NFIB

Blogging For Business
07/ 31/ 2003

by Tamara E. Holmes

What's a Web log? Often referred to as blogs, they're diary entry-like musings that allow Web users to share their views on a particular topic.

Three years ago Kerry Kerstetter, an accountant in Harrison, Ariz., started publishing a blog to complement the tax newsletter he mailed to potential customers. Today, he no longer mails out a newsletter, and thanks to the blog, people beg his firm to take them on as clients, he says.

"Creating a blog is like sending an e-mail, except instead of sending it to your customers, you're sending it to a Web site," says John Lawlor of Boca Raton, Fla., founder of Blogs4Business, a small business that helps other business owners create blogs.

Entries are arranged in chronological order with the most recent ones on top. Subject matter can be anything at all, though business owners tend to write about their industries. Some blogs feature hyperlinks to other Web sites; others feature only text.

With their heavy editorial slant, blogs give business owners a way to show off their personalities. Rick Bruner, an Internet marketing consultant in New York City, says blogs create a dialog and help potential customers get to know the business owner.

Because business blogging is a relatively new concept, there's no real blueprint for business owners to follow, says Douglas Kersten, author of The Small Business Blog.

"It's like the Internet was in the mid-90s," he says. "It's so open right now."

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This article originally appeared in the August/September 2003 issue of MyBusiness magazine.

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