There are a variety of Blog Search Engines to assist you in search of blogs on your favorite subjects.
Two of my favorite sites are: Technorati and Google Blog Search.
Search tip for Technorati: Type in the keyword(s) of what you are looking for in the search bar. Let's say you were looking for blogs about "Real Estate Coach". After you type in "real estate coach" in the search bar - you will be directed to recent posts that are "supposedly" relevant.
Technorati defaults to "posts" with relevant keywords for your search. I recommend clicking on the "blogs" tab to find specific blogs about the subject you are interested in. In my example, this is what you would find (as of 6.21.07) for the search "real estate coach" after clicking on the blogs tab on Technorati:
Pretty Cool - my blog site comes up #2!
Google Blog Search is similar in that your keyword search will return specific blog posts (with the most recently posted content first) on the subject - not necessarily a blog dedicated to that subject.
If you haven't already noticed, blog posts and blogs show up in the natural results of searches in traditional search engines like Google, Yahoo, MSN, AOL, etc. Let's go back to my example. A search for "real estate coach" in Google resulted in my blog site (www.JanOBrien.com) ranking 7th (again as of 6.21.07).
So, are you getting the big picture yet? Is the power of this blogging thing sinking in? Did I mention that I did not have to pay to show up on the first page of Google for my keyword search. Now, before you get too excited, we have to talk about keywords, the popularity and competition for certain keywords (like "las vegas real estate") and things like the power of long tail searches. But, that's for another day and more advanced topics. Suffice it to say that having a frequently updated, keyword relevant blog on your topic of choice has major business benefits!
Here's my challenge to you... get out there and search the blogosphere for your favorite topics, hobbies, competitors...whatever. See who, what, how, where, when and why people are blogging. Start to get comfortable and familiar with it. Take note of what style or voice appeals to you. Make some comments on blogs. Participate...don't be a lurker!
One final tip. I have discovered some of my favorite blogs by checking out the blogrolls of blogs I subscribe to! Blogrolls are a list of links to other blogs or websites that the author of the blog you are visiting recommends.
Next in the series: "Why Blog?"
