Blogs have been described as a conversation between the blogger and his or her readers, but the discussion is actually broader than that. Most successful blogs are engaged in a conversation with the entire World Wide Web.

It all comes down to links. In the good ol’ days of the web (like, a few years ago), links were something you devoted a page of your website to: "Here’s a list of websites you might find interesting …"

Through blogging, linking has become a much more organic way of producing content. Linking to articles, downloads, and other resources is fundamental to the nature of blogging. In fact, read through the most popular blogs and you will see that the majority of their posts are little more than a link to a news article or another blog, followed by the blogger’s opinion on what the link points to.

Within the "blogosphere" (a word used to describe, basically, the world of blogs as opposed to mainstream media), some discussions cross multiple blogs for lengthy periods of time, with bloggers commenting on each other’s posts ad nauseam. Within certain sectors, where there may be a group of bloggers devoted to the most seemingly arcane of subjects, the continuous back-and-forth between blogs can seem perplexing to outsiders — even incestuous. (However, a subject that seems arcane to most people may very well be central to your organization’s mission — so you should keep an eye on blogs that are related to it.)

This type of cross-blog discussion is what led to the blog "breakthrough" in the public consciousness. The scandal involving Dan Rather and the Bush National Guard memos, as has been reported extensively, initially arose when a group of bloggers pounced on the fact that the allegedly 70s-era memos were pretty obviously written in Microsoft Word.

Earlier, on the other side of the political spectrum, Trent Lott’s resignation as Senate majority leader came about when comments he made praising former segregationist presidential candidate Strom Thurmond were repeated and passed along by several bloggers. The topic did not make a dent in mainstream news media until it became a controversy in the blogosphere.

Whether providing links as a central part of your blog’s purpose as a "news gathering" type of blog, or following a "link and comment" approach as part of a thought leadership blog, you have the best chance of making a dent with your audience if the blog’s author is an avid web surfer herself, and is liberal with linking in her posts.

For one thing, it’s an instant "added value" as your blog becomes a gateway for important weblinks related to your industry or profession. For another, from a more practical perspective, it makes it easier to produce content, and blogs need content. (More on that later.)

And for a third bonus reason — Google loves blogs, because Google loves link-rich webpages. A frequently-maintained blog can act as a lure for web traffic to your primary site, because the more links you provide, and the more blogs that link to yours, the higher your page-ranks in the search engine.

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