There are some challenges, the least of which is actually creating the blog.
Marine Depot Blog
We did ours through Blogger; we eventually moved it to our own servers because we found putting the blogspot address in our email marketing got some messages marked as spam by ISPs.
First, getting employees to contribute I think has been the biggest challenge. I find most of the time it's really just me posting stuff (a marketing dude). Second, the balance of what is interesting to your readers and what serves the interests of your company (namely, sales). Truth be told, our blog doesn't generate a whole heckuva lot of money. It has had some victories though; recently I read a review from a customer on BizRate that said he finds deals at MarineDepot.com on our blog. That made me
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The most important thing you can do to help your blog succeed is to participate in the blogosphere. You need to dedicate an hour or two per week to visiting like-minded blogs (for us, it's people blogging about aquariums) and commenting on their stuff. If you want to draw in free traffic and have loyal readership, you need to be an active blogger ... and that doesn't mean just posting.
The other useful thing you pick up while "networking" on your customers blogs is what type of widgets they use; that way, you can incorporate those community elements on your own blog. Widgets can stimulate a communal vibe and create a level of familiarity for readers, which will make them feel comfortable and want to participate in some of the stuff you have going on, like polls and whatnot.
Lastly, don't be too sales oriented. We've found the best approach is to just be honest and passionate about your niche and throw in the occasional product-related post. For us, it's a deal of the week, new product announcements, best of's, etc.
Good luck with your blog! Oh,
Ping-o-Matic! is useful, too.
