WebProNews

Recently, a small company called Umbria Market Research got a profile in Forbes Small Business. Their service Buzz Reports was the focus. Buzz Reports is a blogosphere monitoring service costing upwards of $60,000 or more a year. And they maintain they're the cheap ones.

A hat top goes to B.L. Ochman for this one. She noted the article compared Buzz Reports to the products of rivals Intelliseek and BuzzMetrics. She notes the article says the two bigger entities "can easily run into the seven figures."

The monitoring of the blogosphere has been somewhat controversial but seems to have taken root. Many companies have wrestled with how to handle the blogosphere in both putting out their own message and listening to what everyone else is saying about their company or organization. Services like these can help with that.

The only problem seems to be the cost. While these companies use some seriously expensive technology, it becomes difficult for small to medium businesses to cough up $60,000 much less a seven-figure amount.

This trend will continue, as the blogosphere becomes a more integral part of any message being fashioned in today's multimedia environment. It becomes imperative not only that more traditional avenues be audited but some newer ones as well.

John Stith is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.