Commercial Blogs

Lately, I've been really interested in commercial blogging and what seems to work in that genre of blogs. (Sidenote: can I apply the word "genre" to different types of blogs or does it only apply to literary works?) There are a couple different types of commercial blogs. The type many people think of when they think of commercial blogs are the blogs that make lots of money off of advertising because they have a huge audience. The type I would like to focus on are the commercial blogs that are used to enhance an already existing business.

Here are a couple local examples that I really like:

The Real Estate Jumble
William Bragg Photography

Now, how does this tie into blogs in education, you ask? Well, I've been thinking. These people care a lot about enhancing and adverstising the business that is their livilihood. So, if the classroom is my livelihood, how can I use a blog to enhance that business? Perhaps we need to think like these business people in order to figure out the best way to use blogs for education.

Some things I've noticed about these commercial blogs are that they strive to become a place where people go for information about all things that relate to their business. That way they become useful to their audience, who will then think of them whenever they think of that business in general.

I think the idea of being useful is the key for education blogs as well. Is my blog useful for my students? Their parents? Other teachers? If my students are blogging, are their blogs useful to other students? Their teachers? Their parents?

This is just a concept I thought I'd put out there.