As we mentioned in our earlier post, blogs have been one of the success stories of the internet, and the number is growing day by day. They are used for business, pleasure and personal reasons, but do they really work for business or are they just a luxury?

There are many business websites online today which will have some kind of blog format attached, although they may be packaged in such a format that you may not be aware your are looking at a blog. Many businesses use them for a variety of reasons including :-

· announcing new products.
· announcing new services.
· announcing offers.
· company announcements.
· general market chat to catch your attention.
· a sounding board for clients to pass on their thoughts.

A blog is only as good as the people who are writing for it, and the material which they publish. You should never start a blog unless you can see it through and update it constantly - a blog with only a small number of entries looks terrible and can give the impression you are not on the ball.

If you do decide to go for a blog for your business, do not just post about yourself and give your readers the hard sell. Give them some good news, give them some general comments and above all give them something which they will read - not just something which YOU want them to read. If you are using your blog for feedback purposes, it is vital that you answer any comments and actually take note of what they are saying to you - ignore them at your peril!

In summary, blogs do work but YOU need to make them work, by adding interesting quality material which will appeal to your target market, and draw others in. The hardest side of online business is actually attracting new customers, although once you have done this you need to keep them.