If you've dipped so much as a toe into today's marketing world, you've heard about blogs. Actually, if you've been on the internet at all lately, you've probably seen that blogs are a pretty commonplace occurrence. What you might not know is how easy and effective it is to advertise on the “blogosphere.”

What is this thing called a “blog?” What is it for? When did it get started? How can you make it work for you in today's competitive marketplace, especially when you have very little money to spend on your marketing?

The term “weblog” was coined in 1997 by Jorn Barger, editor of RobotWisdom.com, one of the oldest blogs out there. The shortened term “blog” came about in 1999, offered up by one Peter Merholz, editor and author of Peterme.com, a very well-established blog about his life, the web in general, and about everything else under the sun. By July 2006, statistics show that there were 12 million bloggers in the US alone (we'd venture to say there are many times that amount now), and that more than 39% of the US population reads blogs. Again, chances are that now, with the unemployment rate rising and internet costs getting less expensive, that number is much higher.

Statistics also show that by February of 2009 there were 1.5 billion internet users worldwide. At almost 25% of the world's population, that's nothing to sneeze at. With only 80% of the world's population being literate, you can figure that almost half of the world's literate population is online. And more and more of those that “surf the web” are reading blogs.

What does that mean for you, oh Person Who Wants to Advertise Their Business? It means that you can use this medium to promote your business. For a minimal cost you can reach millions of people with your brand and your website. And why does it mean that?

For as many bloggers as there are, there are that many blog readers. Many people choose not to put their every thought and opinion onto a website, but that doesn't mean that they don't want to read the thoughts and opinions of the people who do. The cool thing about that is that many bloggers are quite influential. They are vocal about their opinions of companies and products. So how do you get into their sites to advertise your company?

One way is to find blogs that fit your product's image and go through the rigmarole of emailing them individually. You'd need to offer them free product, send it to them and wait for them to write about you and link to your website. Or, in an easier and possibly more effective move, you can sign up with a service that makes your ads available to bloggers.

Because of today's economic climate, more and more bloggers are trying to make a profit from their blog. Whether it's to offset the cost of their domain name and website, or whether they are trying to put food on the table, more and more quality bloggers are putting advertising on their websites. The service they use can be the same service you use to take advantage of some prime internet real estate and reach an audience who may not be looking for your product otherwise.

Blog readers aren't stupid, but they are partial to the blogs they read the most. And chances are, if the blog is established and has a decent readership, those readers are going to be interested in the ads posted on their favorite blogger's website. Why shouldn't that ad be yours?