The Business of Blogging

Two years ago, there were only about 100,000 blogs -- today, the figure is estimated at 4.8 million. That's a lot of people having a lot to say, and a lot of content being created each day. It's also a lot of time being spent creating content and a lot of time being spent consuming them. It's inevitable that blogs would become business. From individuals, like me, carrying online advertisements, to professional bloggers that blog for a pay cheque. Businesses are adopting blogs as a way of giving their customers access to the company -- and the reverse is also true. Some bloggers are becoming hired guns -- hired to create a lot of buzz about a product or service and directing traffic to a business. Where does it end, however? It used to be that when you visited a blog, you were getting someone's opinion. Is that still true? Is it paid opinion? And what role is advertising playing in influencing blog content? BusinessWeek magazine has a short article about the business of blogging that got me thinking.