I'm sweltering in Las Vegas amid a mass of humanity swarming the hotels and streets, getting ready for an exciting day.

I'll be listening to my fellow healthcare bloggers as they speak abut their work and beliefs at The Healthcare Blogging Summit, and I'll be doing my bit as a panelist discussing the topic, Creating a Presence - Plan and Develop Your Blog.

The most fun part of this experience is realizing that my blog and website went live exactly nine months ago today - on August 29th 2006, I had zero readers other than dutiful family and friends, and I had no name recognition at all. Today, three quarters of a year later, I am speaking at the conference simply because I have become "a little known", and I have a wide readership, many of whom either comment or write me emails, and I have a stream of new business.

All because of the power of some writing that I manage to get to two or three times a week!

Last night, I attended a dinner for the speakers and had the pleasure of schmoozing with fellow bloggers, Toby Bloomberg of the lively Diva Marketing Blog, Matthew Holt of the popular and rambunctious The Health Care Blog (never afraid to have an opinion!), Enoch Choi MD of medmusings, Carol Kirschner of the thought-provoking Driving in Traffic blog and Tom Eng, CEO of Healia, the "google" of healthcare search engines.

What was so remarkable to me was that I had forged many of these relationships in cyberspace, before we ever met.. And what was even more striking was the energy and passion in the room - it seems that there is no person more filled with conviction and persuasion than a happy blogger!

I'll share what I learned in today's conference as it is starting to look like, unless you have absolutely nothing to offer, nothing to sell and nothing to say, that developing a sound blogging strategy may be just the ticket you're looking for to being noticed, promoting your "brand" and bringing in new streams of revenue. At least, I'm convinced!