I stumbled across this research (thanks, Heather @ Diosa and Adam at LEWIS PR) giving you four more business cases to be blogging:

71% have greater visibility in their industry
63% said clients purchased products and services

56% stated their company was now regarded as a thought leader
40% have been asked to speak at conferences

These stats, though a couple of years old, create some of the best support for blogs as marketing, expertise-building and networking tools – so, what are you waiting for?

Apparently, yes. Downloading songs for free is destroying the profits of the traditional recording companies. But that doesn’t mean that musicians can no longer make a living creating music. They just have to go about it in a different way.

This week, my favourite podcast, Planet Money (from NPR) did a profile of a successful singer-songwriter (you’ve never heard of) who makes a very comfortable living giving away his music on his blog.

Whether you’re in the searching, ladder-climbing or sector changing mode, you’ve got a reason to start (or recommit to) your career-focused blog.

A blog is a great way to showcase who you are and what you want to offer. When you begin sharing the story of your work, your unique combination of training, experience and values come together to create a picture of your ideal role and team. Rather than pigeon-holing, this helps focus your job search efforts and helps employers …

Back in 2004, four math majors from Harvard started an online dating site called okcupid.com They face some pretty stiff competition from a number of larger, more established sites like eharmony.com and match.com.  To stand out from the crowd, they started a blog six months ago, focusing on statistics generated from their site users, and immediately saw a jump in activity on their site.

An interesting article in the New York Times today about bloggers and their attempts to dissuade Americans from donating blankets, clothing or other bulky/useless items (microwaveable TV dinners, anyone?) after the recent earthquake that devastated the country.

It is one answer to the question “Why should I write a blog?”