Blogging is more popular than ever these days and it's one of the most profitable advertising markets next to social networking websites. Where only a few blogs existed on the Internet in the 1990s, the blogosphere is now filled with thousands of sites. Blogs today are written for a wide variety of reasons. Some bloggers write simply to connect with their own friends and family, others share political views or discuss hobbies, still others use this unique tool to promote their brand and foster a connection with readers or customers. Blogs have the distinct benefit of being absolutely loved by search engine bots and offering easy link-back opportunities in the form of comment posts. Blogs are devilishly easy to update and customize and since they require very little maintenance, they can be very inexpensive. Some very popular and very profitable websites are created only with blog software. The beauty of the software is that you can customize it to the point where it doesn't look like "just a blog." Blogs are one of the most powerful tools an Internet marketer has today.