Jessica Duquette, founder of In Perfect Order and blogger at It’s Not About Your Stuff, graciously allowed me to interview her via email. I asked Jessica for an interview because I was so impressed with her blog.

Jessica learned plenty of lessons about business blogging that she was happy to share, particularly about defining her niche and building relationships with other bloggers.

One “a-ha” Jessica shared was how valuable Sitemeter can be if you just know where to look; she regularly checks referral stats, who is linking to her, and the most commonly used search terms. This has proved to be a “goldmine” because it has enabled her to tailor posts to the topics people were most interested in, as well as establish contacts and collaborate with other bloggers in her field. For example, Jessica wrote about a post about how to do a cubicle makeover and as result got a flood of traffic from searchers querying for “cubicle makeover”; so now she is in the process of contacting a woman in Seattle who wrote a book on cubicle makeovers so that she can do a podcast with this author to post on the blog.

One crucial piece of advice for business bloggers that Jessica offered is to spend as much time connecting with other bloggers as you do on your own posts by visiting their site, commenting on specific postings that can then link back to your site, participating in blog carnivals, quoting excerpts from their posts and linking to their sites, and allowing others to do the same from your posts. “It only takes one lucky link from someone to turn you from 120 people a day to 12,000 visitors a day!” she says.

What about the benefits of blogging for her business? She’s already been featured in the Wall Street Journal’s Blog Watch column. And she’s slated to become a contributing blogger to Arianna Huffington’s new portal in the next few weeks.

She’s not only building her brand as an organizing expert with a twist, but is now collaborating with others on future new information products. As for those Google AdSense ads on her blog, they’re brand new so the jury’s still out on the revenue impact.

Of course there’s stuff she wished she knew before she got stung — like not quoting too much from other people’s blog postings instead of just summarizing with a link. Ouch! And how to be nicer to people who upset you! “You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar,” she says. “Perhaps the blogosphere needs more clearly defined laws or set cultural norms about quoting others. But for now, it’s better to err on the side of caution.” 

That said, Jessica has found the blogosphere to be a warm, friendly and extremely supportive space and has been impressed by the willingness of A-list bloggers to share information, tips, and and correct her without asking.

“For that, I feel so grateful and humbled,” says Jessica. “My life and business have been immeasurably enriched by having a blog.”

You can read the full interview here.