I live in Concord, California, in the San Francisco East Bay. I’m close to Walnut Creek, not too far from Pleasanton (home of Peoplesoft) and San Ramon. Our local newspaper, the Contra Costa Times, does a decent job of covering technology, given that part of its readership is in the Silicon Valley area and that the San Jose Mercury News is a sister paper.

So it didn’t come as too much of a surprise when I picked up this morning’s paper, turned to the business section, and saw a front-page story about local small businesses that have taken up blogging as a form of marketing. Under the headline, “Blogs connecting small firms to their clients,” the article covers several local companies that have recognized the potential blogs bring to their business and begun realizing some of the benefits. Among them, a tea merchant, a shared work-space provider, a private investigator, and a software developer.

The article also quotes Bill Flitter, chief marketing officer of a local Web advertising services firm called Pheedo, who notes that about 40% of his clients are small businesses with blogs. The nature of Pheedo—a boutique shop specializing in Web advertising services—should cause some concern among traditional PR houses. Business blogs represent more communication than advertising, yet the boutique shop clearly “gets” the concept that continues to elude the traditional agencies.

There’s one common theme running through each of the blogs cited in the story: They represent an inexpensive and simple way for these proprietors to stay in contact with their customers.