I've been honored to be asked how to properly cite content found on this site. Obviously, amongst bloggers and websites, citations are fairly informal and generally involve simple links, sometimes with an accompanying text mention of the author or site name.

To begin, let me emphasize that I really don’t care what format someone uses. Any good faith effort to adequately cite source material from this site, whether it be APA, MLA or the Chicago Manual of Style, is much appreciated and okay with me. However, since I have been asked the question, I thought I would offer my own thoughts and preferences.

Here are the three major citation styles and what they recommend for citing blog posts:

MLA: Lastname, Firstname. “Title of the Blog Post Entry.” Blog Title. Publisher. Date posted. Web. Date accessed.

APA: Lastname, Firstinitial. (Year, Month Date). Title of the Blog Post Entry. [Web Log Post]. Retrieved from URL

Chicago Manual of Style: Firstname Lastname, “Title of the Blog Post Entry,” Blog Title (blog), Publisher, Date posted, URL.

I think each style above is flawed in some way, and as such, I recommend the following citation style. It is fairly close to the CMS style with slight variations:

Toporek, Adam. “The Definition of Customer Loyalty.” Customers That Stick, August 27, 2011.
http://customersthatstick.com/blog/customer-loyalty/the-definition-of-customer-loyalty/

Due to the inherent impermanence of the web, you might want to add a retrieval date to your citation. If so, I recommend this variation:
Toporek, Adam. “The Definition of Customer Loyalty.” Customers That Stick, August 27, 2011.
http://customersthatstick.com/blog/customer-loyalty/the-definition-of-customer-loyalty/ (Retrieved September 1, 2012)

Of course, in the case of guest posts, you would put the guest author’s name in the name portion.

I hope the above helps with any citation questions. Regardless of what format you use, I greatly appreciate you honoring us with your use of our work and for caring enough to properly credit it!

Yours in service,
Adam Toporek