Blogging has very quickly become an online activity that people all over the world are turning to for information, ideas or to promote an online business. Blogs have been popular for years, but are really "hot" right now. To borrow a term from the fashion industry, blogs can be considered "on-trend"!

Online blogs, or "weblogs", were originally used as journals or online diaries by people just wishing to share their lives with friends, family, and other likeminded and interested readers. However, blogs have since taken on a more serious business dimension and are used by all successful internet marketers as an essential marketing tool. Regular bloggers have become an influential online presence, as more and more people are turning to blogs, not just for information, but for recommendations and reviews.

It is not difficult to start a blog, but if you eventually want to make money from blogging, then you must make sure that the blog you set up has the potential to be popular. That will be the key to your success. To properly monetize your blog and make money from it, you will need a large and growing readership, and this should be your aim at all times.

So, how to make sure your blog will be popular? The first thing you must think about is your target audience, your readers. Who are you writing for? Do some research to make sure that your niche is not too vague, and has the potential to attract a large enough readership. Remember you do not have to be a professional or highly skilled writer to create a popular blog. Obviously, you are expected to obey common grammatical rules and be able to put readable sentences together, but you are not there to write the next War and Peace! Blog readers are looking for interesting, informative or amusing topics to read, and quickly get bored with long paragraphs of dull writing. Popular blogs are never boring and manage to add something to reader's lives and keep them entertained AND informed. This is a sure way of developing a large base of loyal readers, who will stick with you, and provide valuable feedback through their comments and suggestions.

Whether you have set up a free blog on a blogging network like Blogger, or are having your blog independently hosted on something like Wordpress, make sure it is well designed, and keep funky detail and colours to a minimum. Remember, the content of your blog is all important, and it must be clear and easy to read.

Driving traffic to your blog is exactly like driving traffic to a website and you can employ some of the same techniques. You can spend days setting up the most magnificent blog ever, but unless you get the word out about it, you will be the only one reading it!

Start with article marketing, one of the tried and tested ways of driving traffic to a website or blog. Don't overlook social networking sites such as Myspace, Facebook and YouTube as they provide valuable opportunities for adding links to your blog. There are also many social book marking sites like Digg and Faves, where you can promote your blog for free.

You should make every effort to get your blog indexed with the major search engines. If yours is a business blog and you want to properly monetize it, then having a good ranking with the search engines will be a major factor in your success. It will ensure a steady flow of visitors to read your articles and reviews, and to click on your affiliate links.

The higher your rank with the search engines, the more visitors you will receive, and the more popular your blog will become.