Kind of a lurker here but thought I'd step in since this is where I spend at least 10% of my week. I am in fact proud of our company blog. I do about 80% of the posts and try to get authority figures in the industry to guest post whenever I can.
I honestly started off just because I knew blogging was good for SEO, but now I love blogging and would do it even if no one read my posts.
Since the time I started blogging a few years ago, our traffic has SOARED in ways I never thought it would.
I focus on writing about general news in the industry as well as theory. As far as best practices:
1. The number 1 rule I stick by is only write posts that I would read myself, and that I am proud of.
2. I try not to newsjack, if I can be one of the first people to write about a piece of news that is going on in the industry I will take that as an opportunity. When that happens the traffic comes pouring in.
3. Although I do a lot of SEO myself, I don't ever worry about stuff like keyword density or other stuff that could drive away readers.
We've had dozens of clients and employee hires that have found us through reading our blog.
Regarding our blog, Reefpoints (http://reefpoints.dockyard.com/), all employees are encouraged to publish articles. We have designers, developers and project managers writing about technology, design and process. Moreover, it serves as a place for opinion and experience pieces regarding tech communities and conferences.
We've found the process of using Git for blog posts helpful. We submit pull requests and receive immediate feedback from our coworkers. Moreover, after officially publishing the article, our readers are allowed to submit pull requests of their own (usually correcting typos, or incorrect code blocks). Furthermore, we can open up GitHub issues to save our blog ideas.
We have a few contributors for the G2 Crowd blog (http://about.g2crowd.com/blog), but it's a great place not only for sharing company news, POVs, media coverage and more, but to publish highlights from your user/customer base as well.
I've moved on from the company in question, but as technical co-founder of Cloudability -- yes, I am proud of their blog. I just wish the brilliant folks there would WRITE MOAR!
Seconded. Their blog is one I hold up to potential clients as an example of a well-done B2C blog. Then I explain the strategy and planning that goes on behind it.
Potential clients look baffled that a blog could be so much work :)
I honestly started off just because I knew blogging was good for SEO, but now I love blogging and would do it even if no one read my posts.
Since the time I started blogging a few years ago, our traffic has SOARED in ways I never thought it would.
I focus on writing about general news in the industry as well as theory. As far as best practices:
1. The number 1 rule I stick by is only write posts that I would read myself, and that I am proud of.
2. I try not to newsjack, if I can be one of the first people to write about a piece of news that is going on in the industry I will take that as an opportunity. When that happens the traffic comes pouring in.
3. Although I do a lot of SEO myself, I don't ever worry about stuff like keyword density or other stuff that could drive away readers.
We've had dozens of clients and employee hires that have found us through reading our blog.