The World of Blogs – That was Then, This is Now
Published August 6, 2010 | 
Even though five years can fly by relatively fast, in Web time five years can be like centuries with the rapid advances and changes that have occurred, particularly in the world of blogs since 2005, a year that saw a lot of significant startups and developments including YouTube and the foundations of blogging.
Since then sites have been created, sites have faded and died, while other sites have grown up and effectively changed with the latest waves in technology and market trends. Completely new blogging formats and platforms have been born and business empires grown from the simple foundations of the humblest of blog beginnings.
The blogging world we know today is more diversified than five years ago, but only a relatively few number of blogs have risen to the position of domination across the new media landscape. In addition, the blogging world of today is powered and influenced in many ways by Social Media which was just starting its infant stage five years ago and barely an afterthought in anyone’s mind at the time.
A look back at the last five years in the blogging world might help us better understand the future world of blogging.
Midway through 2005 the world of blogs grew to over 14 million and growing at a strong clip of approximately 80 thousand new blogsites each and everyday, come rain or shine. In 2005 most of the new bloggers “journaled” mostly random thoughts and boring clichéd entries, and transitioned the blog world to one that now supports a growing number of rapidly escalating media empires, each unique in their own ways.
Today, as you might know, blogging has entered the mainstream of the Web consciousness and proven to be a legitimate source of media, reprogramming how people throughout business and industry think about 
blogs with a much greater understanding and respect, although the vast majority of blogs are still likely to be personal in nature, which is not to say their reader traffic is small as some enjoy several million each month.
According to the 2009 State of the Blogosphere report by Technorati, professional bloggers are blogging more than ever, while hobbyists are blogging less, even with 133 million blogs and counting, and we strongly suspect that Social Media has something to do with the trend.
Business Blogs and Content Marketing – The Future Now!
Published June 8, 2010 | Just in case you have been living somewhere in isolation and missed it, global marketing strategies have been going through some crazy evolution for small businesses and Entrepreneurs throughout the world, as times are changing, marketing has evolved, and you can rest assured that what was true 
yesterday no longer applies today, and tomorrow, this is why I can make the following true statement with complete confidence and certainty, since it’s already started, “Within the next 5 to 10 years, Blogs will be the foundation of any successful business and individual brand.”
That’s right, what was originally looked on by many in the market, as just a bunch of online noise and market clutter that would never find its voice, has revolutionized commerce, economies, and information sharing as we know it.
The world as we have known it has changed forever, for proof, think back and remember that just twenty years ago, what generally defined ‘having a business’ was the ownership of some type of ‘brick and mortar’ storefront or professional office, compare that to today, in 2010 and beyond, what defines the image of that very same business is its website, and the increased value added to the business by its comprehensive Web presence.
Also, not to long ago, it was common that company websites were few and far between, and seen as part of the world that belonged to Programming and Technology Geeks, but now, in an incredibly short span of less than ten years, businesses are expected to have websites as part of their Strategic Social Media and Web Marketing Plan, and even the mere mention of such an idea would have been viewed as completely preposterous by most of us less than a decade ago, during that same period of time, the Social Media (R)evolution has come in with such a furry that a website has become the expected core representation of any business and its brand.
So the obvious questions that always come to mind is “What’s the next phase of the Social Media (R)evolution,” and “What’s next that consumers in the global market will expect and demand?”
Over the next few years, as consumers continue to embrace Web technology even further, and as they become more and more adept at judging a business by its website, they will soon look for a company’s, or an individual’s, blog, yes, that’s right, just as a website is expected and searched for by today’s Web savvy consumer, a business’ blog will be expected by the consumer of tomorrow, and I don’t mean months or years from now, I do mean literally, tomorrow.
Although I know that many of you are in agreement with me right now, there are sadly still some that feel like blogging, and even websites hold little importance and consequence when it comes down to the successes and failures of a business.