Title: Blogging – History Exceeds Itself Word Count: 423 Summary: When blogging was a relatively new concept many bloggers simply looked to the medium as a way to empty their thoughts into an electronic file. Many viewed the medium as a journal that may never be read by anyone else. In fact, early bloggers saw very little activity without sending out a direct invitation to view the blog to friends and family. There are two primary roots to blogging. The first is old style message boards (now commonly referred to as moderated forums) a... Keywords: marketing,internet marketing,site promotion,blogs,blogging Article Body: When blogging was a relatively new concept many bloggers simply looked to the medium as a way to empty their thoughts into an electronic file. Many viewed the medium as a journal that may never be read by anyone else. In fact, early bloggers saw very little activity without sending out a direct invitation to view the blog to friends and family. There are two primary roots to blogging. The first is old style message boards (now commonly referred to as moderated forums) and the second root is Online Diaries. The earliest predecessor for blogging goes all the way back to 1983, but like most early Internet ideas they were basically useful only to the computer geeks and technicians. Blogging as we see it today really came to the forefront in 2004. If blogging were a pot of water the boiling point wasn’t reached until that year. Today blogging is incorporated into almost every form of social networking site. Business Blogging (b-blogging) is common with many online businesses. Perhaps blogging has been embraced because the individual blog owner becomes the journalist, publisher and commentator without the need to consult with any of those journalistic types. Blogging may seem meaningless initially. It may, in fact, seem more like an old style online diary read by a very few. You may even believe that the medium has no impact on your business marketing strategy. However, like Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategies it can take some time for blogging views to reach the boiling point. One way to improve blogging traffic is to post a link to the blog in any signature line when participating in forum discussions. Make a prominent link to the blog on your primary business site. Use links from other blogs, which may become reciprocal. You can even mention your blog in any company ezines, newsletters or autoresponders. Many Internet users have come to view blogging as an alternative news source. If your business is on the cutting edge of your industry a business blog might become authoritative and be referred to by other bloggers for additional content. Their backlinks only serve to improve the traffic to your blog. The growth of blogging serves the interests of knowledge and entertainment seeking consumers as well as businesses that understand what type of content their visitors are most interested in. Blogging has really allowed a free exchange of ideas with the belief that if you meet the intellectual needs of the customer they are more likely to return with both trust and their credit card.