The excellent blog of SmallFuel Marketing is full of great information about how to do better marketing for small business. But iif you don’t have time to read through the whole site, you can at least check out this article on the whys and hows of small business blogging:

The big picture of blogging for business goes something like this. In
order to be successful with business blogging you’ll need to put in a
good amount of time. Blogs need to be updated regularly, most people
say between 3-5 times per week, so there is a lot of writing involved.
Also, blogging is a very social activity. This means that you should
read and comment on other blogs, as well as network and build
relationships with other bloggers. In summary, it takes time and
effort.

The result of your efforts, however, can be truly outstanding. A
well-designed and frequently updated blog can boost your website to the
top of search results (blogs are awesome from an SEO perspective), it
can draw in thousands of visitors, and it can help build your image as
an authority. A successful blog can serve as branding, advertising,
networking, and sales all rolled into one. And they don’t even cost
much.

The article is full of links to other useful resources too.

Bottom line: While a good blog requires time and effort, it provides excellent return on that investment.

(Link thanks to FreelanceSwitch.)