For the past several months now, there has been a new development used more and more by businesses and companies of all sizes: Business Blogs. First, for those of you who may be wondering what 'blogs' actually are, they are an abbreviation for 'web logs'. First popularized by journalists, tech geeks and by teenagers, 'blogs' are now increasingly in use by the business community and Fortune 500 companies.

If you have new ideas or a new product your company would like to promote, business blogs are a good, inexpensive vehicle. And there are many other advantages to using blogs too: major search directories and Search Engines such as Yahoo, Google Alta-Vista and most of the others crave on fresh and new information that is frequently updated, sometimes many times a day. Business Blogs consist of many links, written with fresh content that is propagated everywhere on the web.

The more Search Engines like Google find daily and updated content, the more often their search spiders will visit that business blog, resulting in high Search Engine rankings for a good part of your business blog-powered data. If you still have your doubts on business blogs and are wondering if they are just a passing fad, for your information, in February of 2003, Google bought Blogger, itself a blogging software pioneer. Google publicly said they don't even know how they are going to use the company, but they will certainly have some use for it... (!) (Quoted in the New York Times).

If you are still asking yourself why should your business start a business blog (b-blog), here are a few answers to ponder about:

1. If you have timely information to share with your customers
2. If you're unhappy with the results and ROI from email marketing
3. You would like your web site to have top-ranking positions in Google
4. Many observers think that blogging will last for a long time

Here is a list you might want to read of the many business benefits of starting a good and serious business blog:

Higher search rankings on Google with no paid-submission
Other Search Engines will most likely position you higher too
Pay-per-click (PPC) is great but free marketing has infinite ROI
Create visibility with information by sharing with your customers
Fresh information appears on Google in only a few days, not weeks
Other business bloggers will point prospects towards you for free

Now all of this is great and can help companies a lot in their Search Engine rankings. But Business Blogs should not be viewed as the single winning 'solution' that will 'do the magic'. Business blogs should be viewed as an added, parallel solution to increase communications and ideas to your prospects and customers, while at the same time helping your web site in the Search Engines.

To be real successful, a business first needs to have its web site properly optimized by a professional Search Engine optimization firm, one that knows Search Engines and truly understands your specific business needs. After a serious optimization campaign and the ensuing positive results that can be analyzed in detail and carefully measured, business blogs should be considered as an added way to help increase Search Engine rankings in the major Search Engines, while at the same time more effectively communicating new ideas, products or services to the business community, your clients, prospects, suppliers, business associates, etc.

Be prepared to see a lot more developments in this area. Already the Internet is seeing a new wave of business blogging software and related applications claiming to propel your web site to the top of the search results. Be careful before choosing any such software. While some can be of help, as with anything that is new and 'revolutionary', careful analysis, due diligence and product evaluation is necessary before deciding on one final choice. We will continue to monitor this development closely and will keep you posted on our findings through this web site.

Note: Slated for January 31st, 2004, Rank for $ales will have a Business Blog solution ready for it's clients. Interested parties please enquire here. In the mean time, you are encouraged to visit www.escalate.ca for more information on blogging news and business blog technology. If you would like to see an example of a personal blog website (with a touch of humour) that is already online, then you can visit www.bloggers.ca