According to Technorati founder David Silfry, there are more than 4 million blogs in existence today, with a new one being created every 7 seconds.

Nearly half of those are abandoned within six months of publication. That leaves 2 million, which is still a lot. Of that number, there are only about 5,000 corporate blogs.

Here's the real point I want to make from what he said. . .

Sites that have RSS feeds typically have more inbound links than those sites that choose not to publish a feed. And those non-feed bloggers are still the majority with only 31.2% of blogs syndicating via a RSS feed.

What does that mean to you as a small business blogger? Simply that by the addition of an RSS feed to your blog, you'll see an increase in traffic.

Most popular blogging platforms include the capability of syndicating content. If yours does not, I recommend you read this article by Amy Gahran called How to Create Your Own RSS Feed (Amy is a very practical person when it comes to article titles.) It's an excellent primer on the subject.

(Information gleaned from Seach Engine Lowdown)

Seth Godin is one. So is Tom Peters. You could be too. What am I talking about? Becoming a thought leader.

What is a thought leader?

Other than being a nice title to add to your resume, according to a post at Elise.com a thought leader is. . .

"A recognized leader in one’s field. What differentiates a thought leader from any other knowledgeable company, is the recognition from the outside world that the company deeply understands its business, the needs of its customers, and the broader marketplace in which it operates."

Isn't that how you wish to be regarded?

How does one become a thought leader?

According to Elise it requires a change in mindset.

"Thought leadership requires a spirit of generosity - generosity of one's time, intelligence and knowledge. It requires a trust that by being open with what you know, and by sharing your time and knowledge, the world will reward your efforts."

Elise lists seven ways to become a thought leader, and several of them have direct bearing on blogging. They are: write, spread the word, and use your website. When you blog you do all three!

Check out her post, and consider this yet another reason to add a blog to your marketing communications. More reasons to come!

My friend Michael Katz is an email marketing maven if ever there was one. If your small business uses an email newsletter as part of your marketing communications strategy, then you need to read his practical manual E-Newsletters That Work. It's a step-by-step guide to creating an effective email newsletter.

In the latest version of his own newsletter, Michael shares some tips on how to turn readers into clients (or customers as the case may be). After all, what good is a business newsletter if it doesn't help your bottom line? What he has to say applies equally as well to small business blogs too.

Here are the bullet points. . .

1. Use client experiences as examples - Say things like "In working with XYZ client last week." This helps your readers associate your company with a solution to a problem that they may also have



2. Stop referencing "the experts" - You become the expert, not just an observer of experts. (Of course, where email newsletters are concerned, Michael IS the expert!



3. Congratulate your clients - Your client gets some free publicity and you get to remind your readers of the work you do.



4. Include an "About Us" section - Provide an easy way for your readers to get to know you.

In addition to purchasing Michael's book, you will also want to subscribe to his monthly newsletter. I promise you it contains refreshing, entertaining, and very helpful content. You will welcome it into your inbox, to be sure.

In reference to his photo above, don't you just love a guy who enjoys his work! :-)

I had an email conversation with Anita Campbell, co-editor of the Small Business Trends blog. She had some good advice for me, which I think is worth your reading. Here is some of what Anita had to say about small businesses and blogs. . .

Click to read more ...

This is a bit off-topic for me, but I recently read an article on eMarketer.com that said over 53 million people use instant messaging. Though most of them fall in the 18 to 27 age range, altogether over 42% of online adults in the US the technology, and — amazingly — 24% of those instant messagers say they use IM more frequently than e-mail.

Though I know little if anything about what attempts are underway to monetize the medium - and the article doesn't address that issue - I'm sure there is much going on in that respect. If this is an area of particular expertise to you, I'd love to get some feedback.

Some time ago SEO expert Aaron Wall encouraged me to focus on a specific niche related to my internet marketing efforts, particularly where this blog was concerned. My original intent had been to focus on anything and everything related to helping small businesses establish and enhance their presence on the web.

Since that time my focus has narrowed dramatically to a few subjects. Chief among them are: business blogs, RSS, and, yes, despite what I've said about the demise of email marketing. . .email marketing.

So, on this Tuesday morning, September 14, 2004, I'm christening this blog with a new direction. . .to go where no blog has ever gone before!. . .(Well, that's not exactly true. I'm sure other blogs are doing this too.). Let's put it this way. . .to go where THIS blog has never gone before.

I'm retasking the RMG blog to focus on helping small businesses that blog or that want to know more about blogging.

Click to read more ...

Finally, someone has come up with an innovative way to make money from blogging that really fits, imho, the blogging paradigm. It's called Blogversations. Here's how it works. . .

1. They match advertisers with bloggers
2. Advertisers choose a topic or question (not an advertorial)
3. Bloggers discuss the topic or question, and place a link to the discussion on their blog's front page
4. Advertisers truly engage audiences without doing evil; bloggers get paid for doing what they do best - blogging!

I know some blogging purists disdain any form of commerce, seeing it as a profanation of the integrity of the medium. While I'm not one of them, I could be their next of kin. Something has always stuck in my craw about wrapping advertising around a writer's heart-felt musings. I've tried several ways (Google Adsense, Blogads, banner ads, etc.) to monetize this site, much to no avail. So, instead of just admitting personal failure as a marketer, I justify it with high-sounding pronouncements about the evils of mixing ecommerce with journalism, blog-style! :-) Maybe my heart's just not in it.

Perhaps in an ideal world, blogs would be bereft of any form of monetization. However, need I say it, we don't live in an ideal world. So, what to do. . .what to do? How do we maintain the integrity and authenticity of voice that blogging has become famous for, and yet take advantage of our blog site as an income source?

Blogversations says "Leverage your authority and audience to earn money - without losing authority over what you've got to say. Turn your ideas, criticisms, opinions, and reader share into money - and not muddy up your site with clunky ads in the process. Engage your audience with thought-provoking issues and questions."

Sounds good to me! So much so I've signed up for it!

Hollywood PR firms are beginning to pay attention to the power of blogs. . .

Case in point, Grace Hill Media, a PR firm that exists to provide the faith community with influence on Hollywood, has offered a blogger friend of mine, Stacy Harp, access to free advance screenings, relevant interviews with Hollywood professionals, high-resolution screenshots for her site, and other resources they may have available. Don't ask me how Stacy got so lucky. Divine Providence, I guess! :-)

Grace Hill Media has worked on some of Hollywood's biggest releases, including The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Signs, Bruce Almighty, The Notebook, The Rookie, A Walk to Remember, Big Fish, Elf, Secondhand Lions, Seabiscuit, and many others. Their goal is to provide access to religious journalists commensurate to their secular counterparts.

Grace Hill's President, Jonathan Bock, told Stacy he had "been impressed with the writing quality and reach of blogs" and "while news sites are a viable source for general information, many readers are turning to blogs as a source of updates and opinions on culture."

Does this indicate an even further embrace of bloggers as legitimate sources of information? We are all well aware of how both the RNC and DNC gave bloggers press credentials and invited them to cover the conventions right alongside their more traditional media counterparts.

Is this yet another indication of a trend toward mainstreaming of blogs as a credible publishing medium? I believe it is. Is the "top-down" professional journalism monolith having to give sway to another breed of journalists -- citizen publishers known as bloggers? It would appear so.

BTW, Stacy jumped at the opportunity of course. Here's her first post about an upcoming PBS project called The Question of God. I've invited Mr. Bock to comment on this issue. When and if he does, I'll let you know what he has to say.

MarketingSherpa has an exclusive case study proving that blogs can enhance your bottom line. The company in question, T-Shirt King, showed a tripling of sales during 2003, and have continued strong in 2004.

According to the article, blog content has helped to bring in about 35% of total site sales -- 10% from the email newsletter, 20% from affiliates who often reuse the content, and 5% from Blog traffic itself. (The newsletter pointed to blog posts, which had specific URLs per Movable Type's system.)

With SEO becoming more and more iffy due to increased competition for keyword sets, and email continuing to face its woes, blogs can be an inexpensive and welcome addition to your marketing communications mix.

BTW, the article is only open for public access through September 17.

A few days ago, I wrote a short riff on why email marketing should not be dropped in favor of RSS for content syndication and marketing purposes. . .for the time being anyway. I proposed a "best of both worlds" scenario that the two be married and used in tandem.

My friend Rick Bruner of Business Blog Consulting had, only a week before, written about much the same subject. While he does get something off his chest in the early part of the post regarding RSS, his commentary is well-reasoned, insightful, and well worth your time.

In essence, Rick holds out hope and sees a brighter future for email than I do. He's more the optimist and I'm just a curmudgeon I guess. His trump card is that he has some statistical data to back up his comments. I just have a gut feeling. Ha!