Blogging is a powerful career weapon that is often overlooked because the very word itself sounds a little bit nerdy.

However, if we carefully examine the process of blogging, we can better understand what it's really all about and how it can help to accelerate one's career development.

First, it's important to understand the three key issues to consider when blogging:

1. What you know
2. What your career objective is
3. Who you are writing for

You have to know all three equally well.

For instance, if you only know what you know, but don't know about your career objective or who you're writing for, then that's not good.

Similarly, if you know your career goal but don't know what exactly you know, or who you're trying to inform, that's also not good.

KNOW WHAT YOU KNOW

It's important to clearly define your area of expertise, and to stick to it. Specifics always outsell generalities.

For instance, rather than position yourself as a blogger on "marketing," consider a more narrow specialization like "direct marketing" or "email marketing."

KNOW YOUR CAREER GOAL

If your objective is to become a VP of marketing, then don't write about operations or leadership on your career blog. It would not make sense and would in fact confuse potential employers.

KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE

It's also important to define who your audience is. Write specifically for them. Try to be useful by offering valuable information that can help them. Show them how they could use your information to improve their lives or their professional performance at work.

Once you've clearly defined the three parameters above, you can then create an account at Wordpress.com and start creating a career blog where you share your valuable knowledge with potential employers and clients.

Make sure you have a "subscribe" button on the front page so readers can subscribe and receive your latest updates by email.

Ultimately, career blogging is about being useful to people. It's not about self-promotion per se, although you will naturally become well-known and popular if you do a good job of sharing valuable information with readers.

As you become more and more useful to people, they will seek you out and ask for your advice. This could lead to lucrative contracts or exciting job opportunities.

But the greatest benefit of all is to know that you make a difference in other people's lives, no matter how small that difference. Just knowing that you have a list of subscribers who want to hear your expert opinion, will pleasantly boost your self-esteem while giving your the self-confidence to boldly move forward in your career.

Note: Peter Nguyen has been an obsessive blogger for the last three years. Two of his most popular blogs are http://realtimesuccesssecrets.blogspot.com and http://linkedinusermanual.blogspot.com.