A few years ago, blogs were unheard of.  Well, the term, that is.  I liken blogs to modern-day diary entries.  They are the countless journals people post and viewed as a collection of off-the-cuff ramblings in cyberspace read mainly by online devotees. Then, bloggers gained new prominence, writing from someone’s rantings and ravings to giving tips on cooking, even up-to-the-minute news and views on politics that the mainstream media struggled to match. In America, millions of Americans were turning to political blogs such as instapundit.com and journalist Andrew Sullivan's Daily Dish. And blogs about everything from art-world gossip to macroeconomics are drawing audiences, too. A new medium came into being.

I’ve been blogging for more than five years now and while I see this as good therapy and stress reliever, some are seeing blogging as a business opportunity.

Now advertisers are realizing there is a market emerging in the blogosphere. Already, the growth in regular online advertising, it was an estimated 35% last year and have grown considerably and will far outpace the spending increases for any other sector of the media world. Add to all this the fact that about 11% of Internet users today are inveterate blog readers, and the blogging scene starts to get mighty compelling for marketers.  I know we can’t expect a repeat of the dot-com rush that inflated the Web bubble of the late 1990s. Henry Copeland, founder of media-buying firm BlogAds says, “This is a long game, with lots of ebbs and flows." Blogging isn't about to lead to vast wealth anytime soon, says Copeland, but he does expect "more money to [flow to] more authors as smart advertisers bypass publishers and pay authors directly for their audiences." BlogAds is placing ads on 50 to 100 blogs a day for up to 20 advertisers, including Sharp Electronics Corp. and Walt Disney Co. Just six months ago, the firm served 20 blogs for about 10 advertisers.

A blog is a web page made up of usually short, frequently updated posts that are arranged chronologically—like a what's new page or a journal." The term is actually weblogs coined by Jorn Barger in 1997.  The boom of weblogs happened in 1999 when several companies & developers made easy blogging software and tools. Since 1999, the number of blogs on the Internet has exploded from a few thousand to over 100 million.

Blogs can fall into two general categories.  Personal Blogs: a mixture of a personal diary, opinion posts and research links and Business Blogs: a corporate tool for communicating with customers or employees to share knowledge and expertise.

Business blogs are sweeping the business community. Blogs are an excellent method to share a company's expertise, build additional web traffic, and connect with potential customers. 

What does Blogging Provide to Small Business?

• Blog software is easy to use. Simply write your thoughts, link to resources, and publish to your blog, all at the push of a few buttons. Blog software companies such as: Movable Type, Blogger.com and Typepad all offer easy blogging tools to get started...

• Blogging is a low-cost alternative to having a web presence. For small business owners without the time to learn web html or the money to hire a designer/developer, blogging offers an inexpensive method to get your company's name out on the Internet.

•  Updating the weblog is a much quicker process than contacting a web designer with changes or doing the coding and uploading yourself.   Business blogs provide your small business with a chance to share your expertise and knowledge with a larger audience.