Last year I worked on an innovative blog called AlaneByDay. The site served as a living narrative of Alane’s new architecture business being started up with the help of Transformist which helps people start or improve their businesses by using the collaborative power of the Internet. Over ten weeks, Alane was given practical business advice from a broad spectrum of experts: company and IP law, publicity, book keeping, tax and accounting, graphic design, domain names, dress and image and so on.

The blog not only acted as a live case study for people considering using Transformist’s services, and as a diary of Alane’s progress but as a unique way to learn free tips and insight from professionals. Regular blog commenters became a part of the process, providing feedback on business card and website concepts - free focus group insight you might call it even.

The project ended late last year and I wanted to catch up with Alane and find out how she reflected on having a blog to document the process. Before the AlaneByDay blog had launched, Alane admits she was a newbie to the world of blogging. She’d heard of the word blog - thanks to Jon Stewart’s Daily Show - and had read Jen Bekman’s blog after meeting her.

So how was it using Wordpress?

I found Wordpress easy enough. It wasn’t overly complicated and I could figure out and play with it as part of the process. But I used it maybe akin to an iPod - it does maybe 17 things and then that’s all I needed to know.

What did you enjoy most about having the blog?

The AlaneByDay project was really about publicly accounting the activities of launching my architecture business on a daily basis. I tried to keep my posts simple but interesting. Sometimes professional blogs can be so idiosyncratic and also unapproachable to a wide spectrum of people. I tried to keep my blog something that could be understood as a human endeavor rather than something specific only to architects. It’s more fun that way.

Did any business opportunities present themselves to you via your blog?

YES! I got a job through exposure by writing the AlaneByDay blog. We sent out a mass email promoting the project a week or so after the launch to everyone on our collective contact list. Someone on that list came to the site and emailed me asking if I’d be interested in any of the construction projects he was currently doing. I emailed him back and after a meeting and many phone conversations, I landed a job to design his residence.

I see that you’re planning on having a new blog for your new business. Why? How do you think a blog will help your business? Do you think other small business owners should blog too and why?

In the architecture business, marketing is being able to tell a good story. Of course, you have to work hard to create a project and you have to document that with beautiful pictures but there still has to be a story. It has to be something people will remember and they can tell their friends about it. My business is based on referrals and the more exposure, the better. So a blog is a great source for that story you want people to tell.

I look forward to seeing where Alane’s business goes and hearing more stories of people reading her blog and deciding to hire her as an architect!