Blogging is fast becoming an addicting pastime for both everyday internet users and on line business owners. Many tech savvy teenagers and generation Y individuals are using blogging as a medium to express their emotions and ideas about what is going on in their life. Savvy internet marketers have also discovered that blogging is a interesting way to keep in contact with their customers and to interact with their customers and it won't cost you a cent.

In 2004 and 2005 a blogging technique known as "blog and ping" was one of the most powerful strategies to accelerate search engine rankings and get fast results. But since the technique worked so well spammers resorted to using this technique in excess and search engines effectively reduced the weighting of this particular method.

Can blogging still be used as a way to boost your internet presence and traffic?

In short "yes" but the rules have changed and it is not as effective as it once was.

Some guidelines are:

1. Do you have an interest in blogging as a way to communicate with your clients.

2. Do you have enough content to deliver to your customers on an ongoing basis? - You have to have enough content to spark an interest and a following from your visitors and customers or else it is a waste of time.

3. Does what you have to say provide any value or usefulness to your website visitor or customer? - Do you have an opinion, offer advice, product reviews or service information that is of benefit to your readers?

4. Do you customers use the internet and would they interact using this medium? - If customers do not use your method of advertising or promotion how can you expect them to find your information?

5. Do you have the available time to spend blogging? -Most bloggers will post to their blog once every few days at a minimum

If you answered "no" to any of the above questions then blogging is NOT an effective medium for you and your business - period.

If you answered yes then blogging can be an effective tool to:

1. Make your clients or customers aware of new products, services or information.

2. Be newsworthy and write reviews, tips, articles, links to non-competing resources and more.

3. Receive comments and feedback from customers and blog visitors. You can learn more about the needs of your clients through the feedback of your readers.

4. Receive back links from other blogs and article sites (if you send them to directories). More back links usually translate to higher search engine results which is good for increased website traffic and improving your business turnover.

Setting up a blog is simple. You can either install blogging software on your server or use a host service such as blogger.com. I personally recommend that you install on your own server as you will develop more control and you cannot be shut down by a controversial blog post (as you can be with blogger.com).

To learn more about how blogging can be a powerful sales tool for your business contact Heath McGregor at http://www.heathmcgregor.com.