Blogs are stories. Or at least, they could be. Linkblogging (blogging by posting links to others’ work and adding a small bit of your own commentary) isn’t necessarily storytelling. Blogs in the earlier sense of “online journals” are stories. Bloggers who write about their lives and do it well are telling stories. But one of the most significant forms of blogging combined with storytelling are process blogs.
When you’re chronicling any type of project in-process, a digital camera and a blog are a very powerful marketing combination. This is exactly the kind of blogging my wife is doing. Craftspeople, farmers, and all manner of artisans benefit greatly from this approach to blogging. Why? Because each thing you make becomes a story. There is a story behind what you’re making, why you’re making it, and how you’re making it. There are multiple layers and resonances of meanings and connections for people.
These are stories, and blogs are best thing going on the internet for telling them.
When people read your story (your process blog) they become a part of it. They enter into it. The emotional culmination of this story is that they purchase what you make. They are now part of the story that so enticed them. They are entering into an experience, not purchasing a commodity. This type of marketing works exceptionally well with one-of-a-kind items or items that exhibit the soul and personality of their maker’s hand.
