Five years or so into the 'Blogolution' and the vast majority of marketers still ignore this amazing opportunity. Like many aspects of online marketing blogging is a simple but completely foreign concept that is easy to do badly but with a relatively small amount of effort and insight can pay amazing dividends.

I was reminded of this point tonight by this Forbes column by BoingBoing author Cory Doctorow who describes the great ROI he's seen on giving away his books. The point he makes is that by giving away his books he engaged tens of thousands of people who would have otherwise never heard of them, resulting in a net increase in sales. Undoubtedly there are other beneficial indirect effects - such as on his personal fame which leads to opportunities, etc.

Hugh MacLeod, now appearing in 3 blog posts straight, takes this and churns out another of his fabulous insights into blogging:

"Blogs are a great way of making things happen indirectly"

Two of his previous insights, which I'm paraphrasing out of laziness, are:

"The most interesting conversation wins"

"Blogging breaks down the layer that separates the conversation inside a company and the conversation happening outside in a market"

We spend a lot of time suggesting blogs as an important component in any online marketing arsonal, but frankly have yet to create that magic powerpoint presentation that can convert a non-believer in any reasonable amount of time. We need to, and no doubt these points will anchor our message.

It strikes me that the very bottom line is this: Does your company have anything to say? Is there a market, a product, a company that has so few thoughts, so little news, such an absence of perspective that press releases, brochures, a bi-annual website revision, and the CEO's quarterly powerpoints really captures it all?