Scott Kraft the CMO of Sixapart is a very clever man and it pays to listen to him. One of his friends, Steve Sando, is the founder of Rancho Gordo.  They sell rare organically grown beans that you can’t get anywhere else and they have become a big hit with upscale restaurants in the Bay Area. There is a lovely story about how they got started.

Initially, their online sales were small and Scott suggested that a blog might help create new customer relationships in increase sales. Steve was very skeptical but Scott convinced him to give it a try. He asked him to blog for two months. He helped him set up the blog and gave him some very specific advice on what he needed to do. Here it is:

• Don’t write too much. A paragraph or two per post is sufficient
• Posts don’t need to be profound – just informative
• You must post at least 3x/week
• Always include at least one picture or video in a post
• Include at least 2 external links in any post and inform the people you’re linking to – don’t ask for anything from them, just let them know
• Turn on all of the publicity feeds in your account settings
  ·         Use categories (eventually tags)
  ·         Think about what you want to be known for and write about that often – in Sando’s case: cooking beans
• Turn comments on and answer all of them in the beginning
• Do a blogroll of all your favorites
• Include a bookroll  of all your favorites
• If you have an existing site, e.g, an estore, link to it
• None of this should take more than a few hours a week

After two months Steve called Scott and told him he had seen a dramatic impact on his business within weeks. In fact his online sales have gone through the roof and he has signed a major deal.  Here is a nice quote from Steve:

“At first it felt a little indulgent and it’s taken me a couple of month to really hit my stride writing and updating but now I have to say it is an invaluable part of my small business. My customers are "buying into" Rancho Gordo in a way they never would with a flat web site with a shopping cart.

I took a little heat for being a "blogger" in certain circles. But guess what? I’m going to be in the NYTimes within 2 weeks and the way they found me is through my blog, not the regular website.”

Adam Turinas