Marketers have found that blogs are excellent tools for communicating with their audience. Anyone who has something to sell or an idea to promote can benefit from using blogs.

Corporates like Nike are using blogs to build branding. Microsoft and Sun are using them to communicate with the developer community.

Blogs have a number of advantages that make them excellent tools for communication.

They are cheap to install and require little or no technical expertise. So the entry point for blogging is very low when compared to the expense of hiring a website designer.

While building a website is often out of the reach of most solo entrepreneurs, anyone can start a blog. If you can't write or hate to write, you can start an audio or video blog. The possibilities are endless.

Blogs also help you create content that search engines love, and encourage linking from a number of other bloggers who write on similar topics. This makes them excellent tools for getting high search engine rankings and boosting your visibility.

They also encourage immediate responses from your readers and customers, so you can get feedback, tweak your campaigns and respond better to the market's demands.

Blogs, and the RSS feeds they come with, help you syndicate your content online, boost your reach and influence and allow readers to control their communications with your company.

Your blog can be your selling point and help your prospects opt for you and your services over those of others.

Whether you're an individual, entrepreneur, small business, consultant, coach, book author, independent filmmaker, actor, model, travel guide, work-at-home mom - someone who wants to promote their individual skills and talents or interests ? there is immense potential in using blogs to promote your business.

In part 2 of this article series I cover some tips that will help you ensure your blog is a good marketing vehicle. http://www.blog-maniac.com/marketing-with-blogs2.htm

Priya Shah is the CEO of eBrand360 and writes the Marketing Slave blog.

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