GoDaddy's QuickBlog Cast USELESS if you want to get marketing info.

Did you know that blogs are the new journal, so I'm told by the rocket scientist and social media expert at GoDaddy.  I took over a client's account over a year ago. In place were every GoDaddy tool available:  email marketing, quick cart, quick blog.  I'm really OK with Godaddy on domain issues and mail, but when it comes to blogs and carts, as Mickey McBride would say at the end of his parties, "GO HOME!"

This client gets a lot of blog subscribers each week, so we're told.  We wanted to add advertising opportunities and prove the number of subscribers in an average month.  Logged into the blog admin, looks at the statistics, the only subscribers tracked are RSS subscribers.  We have a form on the blog, "Subscribe to this blog" with the little form for an email.  Where does it go?  It must get stored SOMEWHERE in GoDaddy world.  Yes, I'm told it is stored. But, you cannot get a count, view it or know anything about it.  Just because it's from your site.  I'm guessing GoDaddy knows how many are in the list and the have them added to one of their lists.  Just a guess.  Why on earth would you get subscribers if you can't ever know how many are subscribing.

How do you weigh the effectiveness of your blog marketing if you can't track how many people get your posts via email?  Wouldn't you put a different effort into a blog with five subscribers as opposed to 15,000 subscribers?  What about advertising potential?  Without knowing the reach into inboxes, how do you know how much to charge?

I was told that this is just a "beginning" type of blog. I asked if they posted that ANYWHERE in their marketing materials.  She replied, "no."  I asked if it made any sense to have a blog and not know how many people are receiving your posts.  Her reply, "I guess if you're trying to use it that way."  IF I'M TRYING TO USE IT THAT WAY?  Why go through the effort if you don't care how many people read what you post? Good grief, GoDaddy - either be more forthright with the obvious features that most blogs have that you don't or stop offering it.

Time to get my client in a better place, away from the beginners. 

Comments

[Ed]

thanks for this entry. I just started my own quick blogcast a few weeks ago and just got around to thinking "hey, how many people are subscribing to my blog, is it worthwhile the time I spend writing it?" So I spent the last 20 minutes navigating the admin section, checking statistics, and you're right, the only thing I could find is RSS subscribers which is useless. What is the point of having people subscribe if you don't know who they are or who your audience is. It's not free either, it's $5 a month, which isn't a lot but still... If I upgrade, will I get that info?

[Susan Finch]

Hi Ed,

I spent too much time with GoDaddy on the phone where they admitted that's as good as it gets with them.

What I ended up doing for my client until he takes the leap to convert his blog to a better blog is that I set up a feed on Feedburner.com.
There is a tool to "publish as HTML" - That gives you a feed you can insert into any site.
There is also a tool for subscribe. Their form is great. It's just your email. It sends you a confirmation email and then you can easily manage the list and see who was added, etc. through your Google/Feedburner account. It's an easy way to bridge the GoDaddy gap.

Best of luck!