"A blog is a website where entries are made in journal style and displayed in a reverse chronological order.

Blogs often provide commentary on news or a particular subject, such as food, politics, or local news; some function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs.

The term "blog" is derived from "Web log." "Blog" can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog."

WHEW ? that's a mouthful. To put it simply, a blog is an online journal and can be about any topic that you want to write on: from marketing to gardening to weight loss to new business techniques.

In the business world, blogs are a great way to market your business by generating traffic to your website. My blog is going live this week and contains:

* articles I've written

* questions and answers from clients and ezine subscribers

* small business challenges and resolutions

* links to FREE reports and other resources

If you don't yet have a website, a blog can be a great substitute as it allows you to have an online presence for no or low cost while keeping in touch with your target market.

Here's a quick rundown on the major differences between websites and blogs:

Websites

* Time-intensive (if you are not very technically inclined and do yourself) or expensive if you need to hire someone to start up

* Time-delay in reaching your prospective clients/readers. They can read your information today and then must call or email with any questions or comment

* Will be easy or difficult to update/change information ? dependent on your technical skills and your site management

* Hosting cost

* Not usually updated frequently

Blogs

* Can have one up and running in 15 minutes

* Clients can immediately post replies to your blog and, just as importantly, they can see what others have written

* Adding a new post takes only as much time as it takes you to write it

* Depending on which blog entity you select, blogging can be free

* Typically updated at least once a week, can be as much as several times a day depending on the topic and author

There are several different companies you can select in creating your own blog. The most popular include:

Blogger.com: Owned by Google, Blogger is free and quickly indexed by the Google search engine bots (a.k.a. "spiders") so you can appear in the Google Search Rankings within 48 hours of creating your blog. Unfortunately, you can't do as much with customizing the look of your blog as with other companies.

Wordpress.com: Wordpress is an incredibly powerful and user friendly system (and the one I've chosen for myself) which allows you to easily host your blog on their site free of charge or, you can install their software and host your blog on your own site. Wordpress allows for customization of your blog so it can reflect your marketing brand.

Typepad.com: Typepad offers a f*ree 30 day trial period and otherwise costs as little as $4.95/month for their Basic version and $14.95/month for their Pro version. Like Wordpress, you can start with one of their templates and customize it as you grow. They pride themselves on loving their customers and having a great support system in place should you need it.

Each of the above allows you to have a blog up and running within 15 minutes, link to other websites, maintain archives, post pictures, etc.

If you need an online presence or need to generate more traffic, get your blog up and running today! What are you waiting for?