MarketingSherpa posted this article yesterday about a study which interviewed over 7,000 professionals in “corporations, government, healthcare, and academia” … “The average respondent was reading nine (9!) blogs on a regular basis. And these weren’t blogs for personal info — these were job-related.”

The article went on to point out that syndicated news sites like Google News are now a top information source. I can tell you that I’ve got some Google News RSS feeds I’m subscribed to and watch daily. While this means I get a lot of redundant and irrelevant info I am also able to build a very strong image of where a particular market is moving — at least in what the mainstream press is coverig.

How can you exploit these trends? Number one, get a blog going. You will probably be really dissapointed in the direct advertising revenue (at least initially) but it will give your site some powerful leverage. Next get your main site into Google News.

By doing these two things you will get your site in front of the eyes of influential people. If you are serious about long term success in the internet publishing industry this is a hell of a lot more important than spending all your energy making sure your site is ranking in the top 10 for your target keywords right now. Get the influence first, and rankings will be a lot easier.

If you still think blogs are a fad, Jon has some e-books you should buy.