Dear Business and Blogging Readers, I’ve really struggled with this post – even though it’s one of the shorter ones I’ve written. I’ve never been good with “Good-byes.”  I’m much better with “Hello’s”, “See You Later’s” and “Y’all Come Back Now, Y’hear?” But the time has come for me to say good-bye to Business and Blogging.  I am leaving to focus more on my own blog and other writing commitments. Even though it was my decision, it is still hard to let go. I will miss being part of the b5media network.  I will miss my co-blogger Laura who always has such enthusiasm and insight.  And I will miss sharing with you readers. All businesses... [Read more]

A while ago I asked you, our readers, to respond to a short survey to find out more about your blog reading habits.  I’ve now tabulated the results and would like to share them with you.  I received 9 responses to the survey. The original scholarly research that prompted this survey was only done on 15 respondents so I think this was a pretty good result for a less formal analysis. Of the 9 respondents, 6 were female.  Three were in their 20’s, 1 in their 30’s, 2 in their 40’s, 2 in their 60’s and 1 declined to give an age. They all read blogs daily and are bloggers themselves. Most read between 3 and 15 blogs daily, although several had over 100 blogs in their readers that they monitored. 89% said that... [Read more]

Dear Business and Blogging, I have a website for my small business.  I like the idea of a blog as a marketing tool but I just can’t commit to updating a regular blog right now.  Any thoughts on how I can still take advantage of blogging to increase my business’ visibility? Signed, Busy in Bizmark Dear Busy, If you don’t have time to maintain your own business blog, I recommend that you look for opportunities to write guest posts on other people’s blogs. There are several guidelines for doing this effectively: 1) Seek out blogs that serve similar target markets as your business. You obviously don’t want to blog on direct competitor sites.  Instead look for affinity businesses:   a home decorator and... [Read more]

(www.businessandblogging.com) For the past couple of weeks I have been digging into the research on Technorati’s State of the Blogosphere 2008. Despite the fact that there are over one million blog posts created every day, blogging is often a solitary pursuit. It’s nice therefore to take a look at some statistics that give a glimpse of insight into how others are faring in the blogosphere.  In case you’ve missed any posts, I thought you might like the entire list all in one convenient place.  So, without further ado: How Do You Compare to Other Bloggers? Where has Blogging Gotten You? How Well Do You Blog? What Do Top Bloggers Make? How Do Bloggers Make Money? How Much Does the Average Blogger Make? Do Bloggers Affect... [Read more]

I’ve been reluctant to mention it, but there is an aspect of the Technorati State of the Blogosphere research 2008 that makes me wonder whether there is a gender bias for success in blogging. It’s hard to imagine how that could be, but let me give you the statistics and see what conclusions you can draw. Overall, there are almost twice as many male bloggers than female ones:  66% male vs. 34% female There are fewer younger female bloggers (18-24): 15% male vs. 9% female As compared to male bloggers, female bloggers are more likely to be personal rather than professional bloggers (83% vs. 76%); they tend to talk more about personal musings (66% vs. 47%)  and family updates (36% vs. 16%).   Their goal is more likely to... [Read more]