What’s a blog and why does everyone seems to have one? The word blog is an abbreviation of web-log. They combine the interactivity of forums and bulletin boards, the sensitivity to current events of a news service and the personality of talk radio. Over the past several years several free blog services like WordPress and Blogger have both stimulated and been stimulated by the explosion in the number and popularity of blogs.

A blog is a website that has four distinguishing characteristics:

• Frequently updated
• Based upon a single page
• Linked to other sites and blogs
• Written in a personal voice

Because a great number of blogs are open and very easy to use, they can be started by anyone and on any possible topic. Mainly blogs can be divided up into three categories:

• Personal Diaries — blogs created to display the daily experiences of their author
• Links — blogs made up of collections of links to other sites, usually united by certain interest or aesthetic sense
• Forums — blogs that are centers of discussion on particular themes

Blogs are cash cheap but time expensive. Starting a blog, especially for business is a commitment. Get ready to devote however much time is necessary to write interesting sincere posts and answering comments. The good thing is that blogs are one of the most effective ways to sell your service or product. Not only do they dramatically improve your page ranking with search engines, but they also give a human face to your business.

Most business blogs have three purposes:

• To establish the writer as a thought leader
• To drive web traffic to a homepage
• To enlarge PageRank on Google

How do I write for a blog? Blogs are not meant to give facts. There are many accurate sources of information online, but blogs are not exactly one of them. Instead, blogs are about community. People explore them to find out what other people think and to take part in conversations. For instance , it would be difficult to find something reliable about the current travel conditions in Sri Lanka from a blog. On the other hand it is much more likely that you could find dozens of blogs about life, food, politics and religion there — each blog talking about Sri Lanka from the viewpoint of its author . Thus blogs are in most cases written in a casual, informal tone. A lack of subjectivity (and humor) is taken as insincere and, worse, boring.

Do

• Use “I”
• Give suggestions and opinions
• Talk about your own experiences
• Ask open-ended questions (rhetorical and otherwise)
• Link to sources that support your views

Don’t

• Try to teach
• Try to sell
• Give answers
• Be too serious
• Try to prevent the reader from leaving the blog

Blogging is the easiest and most enjoyable way to build your reputation and business. Give it a try by starting an on-line conversation and observe your friends and customers come to you.

Read more about Atomic Blogger, Atomic Blogging and Blogging Basics.