Marketing through Blogs

I recently stumbled upon "Corporate Blogging 101", by Patrick Dodd, through LinkedIn Bloggers and read some of his posts. He's got an interesting view point on various things, but one of the subjects that he speaks about is marketing through blogs. His latest post, "Converting Traffic Into Business" asks a poignant question "What have you done to create an effective call to action in your blog?".
He writes with a monetary intent in mind and the assumption that most people do. I suppose that's an accurate assumption — business people writing business blogs usually have some sort of business purpose behind it.

I know that my personal purpose is a combination of education for people out there and, in the long run, just an attention grabber. I don't expect to "make money" in a direct fashion through the blog which is why I don't ever expect to have affiliate links and such dotting my blog landscape, but I suppose that the hope is more that people read the blog and gain some insight — and, perhaps, in the long run if they're looking for a company that can do what New Direction offers, they'll consider talking to me because they've found my blog to be of use to them.

One of the comments on Patrick's blog states that they post a link to their website at the end of every posting. I'm not sure that I'd want to do that, but I suppose the thought should remain in my mind to help drive traffic. Honestly, I'm not sure what the right solution is.

In any case, if you're looking to see how you can market your company through blogging, his musings may be of use to you. I'll spend more time reading his posts when I can.