You probably realize that the e-mail marketing industry (which includes anyone who sends a newsletter or notices of any kind) is in the midst of a crisis from which it may never recover. Sp@mmers, sp@m filters, and nanny software, are just a few of the problems for anyone legitimately trying to communicate with a group of people. There's got to be a better way to get the word out; and right now there is.

I'm talking about blogs.

Last year about this time, I encountered a guy who opined that blogs were on the verge of dying out entirely due to boredom and lack of interest. At that point I hadn't had much contact with blogs. All I'd seen were a few daily diaries of negligible value to anyone beyond the author's immediate circle of acquaintances, and so took him at his word. Sometime over the intervening months, sp@m problems in e-mail started giving e-mail marketers major headaches, and professional journalists started using blogs to report, sometimes minute-by-minute, on the most recent Gulf War. This changed everything.

Both businesses and traditional journalists alike had begun looking at blogs in a different way. After all, blogs are really just a content delivery method. The identical technology can be used to deliver anything to readers. There's nothing in that technology that requires a blog to have any specific kind of content. Sure, it can be your lunch menus or a detailed reportage of housebreaking a new puppy, but it can also be an effective way for groups to communicate with their members. It can also be a source of news for subject matter that's not covered by traditional media, for whatever reason.

The major difference between a blog and a conventional website is that a website just sits there. Once you've got a website up, you then have to promote it. Website promotion is getting tougher all the time, because there are billions of them out there now, and they're not any big deal anymore. A blog, on the other hand, has the capacity to announce itself, and can keep doing that every time you update. Right now there are millions of people out there actively looking for blogs. For example, last night I was working on a new blog and had thirty people visit the test message overnight!

On the other hand, when I registered the domain for this same blog, the guy on the other end of the phone wanted to know what a blog was, so I gave him the thirty-second rundown. I find myself answering questions a lot lately, which is why I think it's important that the people of the movement be aware of this opportunity to address a far bigger audience than ever before.

Another thing that makes a blog such a good idea is that it doesn't require any specialized knowledge. If you can run word processing software like MSWord, then you know enough to start and maintain a blog. Once you've got it up and running, then daily updates take about the same time as writing and sending an e-mail. So rather than sending out a bit of commentary to a few people you regularly e-mail, with no assurance they even get to their destination, you can make that same content available to the world in general. Included in that audience are thousands of traditional journalists and media types, who are watching their aggregators closely for changes in the blogosphere.

The aggregators, and the RSS feed that notifies them of updates to blogs are the things that make the whole system work, and sets a blog apart from a static website. Some people are subscribed to hundreds of blogs, with either a desktop or web-based aggregator keeping them advised all the time. So far, blogs are sp@m-free, and some business writers are predicting they may even replace e-mail for a lot of applications.

With free blogs available, there isn't any reason we couldn't establish hundreds, or even thousands of blogs related to "our" issues. There shouldn't be any concern about competition, because related blogs linking back and forth help each other to draw readers, and show up well on the search engines. It's a situation of the more, the merrier, and I've always felt there was room for a lot of different groups, individuals, and opinions. It wouldn't be too long before the traditional media took notice, and our combined readership became a serious force to be reckoned with.

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In my own experience with blogs, I've found a whole new audience. Married people -- men and women both -- young singles, retirees. I'm hearing from a lot of people now who are simply interested individuals with a desire to learn about the movement. That's because my kind of blog is new and different in the blogosphere. There's certainly no lack of subject matter or content, either, because the movement is growing and there's something new happening all the time.

In case you're wondering where to start, here are a few sites that have been helpful to me. BTW – you'll find tech support at Blog City and Type Pad especially fast, and easy to deal with. All of the people at the sites below have been very willing to help and answer newbie questions.

Bloglines (web-based aggregator)

Blog Search Engine

Blog City (Free with paid upgrade available.)

Type Pad (Paid service, but possibly the best. 30-day free trial)

Blogger Talk Forum

Once you get your blog up and running, let me know so I can add you to my links. Don't wait too long though, this window of opportunity won't last! I'm told by those who know about these things, that it's probably going to start getting crowded right after Christmas.

About The Author
Trudy W. Schuett is the publisher of the DesertLight Journal and the God Blog.

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