[via Jeremy]

The interesting thing about weblogs is how they are able to enable both of those while lowering the barriers to them at the same time. By starting a weblog and sticking with it, you find yourself knowing more people who you’d have otherwise never met. But more importantly more people will come to know you. And at the same time, you’re writing and writing frequently. If what you say is interesting to enough people, that reputation builds quickly.

Blogs make it easy to establish connections, a reputation, and do both with nearly infinite reach compared to the traditional approaches.