The blogging movement is picking up speed with the launch of blogs. More companies are experimenting with the blog environment. A blog is a web page made up of usually short, frequently updated posts that are arranged chronologically.

The term is actually weblogs coined by Jorn Barger in 1997. The boom of weblogs happened in 1999 when several companies & developers made easy blogging software and tools. It is also known as an online journal or web diary, as well as a content management system or an online publishing platform.

Essentially, a weblog is a chronologically organized site with the latest entry appearing at the top of the page. It is updated by an individual (or a group of individuals) using these main items in each entry or post:

a) Main Body - where personal commentaries, ideas, and/or stories are typically written in the first person.

b) Date/Time Stamp - to show the day and/or time the entry.

c) Title - to give a general idea or gist of what the entry is all about.

Weblogs can fall into two general categories.

1) Personal Blogs: a mixture of a personal diary, opinion posts and research links.

2) Business Blogs: a corporate tool for communicating with customers or employees to share knowledge and expertise. Business blogs are sweeping the business community.

With the Internet and past technology melt down, combined with corporate layoffs, larger companies are adopting a wait-and-see attitude. This presents a window of opportunity for small businesses to embrace blogging and adapt it to the small business environment.

What does Blogging Provide to Small Business?

Blog software is easy to use. Simply write your thoughts, link to resources, and publish to your blog, all at the push of a few buttons. Blog software companies such as, Movable Type, Blogger.com and Radio Userland all offer easy blogging tools to get started.

Blogging is a low-cost alternative to having a web presence. For small business owners without the time to learn web html or the money to hire a designer/developer, blogging offers an inexpensive method to get your company's name out on the Internet. Updating the weblog is a much quicker process .

Business blogs provide your small business with a chance to share your expertise and knowledge with a larger audience with the powerful benefit for consultants and knowledge workers.

Examples of Business Blogs

1) Gizmodo is a weblog about everything about gadgets and gizmos for those who want to remain on the cutting edge of consumer electronics. As a web magazine, Gizmodo is quickly building a specialized audience in consumer electronics with an advertising business model.

2) Research Buzz is an excellent resource tool for Internet research. An information provider, Research Buzz provides advertising and a special paid edition of their newsletter.

3) Jupiter Research, a top business market research company has a blog for each company analyst. The weblog provides analysts with the means to connect with their audience on a regular basis.

4) MacroMedia the software company provides a customer service blog for users and staff to share solutions in an organized fashion.

Blogs do have a downside. Blogging does not provide the functionality of web pages, has limits for e-commerce solutions and can be time-consuming with regular posts.

There has been an impediment to widespread business blogging. Since traditionally blogging has been done with separate tools from those used to create small business web sites. Businesses are very varied. Each has its own needs and way of serving customers. In many cases, it is the intimate person-to-person nature of a blog that helps establish and maintain a relationship with an existing or potential customer.

The purpose of most blogging tools is to make posting as simple and efficient an operation as possible. In many cases, creating a blog post takes up just as little or less effort than sending an email.

It is important to understand that the purpose of a blog is not always to get the largest and widest readership possible. The purpose is usually to communicate with interested individuals. Even in business, the number of those individuals may be very few, but the impact of the communications can have economic impact far beyond its cost.