Why Blogs Don’t Have To Suck

This isn’t much of a local post, although it is relevant to any small business who has tried to blog or is considering it as a marketing strategy.  My new online bud, Andy Beard, whom I met via blogging, has a post up called “Why Blogs Suck” with a number of good points about why the return on the blogging investment can be depressingly low.  Andy should know as he has been doing it for some time and he clearly puts a lot of effort into it by providing some of the most insightful information around on Web marketing, all for free.

While I am still too new at this to have come to the conclusion that blogging does in fact suck, I can say that thus far it does not.  In the week that I have been actively blogging I have made a number of valuable connections with people in my line of work whom I never would have met otherwise.  Even more relevant is that after only four days of actively blogging this morning I got my first client lead off of the blog.  If that lead converts into business thus far I would have to say that blogging does not suck.

What does this mean for small businesses?  Bill Slawski of SEO by the Sea put it best here, but the short answer is that if you put a focused effort into blogging and actively engage with your potential customers it can do good things for your business and it does not have to suck.