So what is a blog? According to Wikipedia (a great source of constantly updated info), "A weblog, web log or simply a blog, is a web application which contains periodic time-stamped posts on a common web page. Weblog is a portmanteau of 'web' and 'log.' The term blog came into common use as a way of avoiding confusion with the term server log."

sometimes known as blogs or content management systems - that make it easier for small business owners to connect with their customers, make a name for themselves and earn more money.While you're here, you may want to see some of our past blog design work or a few WordPress themes. Perhaps you'd like to read what our clients say about us or what we say about ourselves. You could also sign up for our affiliate program, and earn some extra income from your site.

Once you choose a blogging service and set up an account, you will be provided with a standard blog template. But this template will suffer from a cookie-cutter design, and if you don't personalize it your blog may become lost. To be noticed your blog needs to make a splash - as there are more than ten million blogs out there. So what we'll concentrate on here is working with some design elements that can help you add more zing to your blog.

Blogs make having a simple website much easier, and as a result, the number of people who write for the Web has exploded. This is a striking confirmation of the importance of ease of use.

Weblogs' second benefit is that they're a Web-native content genre: they rely on links, and short postings prevail. You don't have to write a full article or conduct original research or reporting. You can simply find something interesting on another site and link to it, possibly with commentary or additional examples. Obviously, this is much easier than running a conventional site, and again indicates the benefits of lowering the barriers to computer use.

As a third benefit, blogs are part of an ecosystem (often called the Blogosphere) that serves as a positive feedback loop: Whatever good postings exist are promoted through links from other sites. More reader/writers see this good stuff, and the very best then get linked to even more. As a result, link frequency follows a Zipf distribution, with disproportionally more links to the best postings.

While blogs can be used for any topic, businesses are utilizing blogs with increasing frequency as a method of publishing an ongoing series of articles, industry observations, tips and news on their own, as and when they will. Some are quite popular and enjoy large followings. Blogs can also be set up to allow others to post and to comment about posts, thereby gaining valuable interactivity and user input.

Like any website we design, your blog package will include a unique logo and page design that will accomplish the following for you:

• look professional and represent you or your company well
• be designed to help people to remember you or your company
• be targeted to your audience and/or customers
• be unconfusing and easy to get around
• built to download fast and structured for easy future growth
• increases your exposure on the Web by inclusion in news aggregators and search engines

While different types of blog software are available, some with their own web hosting and monthly fees, we prefer to recommend a stand-alone blog program that we install on your own web hosting space. This ensures that, if the blog-hosting company changes something, goes out of business, or raises its prices, your blog won't be affected.

There are also plenty of blogs add-ons that we can add to increase the functionality and the interactive-ness of your blog readers.

The blog software we recommend is Open Source (Wordpress is the most popular) as well as stable, reliable and easy to use. Most blog software has a very generic "look" when installed, and differentiation of your blog will require design and implementation. However, since the design of your blog may not involve the kind of in-depth marketing research and development required for a regular commercial website, we've allowed our fees to reflect that fact.

Make an impact with your blog online today. Contact us today for a free consultation...before your competitor does!