One of the advantages of business blogging is that it enables you to build relationships with potential (and existing) clients. It wasn't that long ago that eZines and newsletters were THE way to stay in touch with clients and 'prospects', but over-zealous email sp*am filters and the fact that we are all receiving more and more mail into our Inboxes mean you shouldn't be relying on email alone to market your products or services.
Blogging allows people to keep in touch with you without the need for email, but if you are expecting people to come back to your blog on a regular basis unprompted, you could be accused of being a little niaive. As a blogger, you have the ability to offer your readers a way to keep up to date with all your news via a 'really simple syndication' or RSS feed. I blogged a couple of weeks ago about a really great guide on this topic, but essentially it means that if your readers have an RSS Reader (web- or pc-based) they will be able to see your latest blog entries as soon as you write them.
I would say the majority of people do not have RSS Readers, but those who do will know
how to subscribe to your feed and, if they want to, will be looking out for a 'subscribe' link or icon.
You may have noticed that I have started adding a link to the bottom of my posts which reads
Free Subscribe to this blog feed
When you click on it, you will see it links to Feedburner which
manages my feeds. But if you don't used Feedburner, your subscribe link
might just bring up a page of gobbledygook. Don't let that worry
you, as all you need to do in most cases is copy the URL shown in the
'address' or 'navigation' bar at the top of your browser and paste it
into your feed reader.
Subscribing to a blog is always free, but I put the word 'free' in to let people who don't know about feeds and subscribing that they can - and it's free. If that leads to them downloading a free RSS Reader then I'd be very happy!
For those that already have one, by including the link at the bottom of the post, I've just saved them having to scroll back up to the top of the page to find the 'Subscribe' icon.
The point is, if you want people to subscribe, then make it easy!
If you would like to add a link like I have to your blog entries -
here is the code which you need to paste into the bottom of the Edit
HTML view when you compose your post.
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<p><a target="blank" href="INSERT_YOUR_BLOG_FEED_URL_HERE-the one you see when you click on your 'subscribe to this blog' link" ><strong>Free Subscribe</strong> to this blog feed</a></p>
eg. mine looks like this:-
<p><a target="blank" href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/typepad/ClaireRaikes/bizblogangel" ><strong>Free Subscribe</strong> to this blog feed</a></p>
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By the way - it doesn't need to be in pink!! 
