Lemmings are cute, but silly. If you tell them to jump off a cliff, they will. Like people who blog because everyone does. Guess what happens after a while? Blogs die.

When managing a list of many websites, most of which are blogs, I removed countless sites from the list because the sites and blogs were no more. People either ran out of power or had no reason to start them in the first place.

How do you know when a blog is right for your business? Find out why people blog, how they find their niche, and how blogging tools can be used for more than just blogging.

Some people like to read blogs, some like to read newsletters, some like to trust feeds, and some read some or all. No matter the method of information distribution, each medium has one thing in common: content. Having a blog connects your newsletter and your business with all of these readers and offers important content in a particular style.

I have been blogging since June 2000. If you look at the first few blog posts in Meryl’s notes, you will notice that they are more personal. When blogs first appeared in the late 1990s, they were personal diaries and diaries. Like the blogging business, my blog has transformed from a personal language to a business language, although I still add personal notes here and there.

Some bloggers tend to talk about their work, their products, and their little world. That might work for celebrities where fans want to know everything about them, but it doesn’t work for the average business person. Other entrepreneurs want information on how to be successful and when a blog spends time selling products that offer worthless information, few people will return. The people whose products sell well are the ones who provide valuable information. Readers already know what kind of information they are getting, so they trust that when they buy something, it will be of the same or better quality. This value should be reflected on your blog. It’s a lot like people who only subscribe to a newsletter after seeing an example for the first time.

Nobody wants to be a lemming (I hope). How do you decide if you want to create a blog or not? The answer is not black or white (what did you expect?). Ask these questions:

• Can you update it regularly, at least five times a week?
• Do you have something to say besides linking to others?
• Do you read other blogs or feeds?
• Can you provide valuable information to others, not just yourself?
• How big is your newsletter subscriber list?
• How many unique visitors do you receive in an average day, week, or month?

The big deciding factor is whether or not you can blog almost daily. The people behind high traffic blogs post multiple times a day. Although you have resources, simply linking to other sites doesn’t give visitors much reason to make the effort to visit yours. Reading other blogs or feeds is a great way to learn how to lead a discussion. Find other blogs that cover topics similar to yours and check them out. Do you disagree with their opinions? Write about it and explain your reasons. Discussions between blogs are common, and that’s where trackback comes in handy.

Trackback is a blog feature. If you decide to comment on another blog post on your blog instead of on that blog’s comment page, then you link to the conversation via the follow link. Trackback is similar to the permanent link, the permanent URL of your blog post, but has a different URL to copy and paste into your blog’s trackback box.

Aside from the technicalities of running a blog on a daily basis, the size of the subscriber list and website traffic are good indicators of what kind of reaction you will get when opening a blog. Starting from scratch with little traffic means you have a long way to go and a lot of work to do. There is no magic formula that someone can sell you for $ 97 to make your blog a success overnight. But with a little perseverance and ingenuity, your blog can attract a lot of prospects and clients.

Considering that there are numerous blogs, choose a specific topic when starting a blog to give yourself a better chance of attracting and maintaining an audience. Meryl’s notes focus on three areas: webby, geek, and wordy. Actually, this is too much. What I have to do for my readers is create three separate blog entry points, so that those interested in writing, newsletters, and internet marketing get nothing but the word-filled posts. Those interested in web design get the webby stuff and techies get the geek content.

I also run a personal blog separate from Meryl’s notes. It’s about cochlear implants and deafness. This might fall into the geek category, but it is a personal blog and does not belong in Meryl’s notes. This blog is written for a different audience.

The blogging tools for both of my blogs come with syndication capabilities so that those using feed readers or aggregators can read the content through the software. When you submit a new issue of a newsletter, comment or link to it on the blog, that way blog and feed readers will get the products, so all three bases are covered.

Blogging tools aren’t just for, well, blogging. These tools are a great way to help you update your website more often than you would otherwise. I use it to manage the list of websites without tables. Using blogging tools is much easier than the way I managed it before, updating HTML files by hand. Although you use a blog tool, it is not a blog. In this case, the blogging tool has become a content management system (CMS).

Small business owners don’t need the fancy and expensive CMS out there. It is easier for them to use blogging software to manage their sites or to hire someone to tailor the tool for their site.

Blogs have found a place in business and people are finding creative ways to use them. Some companies have a blog on the intranet to communicate project status, risks, and metrics. They are used for knowledge management. With information flowing, blogging tools provide a way to share, organize, and process information.

Being a follower can be good or bad. Nobody wants to walk off a cliff with lemmings, but everyone wants to succeed. Best practices won’t help as the decision to blog is based on the mission, needs, and goals of the organization along with the wants and needs of your target market. A blog about lemmings? There is one, more or less. Or maybe you’d like to start your own and talk about silly business moves.