By Janene Roberts

As an advertising professional, I feel like I need to be constantly up-to-date on the latest technology, stuff that matters, and all that relevant dogma but with notoriously long hours working in the biz just trying to work on business or tracking down new business is enough to want to make me forget all about it and check into that “resort style” pool my friends wonder why I don’t use…(shhh-It’s because I’m working so much to pay to live in that resort-style community) Sigh…

Oh well, sometimes the thought of lying out at the pool is better than the actually doing…So, this being the pool season and all, I’ve resorted to sitting in the air-conditioned office of the resort-style community reading Seth Godin posts on his blog and trying to figure out why he’s successful–pretending that I’m on vacation even if I’m still working days at my business and nights at a part-time job. Economy, would you get better already?

Sheesh…So, if you’re wondering why Seth Godin got to be so popular, or who, even, is Seth Godin, start with his blog posts. Happy pool side, err, air-conditioned office reading to you.  Click here to read Seth Godin blog posts.

WHAT THE HECK IS A BLOG?

With so much talk about blogs, do we really understand what the heck they are?  I’ll break it down here from my research on the web, books I’ve read and my own experience beginning blogs.

A blog is a type of website that is managed by, usually, one person. It’s not an article, although it sometimes looks like one big article stream. It’s not a fixed page, although static pages can be incorporated into blogs. People create blogs for personal or professional reasons about many different subjects and topics. It’s important that the individual be passionate about the blog subject. You can write about your cat Socks or discuss the inner workings of your job as an assistant to the president although you better make sure you didn’t sign an agreement with that company not to discuss those inner workings.

Blogs are often used by businesses to get ideas out into the world  It’s all about repurposing stuff you’ve already written elsewhere so that you get the most exposure for your efforts in writing the piece in the first place. When I first started submitting articles to newspapers and magazines, publishers would accept the piece and then pay you a decent amount for the work. Now, with blogs and other forms of article writing, you have to be a bit more creative in getting paid.

There’s another topic of discussion, too, about whether or not blogs are considered real journalism (generally they’re not) but the beauty of blogs is that people usually like the fact that they are truthful.  In journalism school we had to make sure we were representing both sides of an issue equally, in the blogosphere it’s whatever you want to post.  Readers see this as real, genuine communication.  Good blogs will speak the truth and get your attention.  It’s estimated that one in twenty blogs makes it big.

“To be successful at blogging, you need to have something to say,” say Steve Goldstein, CEO of Alacra.  “You need to have some communication skills to be successful.” (from the New Rules of Marketing & PR by David Meerman Scott)

So, how do people make money from blogs?  One way is to include affiliate links on your blog where you get commissions from purchases made from your blog site.  If you have a blog or are starting one, sign up for  the LinkShare Affiliate program.  Click on the banner below and get started.