So far, so good. However, just because the internet has replaced the old style of talking to potential, past and existing customers via a letter in the post, this doesn't mean you can relax professionalism. A blog still remains a valuable tool for communication. Therefore, be wary about sitting at your PC without any plan or prior thinking about style, content or layout and simply begin typing.

Unfortunately, too many continue to adopt this line of thinking. The result is often something scrappy and unintelligible or simply offputting in the terminology being used, with no coherent thought or structure.

Conversely, marketing today is not what it used to be in days gone by. Before the rise of the internet, it would have been unthinkable for a company to have written in a casual style with a more personable feel, actually engaging the reader in a conversation.

There are possibly some businesses that still worry about this. They fear losing their credibility by relaxing their tone of voice. It has taken some longer than others to get round to realising that blogs are a unique and a highly favoured way of communicating by the large mass of the public. If you turn your back on this mass market or treat them in a manner they find too stiff and formal, you could find yourselves losing a big pool of customers or at least the mass of browsing, potential ones.

However, often this is where businesses go wrong. They think that if they can just use their old style but adjust the tone to make it a little bit more relaxed they can achieve their aim.

Hence, they sit down and begin to scribble away and the writing can easily take them down all sorts of tangential paths away from the original aim of the blog. Sometimes this happens when a kind of stream of conscious style evolves.

The first thing to think about in order to correct this is the structure. Once there is a logical flow in the sense of what you are trying to say, you are half way there. You can adopt a story style with a firm beginning, middle and end, this is fine and works well. Interspersed with this though, it is absolutely essential to weave in some entertainment or motivation to keep reading. Keep up the engaging tone but don't lose the professional edge.

If you want to gain any concrete benefit from your blog writing, it's worth giving thought to the concept and reality of blog writing as a skill, not merely a scrawl. If customers are looking for you, it makes sense to attract them, share your knowledge in a way that pleases them and demonstrate your skill and expertise.

Write blogs regularly and adopt a template if that helps in the beginning to keep to a strategy that works well for you. Avoid direct selling and overly long, rambling blogs that go nowhere, that is the main thing to get right with the above points.

Blog writing can win over many fans to your customer base so take them seriously, they're here to stay, just like the internet. A professional copywriter for the web who constantly writes blogs will tell you exactly the same.

Don't forget to put your keywords into your blogs, too, but not too many. Then sit back and watch your authenticity, credibility in the eyes of readers, your page ranking and conversions grow.