Her prediction of a bright future for blogs isn't just some dream world type thinking either.
In her brilliant blogging future essay, entitled "The World Beyond Instapundit", Trudy demonstrates that blogs have already grown beyond their roots in personal diaries.
As I have long been recommending, Trudy also sees the business blog as a viable medium for any business's message. For immediacy with potential and existing customers and clients, the blog serves as a simple yet powerful vehicle.
Trudy continues with another part of one my usual themes as well. She doesn't believe that if you build it, they will come. I certainly agree with her there.
A blog has to be marketed and promoted, to develop a new and steady visitor base. Without that promotional effort, a blog or a static website will be lost in the literally billions of documents already indexed on the internet.
As for the future, Trudy has this to say:
"The next wave of well-known citizen journalists who come after today’s “A-list bloggers” will have gained their eminence due to a careful combination of diligent promotion, search engine optimization and solid writing."
In other words, the blogs will have to be good and well marketed to their potential readership audience.
That is simply good business practice.
No one would start a magazine or any other offline business without some degree of marketing and publicity. Blogs are no different.
If you market them, and provide a strong product, with regular updates and comments to act as the customer service function, your blog will be succesful.
Just like anything else, you get out of your blog what you put into it.
