Many companies worry about letting employees write company blogs. They fear that the employee will say negative things or expose trade secrets. My answer to this is simple: If you feel uncomfortable about it, don’t do it.

But that doesn’t mean that blogs can’t play a role in your marketing strategy. You just have to look at blogs a little differently. A blog is simply a way to publish content on the web. Companies do this all the time. One of the most common features of company web sites is the “News” section where tidbits of information are parceled out. Why not make this a blog? Making your news section a blog has a number of advantages that I will discuss below.

So what type of blog software should you choose? The specific answer to this question is beyond the scope of this article. But a general answer is probably warranted. I would suggest getting blog software that you can host and customize yourself. There are numerous hosted blog programs out there, but I have not tested these techniques with such services. In many cases, these techniques will not be possible with hosted services. Hosting a blog yourself takes more effort to be sure, but the advantages are significant. Not only can you do more customization, but you can also keep the blog web page on your own server to help promote your own domain.