Dan Lyons, aka: The Fake Steve Jobs, wrote a piece for Newsweek awhile back, around the idea that although blogs can do a lot of wonderful things, but making money is not one.

Dave Winer, the man behind technologies like RSS and podcasting, responded with a fantastic and honest blog post:

How I made over $2 million with this blog

It’s an attention grabbing headline, indeed.  But Dave takes a more rounded look at how a blog can drive income and reduce costs.  Not in a “get rich quick” kind of way, but looking at a blog as a core business component.  Just like someone would include a publicity department, marketing department, or mail room, a blog is a key spoke in the wheel.

Here’s the bottom line (from Dave’s article):

…and all I did was what any blogger does — talk about what I’m doing. And that’s the role of a blog, it’s a way of communicating what you’re doing. Companies, consultants and authors need to do a lot of communicating, and blogs allow you to go direct, and be more efficient, less diluted. People get a real feel for who you are and how you think and what you’re like as a person.

Can you still afford not to build blogs into your business?