Specializing in certain topics rather than trying to blog about everything is the best way to build a loyal following, in this blogger’s opinion. I always recommend niche-building techniques to business bloggers even if their market is already narrowly defined. There is no such thing as a “too tight” niche.

Australian entrepreneur Yaro Starak blogs about making money with niche web sites. He writes:

The concept is reasonably simple. Do some research, find some very tight niches that aren’t well serviced at the moment, build a content website targeting the niche, stick some AdSense, Chitika and similar advertising programs up and just let it sit there earning a few dollars a day.

I ought to set up a few of these myself, become my own case study, and report back to you. What do you think?

Creating and maintaining niche sites sounds intriguing, doesn’t it? But the key to success is creating quality content. For a sample quality content, read Yaro’s entire post.

A free and easy way to publicize your business blog is to participate in Carnival of the Capitalists, “a blog carnival on the wide ranging topics of business and economics, hosted weekly at a different blog.” The carnival is hosted by a different blogger each week, so be sure to check the main site for the announcement.

How does the carnival work? Select your best post of the week, visit Carnival of the Capitalists to find out where to submit your post, follow the blogger’s instructions, submit, and wait for the traffic to roll in.

Many bloggers link to the latest carnival, including high-traffic bloggers, so participating is a low-input, potentially maximum-yield way to let other bloggers know you’re out there.

Hosting the carnival this week is Gongol.com.

Don’t forget about the Carnival of Marketing!

Steve Rubel of Micro Persuasion knows where to find good information, so I highly recommend you visit his site at least once a week. In a recent post he links to a podcast from Jupiter Research about blog marketing.

…about something, says Seth Godin, the online marketer and blogger who gives away free e-books. He writes:

For a long time, the web has been about more. More links, more traffic, more hits, more choices. In the face of all that more, many sites (and most surfers) are not getting what they want. This free ebook proposes a different way of achieving your goals: less.

Intrigued? Download a PDF copy of Everyone is an Expert.

According to a survey conducted by Blog Relations, 44 percent of PR people surveyed believe blogs “pose a significant threat” to the public relations industry and 64 percent say that dissatisfied customers and disgruntled former employees could use blogs to cause a whole lot of trouble for companies.

Without knowing the methodology, the types of PR firms surveyed, etc., it’s difficult to gauge what these numbers really mean.

(Via The Blog Herald)

Wayne Hurlbert at Blogging Business World suggests several ways to increase blog traffic through offline sources: send hard copy press releases, network as a volunteer, offer Internet-only specials to offline customers, and generate word-of-mouth advertising.

Good advice.

From MarketingProfs.com, public relations expert Sally Saville Hodge writes:

These days, we write fewer and fewer press releases—most are the obligatory personnel announcements, with the periodic feature release sprinkled in between. We just don’t see them as being as important a tool for PR as they once were….

Think about it. As a society, we’ve gone from the era of mass production, mass merchandising and mass marketing to one where customization is king.

In this environment, press releases are to PR professionals what the 30-second television commercial is becoming to the advertising industry. As far as most reporters and editors are concerned, they are overproduced, they lack differentiation, they generally aren’t relevant and the vast majority just aren’t worthy of coverage.

Blogs have had an impact on traditional journalism, politics, business — just about everything fundamentally important to our democracy. It was only a matter of time before someone created a whole new industry dedicated to the business of blog watching.

Remember the “markets are conversations” post I wrote yesterday? Here’s an illustration of the concept in the Wall Street Journal:

Blog watching helped advertising giant WPP Group PLC craft a new promotion aimed at teenagers for its Chicago-based client U.S. Cellular Corp., says Bethany Harris, senior vice president of WPP’s G Whiz Entertainment unit…..

Marketers say bloggers’ unsolicited opinions and offhand comments are a source of invaluable insights that are hard to get elsewhere. “We look at the blogosphere as a focus group with 15 million people going on 24/7 that you can tap into without going behind a one-way mirror,” says Rick Murray, executive vice president of Edelman, a Chicago public-relations firm….

Blog-monitoring services typically charge big companies $30,000 to $100,000 a year. They say their technology goes beyond basic tools, such as keyword searches or counting links from one Web site to another, both features available at no charge from online services such as Technorati.com and Yahoo’s Buzz Index.

The power of blogs can’t be overstated. If you’re not blogging for your business or at least listening to what bloggers are saying, you’re missing out on a valuable market.