Blogs are a platform and serve the purpose of content publishing. That is what the essence of a blog is. Perhaps a few years ago they were promoted as some kind of on-line diary but what has really taken off since their launch is business blogging, blogging for business and blogging for SEO / SEM ( search engine optimisation / marketing).



Let's start from the top though.

A blog as an on-line diary. A personal blog.

There are many blog platforms out there which can be set up in minutes and act as a great way for those not technically minded to start publishing their thoughts. When blog platforms first became popular, such as blogger and wordpress, people up and down the world started setting up their own blogs and publishing online diaries. However things have progressed now and blogs are far more than just platforms for online diaries and the publication of our daily thoughts.

Business Blogging

Many companies now utilise blogs to show of their expertise in a particular industry. They can also be used to give notifications of updates and events. with a normal static website you may not want to change too much of the content, may not have space or may not have the tools or expertise to do this so having a blot on blog to your site with the content management system that comes along with it you can easily write and publish articles in your business niche and become regarded as an expert in what you do. You may also use it to publish updates on your services etc.

Bloggin for Business.

As mentioned above, by writing good informative blog posts you can show that you are an expert in your industry. Along with this you can gain a following and promote your services to all that read your blog. Many people use blogs to sell affiliate products as well as their own services by writing reviews and adding an affiliate link after them. It is not unknown of for people to make money solely from their blogging but to do this you need to by a dynamic blogger with lots of motivation. A strong blog can attract thousands of visitors per day and with that comes the chance to convert many of them into sales.

Blogging for SEO (search eangine optimisation)

As in "business blogging" your site may not have the capacity to hold lots of different articles and bolting on a blog to your site or having a stand alone blog makes sense when you want to use key word rich articles to attract search engine traffic. With the right research and good quality articles with your keywords in them you can gain top placement in Google and redirect those visitors to your main site. Blogs are especially good for attracting low level key phrases with long tails. Lets say your site sells Taps, perhaps you cannot fill up your site with every tap related key phrase there is as this would look too spammy. However in your blog you can target dozens and dozens of key phrases and phrases about taps, example "tap shops in london" "taps for older bathrooms" "brass tap shop in london" etc...

Even if you find blogging is not your thing it is always worth giving it a whirl, the set up can be free, quick and painless and a few weeks trying your hand at it will soon give you an idea of whether it is for you. Do remember though, it takes a while to really get the ball rolling and it may well be several months to a year before some good results from your blogging starts showing up