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If you're still thinking of a blog as an "online journal" you're roughly four years out of date. Blogs are a business tool, and blogging is essential for anyone who wants to make money, online or offline.

Blogging is especially vital for writers.

Here are the benefits of a blog for if you're a professional writer, or aspire to be:

1. A blog builds an audience (a platform) for your writing

Writing is competitive. The best way to get writing jobs is to already have writing jobs, because the clients you're writing for will refer you to others.

To get your first writing jobs, and more writing jobs than you can handle, you need a way for buyers of your writing to get to know you. A blog will do that for you - it makes you visible.

If you're writing books, a blog is even more important. These days, if you want to be published by a traditional publisher and have your book in bookstores, the first thing an acquisitions editor wants to know is: "What's your platform?" That is, your audience.

In days gone by, you could write a book and use that as your platform to build an audience, but those days are long gone. Publishers want a sure thing, and you get that sure thing by blogging.

A blog gets you readers, and to publishers, as well as to you, readers are money in the bank.

2. Blogging improves your writing, because you're writing more

A blog is a commitment. Although blogging can seem onerous when you start out, blogging will soon become your favorite activity, because you'll see that it improves your writing. Try it and see.

I've seen writers go from writing an article a month to writing several articles a week, and making six-figure incomes, because they blog.

3. You become a magnet for opportunities

Your blog gives you high visibility, so you'll be offered writing jobs. You won't have to chase them.

4. Your blog will get you blog jobs

"Blog jobs" are a new writing market that's popular. You can make as much and more blogging as you can writing for magazines. Your own blog means that others will ask you to blog for them.

5. You're more productive: you write more and sell more

Finally - here's the big benefit. Your blog trains you to write productively. You'll get into the habit of writing more, which means that you make more money.

Kick-start Your Writer's Blog

Go to Blogger (it's owned by Google) and create your first blog. This should take you all of 90 seconds. Call the blog anything you like - this is your "test bed" blog.

Initially this blog will simply be for practice, so you can become familiar with blogging. Ultimately, it will become the blog on which you test material.

Your portfolio blog, the next blog you will create, is NOT for testing. It's an online brochure you use to sell your writing.

Convinced that you need a blog? I hope you are. Blogging is the secret to writing success.