Tonic Gifts

I found eHobbies and Ice Blog through an article in DM News: Blogs and Bling Bling: Companies See More Sales, Improve Search Position

Here’s what they had to say about eHobbies:

Since adding blogging to its site in May, 5 percent of the company’s overall traffic comes from its main blog destination, www.ehobbies.blogs.com. In addition, 5 percent of all orders have recently tracked to a blog-based coupon.

The eHobbies blog looks good, but I’m not so sure the Ice blogs are “legit.”  On the Sparkle like the Stars blog, the bloggers names are totally made up, and one is a blatant imitatation of Manolo, on the Shoe Blog.  He may be fake, too, but at least he was first.

And, even though no connection to Ice, the jewerlry site, is mentioned on Ask Leslie blog, every answered question seems to end in a recommendation for a diamond pendant, earrings, or some other accessory from Ice.

Is it a black or gray kind of search engine optimization going on here?  I can’t decide. But I do think it’s tacky.