GoldenPalace.com has been getting lots of publicity thanks to their inane purchases of ‘divine’ toast, or whatever. Their latest purchase? The Keith Olberman set of “Michael Jackson Theater” puppets.

Did anyone else notice that MSNBC was running a story about GoldenPalace during the week of that charity auction? I saw it twice. Once on the Olberman “Countdown” show. Now, it was for charity, so was it OK that MSNBC went phishing for that bid by GoldenPalace? The fun thing would be to see if there were any conversations between MSNBC and GoldenPalace beyond their on-air pitches (or through intermediaries) to try and ‘encourage’ a bid? I’m not saying it happened. Just seems interesting. Maybe there was enough blatant transparency there, after all. Considering what the cost of 2 to 3 minutes might be on MSNBC, GoldenPalace may have still come out ahead – even after pitching in $15, 099.99 for the puppets.

The other interesting news about GoldenPalace is that they are now blogging. Yes. And not very well, in this observer’s humble opinion.

I found this by going to InsideBlogging‘s blog. (Update: It turns out they aren’t doing the blog anymore. See comments below.) And, it is being ghost-written. Now, how sad is that. Wait, it gets worse. We’ll return to the writing in a moment.

Their blog is the most basic of WordPress templates and installs. The standard/default theme is being used with the most plain banner across the top. Hey, these people have purchased all manner of nonsense. At least use the rotating banner theme that WordPress offers. It is free, after all. And showcase all of the carny sideshow-like attractions they have to offer. And where are all the photos? If ever there were a company that has photos of stupid stuff to show off, it is GoldenPalace. Where is the photo album, or even a flickr sidebanner? Is this blog going to take advantage of anything the company does have to showcase?

But, yes … the writing is what makes a blog. So, we turn to that. Notice how they plug the MSNBC story I mentioned earlier.

The problem is, the blog has no personality. We don’t even know who the author is that’s writing all this nonsense. Get the people involved with the purchases, if not the head honchos, and have them write the blog. As it stands now, the blog is making more of an ill impression than a positive one. It is boring. Just my opinion.

Point to the good business blogs. By that, I mean the blogs written by and for a business. Aren’t they all written by the principals of that business? Would anyone be praising GM’s Fastlane or Small Block Engine blogs if they weren’t being written by Lutz or the engineers? No.

Ghost blogging has received lukewarm, if that, support among blog watchers. Why, when they have such a colorful group of people in GoldenPalace, did the consultants go with this? Don’t we remember the Plesser/NewsBluntly blog that was ‘not so bluntly’ not being written by the people at NewsBluntly? (Sources: 1 & 2) That didn’t go over well, now did it. Kind of funny that people claiming to be blunt, can’t be. They had to get someone else to do it? Not good.

Here is one recent GoldenPalaceBlog.com writing sample:

Holy Volkswagen Golf, Batman!
May 11th, 2005

In what has almost become a given, number one online casino goldenpalace.com has won another auction for a religious artifact.

When Pope Benedict XVI was elevated he ditched not only his name- Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger- but his old ride- a six-year-old Volkswagen Golf. It was eagerly snatched up by the gambling website for slightly more than most Golfs(?) are worth: $244,800 on ebay.

The metallic gray Golf had only 60,000km on it, possibly due to the fact that the new Pope never had a license. Come on, a guy from Germany, and he’s never raced it down the autobahn? I smell a scandal…(note: nothing in this blog is intended to offend in any way, shape or form).

Where is the picture of the car? Where are the quotes/interviews with the parties involved? Where’s the beef! Hello? Are you guys mailing this one in? Where is the flair? Where is the ‘vegas-like’ excitement and glitz (tawdry) aura?

OK, the bottom line is this. My students pitched three separate blogs to clients last semester. They did a better job for those people than the GoldenPalace blog does for their company. In fact, I give my students high marks for their blogging efforts. I’d give the GoldenPalace blog a pass, at best.

On the current first page of posts, I see only 2 comments. Seems no one is visiting – nor are they excited by the writing. And, there isn’t a counter. Probably a good idea, that one. Search for their blog’s URL at MarketLeap and you’ll see why. Where is the promotion? The press releases announcing the blog? The viral linking/pinging to get others to see it?

Finally, why is it goldenpalaceblog.com and not blog.goldenpalace.com? The latter would help their page rank and Google juice – if the blog were any good. Isn’t that one of the main reasons people are pushing blogs? To help the client’s Web site? Hello?

Perhaps GoldenPalace would have been better served by doing the blog in-house. Then, you get the buy-in from the employees and the readers get a better read.