I was thinking about all the blogs out there — all 106 million of them — and how there seems to be an in-crowd of powerful “A-listers” and hordes of second- or third-tier authors who, while they may write great content and have even, perhaps, attracted a respectably-sized audience and number of backlinks, they just can’t get admission to this exclusive club of people who are the titans of the blogosphere.

Sometimes blogging can feel like waiting in line, hoping to get into the coolest new nightspot: a limo pulls up, the bouncer opens the ropes to admit the dapper passengers to the club — and everyone else goes back to trying to catch the bouncer’s eye.

From Justin Hall, the oft-cited “pioneer blogger”, to Engadget (ranked #1 in popularity on Technorati, as of this writing) or the five-person team at Boing Boing (#3), blogs have evolved to range from personal diaries that authors write for themselves (or their following) to monetized niche blogs that are updated several times a day (or even an hour) and can fetch 7 figures a year for the blogger(s) in ad revenue or through affiliate marketing.

The thing I like about blogs is the transparency between blogger and audience that the medium provides: it’s an inexpensive (often free, if you don’t count site hosting for a unique URL) publishing vehicle that allows anyone to be a writer, and allows them to interact with their readers.

So why are blogs (and podcasts and, of course, websites) such valuable tools for marketing?   read more