WebProNews

Consider using a content writing company who specializes in blog content. Doctortext.com has been writing corporate articles for some time (I am aware of this service as my friend's artificial turf company has had articles crafted by their editors). It's one thing to post readable material, yet another to captivate your audience and hit the nail on the head.

15 people in my department write blog posts on a free Wordpress.org installation with a custom domain name, with myself as the administrator (though it would be easier to use a Wordpress.com setup.) Our bloggers are on a rotation of 3 weeks, meaning one person posts every 3 weeks, which isn't a dent in their "work" time at all: it only takes 15 minutes or so to write a decent post.

Not everyone is familiar with inputting graphics, URLs, keywords, etc., so doing this is part of my duty as admin. It's also my duty to proof the text to make sure it's well-written and readable, and if there is any questionable content, I simply ask my boss about it.

I admit there's a fine line sometimes between what's post-worthy and what's not in a company blog. On my personal blog (thursdayfridaysaturday.com), I'm free to write what I want, but I realize I have to deal with any repercussions myself. However, on the company blog, everyone has to deal with any possible problems, so it's important to have at least one or two people acting as "blog overseers" to filter content. It does take time, and though our blog is relatively young, I think it will be worth it in the end, even if the results aren't exactly quantifiable. It's basically an added-value product for our company's employees, our customers and the public. And if you have several people to blog, with free software like Wordpress, there's no reason not to spend time doing this even if it doesn't reap immediately evident rewards.

I've been using Wordpress for our podcast site as well, with great results. It doesn't take much time to learn how to use successfully, and there are a variety of plugins and resources available to the beginner.

Guest (WPN reader) writes that blogs are not designed for company use, I believe there are quite a few examples of good company blogs that have more of a website feel to them.  At Cambridge Who's Who we use blogs to connect with our members, while they have professional content we kept the look and feel of a traditional blog.  Blogging is a grass roots way of speaking to your audience, unless you are trying to sell a product on your site keeping that Web Log look and feel is not always a bad thing.  We work with both wordpress and blogger to keep that down to earth feel and find terrific results and our members are better informed.

A great blog David. One gripe I have is that not all blogging software allows you to embed links (eg affiliate links) easily and that is something I am struggling with at the moment.

It could well be that in a large organisation blogging may be more of a grind than a pleasure. For the smaller business owner or entrepreneur, once you've got over the 'tie me to my chair and don't let me go until I've written something' part, I've found blogging to have some positive effects. The commitment of writing regularly and achieving the goals you've set yourself is good for you. It gives you a feeling of achievement. And to be honest, it really doesn't take long at all to keep a blog updated. Saying that, I am guilty, guilty, guilty of not writing a page a day  and you have spurred me into action!