The Flaming Vegan was the first blog that co-founders Peter Awad and Jason Trout hosted on Goodblogs.
In 1895, John Deere began circulating a narrowcasted publication called The Furrow to help inform farmers about new technology and teach them how to run a business.
The idea was simple: by targeting a niche audience with unique content, a company could create community engagement while promoting their products. Nowadays, this strategy is called content marketing. In fact, Decorah, Iowa-based company Goodblogs has developed a platform that will do just that and help any businesses create their own Furrow.
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Initially when Peter Awad and Jason Trout launched the company in October of 2010, the project was similar in concept to sites like Digg or Reddit where users vote links up or down. Except that Goodblogs hosted only original content, and while the site attracted some readers and bloggers, the range of content was too broad to monetize or appear high in search traffic. 
“It’s very difficult to gain traction on a site that’s kind of about everything, unless you’re trying to be another Google,” Awad (right) said.
The solution? Create a singular, customizable platform that features less more targeted content. After that the concept can be extrapolated to virtually any business or niche market imaginable.
Awad and Trout began the startup with a small amount of funding from angel investors and have otherwise bootstrapped the rest of their company.
“As long as you have an audience that’s passionate about the topic then you’re going to be able to find bloggers,” Awad said. “And if you can get bloggers, then you can get readers.”
The concept is simple: businesses want to drive traffic to their websites. Goodblogs helps those businesses set up a targeted site to attract potential customers with specific interests. Independent bloggers then submit content and get paid based on the popularity of their submissions. The process helps creative incentive for bloggers to share their work on social media, generating more link views and––Goodblogs’ founders hope––traffic to the host business’s website.
“It’s a platform that any business can use,” Awad said. “It feels like this is something where we’re definitely in on the ground level and so it’s really exciting to see where this thing goes.”
Of Horse is one of the blogs developed on the Goodblogs platform and geared toward equestrian enthusiasts.
Goodblogs first “niche test” was a blog called The Flaming Vegan, which features recipes, advice and articles about veganism. Since then Goodblogs has helped a host of other businesses create content marketing sites based on the same model. One such blog called Of Horse––sponsored by Featherlite Trailers––is geared towards equestrian enthusiasts and has more than 27,000 likes on Facebook.
While the content is crowd-sourced, Awad says control ultimately rests in the hands of the business who manages the blog.
“It’s a client site,” he said. “They can do with it as they wish and the content is their’s forever.”
Awad is originally from Florida but Trout, his business partner, is from Center Point, Iowa. The pair chose Decorah––a city of roughly 8,000––as the base for their startup because of the area’s natural beauty and the local community.
“The people are nice, it’s safer and a great place to raise a kid,” said Awad, whose wife is from Cedar Rapids. “We looked at other states as well but kept coming back to Iowa and one of the big things was definitely the people. That’s why we’re based here.”
The company is now up to six employees. The Goodblogs team also recently launched two Iowa-centric sites that Awad says will help to build the audience of bloggers and readers.
Learn more about the Goodblogs platform and how it works through this video:
Credits: The Flaming Vegan photo from TheFlamingVegan.com. Peter Awad photo from Stratus Web Group. Of Horse photo from OfHorse.com. Video from Goodblogs.com.
