I. Overview of
Topic
How to blog is a
question on many people's minds these days. Blogging has
taken the world by storm. Since 2004, when it
first made its appearance, this popular medium of having your
own little corner of the world to express yourself has turned
into a veritable deluge. Today there are more than 120 million
blogs that are currently tracked by the Tecnorati blog search
engine. No wonder then, that owning and maintaining a blog has
become almost a fashion statement, especially in the
U.S.
When first embarking on a
blogging journey, there are some knotty questions that usually
beset one's mind regarding how to blog. Let's start with
the basics.
What kinds of topics can be the subjects
of blogs?
Just about anything. Simply put, a
blog is an online personal diary on just about any topic you
care to write about, ranging from politics to sports and
fitness to religion, health, freelancing, literature, or
whatever suits your fancy. But picking a subject you have
solid experience in will enable you to write meaningful
content that will pull in an audience for your
blog. Without an audience you'll soon tire of your
blog and it will join the millions of abandoned blogs lost in
cyberspace.
How are blogs categorized in blog search
engines?
Blog search engines like Technorati and
IceRocket categorize them by subject. The most general
categorization, though, is personal vs. business-oriented
blogs. Yours will probably fit into the former of these
categories.
Are blogs only text or can they
have other features as well?
Though basically
consisting of text, many blog users make their web pages more
attractive by adding pictures, audio and video
files.
How can I make my blog easy to navigate and
attractive to readers?
A successful blog usually
follows a clear simple format with its articles plainly
delineated, archives (in a sidebar), and a place at the bottom
for visitors to leave comments. Some also include
blogrolls, which are just lists of links to other similar
blogs. The best bloggers are usually people who are able to
connect with their visitors’ emotions, by means of artistic
expression in many cases. To learn how to blog with the
winners your number one teacher is other blogs – read and
study a lot of them before starting your own. A good
place to research blogs on your topic is
Icerocket.com.
What are some tips for setting up a
blog?
- First, remember your blog is a reflection
of your personality. Pick a theme or a topic close to
your heart or one you know something about. Correction,
one you know a lot about.
- Be
consistent. If you want your blog to get really popular
you need to connect with your visitors on a regular,
predictable schedule. Plan on publishing at least twice
a week. If that sounds like too much work, once a week
is the absolute lowest you can go, say blog gurus.
-
Connect/network. Connect with other blog writers by
leaving comments on their posts and by providing links to
their blogs on your website. This kind of networking will do
wonders for your traffic.
- Keep it simple. Don’t
clutter up your blog with meaningless details. Select a simple
clean appealing design. Use fonts and colors which increase
text visibility. Add videos, audios, photographs and music
files only if these make your blog more attractive and/or
useful.
- Don't stick your neck out – or not too far
anyway. Blogs can get opinionated, which is fine, but
don't put yourself at risk of a heavy-duty defammation
suit. It's fine to express your opinions – so long as
you make it clear they're just that, your opinions -- and
always be sure that your blog is not defaming somebody,
divulging sensitive information, or giving away corporate
secrets.
Okay, I get the feel about how to blog. Now
where do I go from here?
To get started, you first need to select suitable weblog
software. This is necessary in order to create and
manage your blog. There's quite an assortment of blogging
software out there. Some offer ease of design and
development while other programs offer more elaborate
features, for example, allowing you to add discussion forums,
message boards etc. Some weblogs can be downloaded and
installed directly on your system. Freeware and open source
software are available, though these programs are not as
feature-rich as some of the paid proprietary software.
Here's a rundown of the most popular blogging
software:
Wordpress
Wordpress
is the number one blog publishing software. Why? --
because it's freeware, easy to install, and has a minimal
learning curve. Its extensive documentation and
step-by-step installation guide make it a cakewalk even for a
novice user. Among its most salient features are
-
Easy installation – Even a newbie can get
Wordpress up and going in 5 minutes. Moreover, web pages are
generated dynamically by using thousands of built-in templates
thereby greatly reducing your time and effort.
User
Management – Restricts access to users while you're making
modifications in your weblog. So in effect you have
separate access for readers and administrative
users.
Saves precious bandwidth through its Gzip
feature, which reduces blog transmission size.
Enables
you to place RSS feeds into your blogs and also aids in
inter-blog communication by providing features like pingback
and trackback.
Comes with lots of plugins making it
possible for you to incorporate any feature you want. You can
also integrate Wordpress with Akismet, a popular anti-spam
software program used to protect blogs from
spammers.
Other useful features include a database of
visitors, capability to save previous drafts, blog previews,
and easy formatting.
Want to see some popular blogs
that use Wordpress. Two to start with are:
Ilovetypography and Problogger.
OTHER WEBLOG
SOFTWARE
Typepad
Created and owned by Six Apart Limited, Typepad is a blog
hosting website currently used by many large organizations in
the US, such as Sky News, BBC, and MSNBC for hosting their
weblogs. Launched in October 2003, Typepad today can boast
that it's the number one paid blogging service worldwide.
Available in multiple languages in different parts of the
world, users have three different subscription options:
$4.50/month for a basic subscription to $14.50/month for the
pro edition. Among its features: The software
enables you to associate each article in your blog with a URL,
and easy uploading and sharing photo albums from multiple
authors have made this a vox populi among professional
bloggers. So if writing is your passion and you want to
make it a profession, you can start by signing up for
Typepad.
Movable Type
The first
blogging system developed by Six Apart Limited in 2001,
Movable Type hosts some of the world's top blogs, such as
Huffington Post and Boing Boing. Developed using Perl, Movable
Type supports LDAP protocol for efficient user management and
automatic provisioning of blogs. This blogging system is
extremely useful if you want to run multiple blogs using a
single installation. The system is enriched with all possible
features you could possibly think of, such as a customizable
template library, ability to create categories and sub
categories of articles, efficient user management directory
servers and hordes of independent plugins that can be used to
support different services, like creating discussion forums.
This blogging system is an attractive choice if you have a
technical bent.
Text
Pattern
Developed by Dean Allen as an open source content management
system, this is one of the simplest blogging systems available
today. The most useful feature of Text Pattern is textile that
helps in converting simple text documents into stylish HTML
web pages using built-in style sheets. Text Pattern has a
built-in CSS editor that simplifies the task of changing your
web site's designs, fonts, position of the text and the
background color. You can also password-protect certain
sections of your blogs and keep regular track of visitors and
their comments. The date and time stamp of each article is
adjustable and you can save drafts of your blogs for future
publication. What makes it most attractive is that Text
Pattern provides a built-in search engine and the users can
also link XML feeds into their blogs. The simplicity of
Text Pattern is its USP. For most beginners choosing this
service is almost a nobrainer.
Blogger
Developed by Pyra Systems and bought by Google in 2003,
Blogger is one of the most popular blogging systems to date.
Google subsequently acquired Picasa in 2004 and integrated the
latter's photo sharing feature ‘Hello’ into Blogger. Alexa
ranks Blogger as the 9th most visited site worldwide,
indicating its enormous popularity. Blogger offers multiple
author support allowing the user to create group blogs.
Bloggers can even earn revenue from Google Adsense by
integrating it into their blogs. Another interesting feature
provided by Blogger is a free add-in for Microsoft Word called
“Blogger for Word” that helps blog users save their blogs
directly in Blogger from their Word document. Bloggers can
also customize their blog templates as per personal
preferences. For users having a Google email account, it is a
pretty simple matter to link to Blogger and then start writing
and maybe earning some extra
income.
In
addition to the above five blogging systems there are a number
of up-and-coming lesser-known blog systems which include all
the aforementioned features but don’t require any plugins for
extending their feature list. Some of the best of these
second-line blogging systems are:
Habari
Habari, meaning
‘news’ in Swahili, is one of the most promising new blogging
platforms and one of the finalists in the ‘Best New Projects
in 2008’ Sourceforge Community Choice Award. Habari
allows the user to launch multiple blogs using a single
installation, supports multiple writers and has a modular
structure for easy extendibility. All these features will make
Habari a formidable competitor in blog publishing.
Symphony
Created for
ultra-serious bloggers, Symphony has been developed in XML and
XSLT. This is a blogging system for web developers and has an
MVC architecture which gives the blogger full control over
their website. An extremely versatile system, Symphony can be
customized to a high level making it popular among bloggers
who want to keep a tight grip on all aspects of their
website.
Pixie
Positioning itself
as a small, simple website maker, Pixie is also a great
blogging platform for all of you who are new to the world of
blogging. Ease of installation, lots of creative CSS themes,
search engine optimized clean URLs for your website, spam
protection, a file manager which supports tags for easy
sorting of files and a small memory requirement of just 1 MB
are some of the features which explain
Pixie’s fast-rising
popularity.
That's it, our ten minutes are up
(okay, maybe eleven or twelve). Below are additional
resources on How to Blog.
II. FOR ADDITIONAL
INFORMATION
Following are additional research resources on “How to
Blog.”
Tumblr
Tumblr is a popular
micro-blogging site where users create and share small posts
of about 140 words or less. What makes these micro-blogs,
popularly known as tumblelogs, all the rage is their ease of
customization and the freedom they provide for posting
everything from photos to quotes, to emails, and even links.
Moreover, signing up for Tumblr really does take only about 10
seconds. More and more people are attracted to micro-blogging
due to its capability for posting short, incisive and
hopefully witty messages about the poster's latest doings,
inventions, discoveries, observations, misadventures, etc.
Tumblelogs even make it possible for people to post their art
works and music audios and videos for public
viewing.
Clubmom
If you are a
homemaker who loves sharing recipes, health tips, beauty
secrets and child care advice and also love getting
similar words of wisdom from others, Clubmom is the place for
you. It's a blogging site/forum where moms can meet and share
their experiences while at the same time having a chance at
winning exciting gifts. From family anecdotes to home
remedies, careers to kids, this is a bonding place for moms of
all age groups. Joining Clubmom means connecting with
individuals at a personal level and sharing information which
benefits all.
Other
Web Search Guides
Other Web Search Guides you might find useful:
Internet Security
Online Games
Free MySpace Layouts
MySpace Safety
Recommended Reading
III.Discussion
Group
|
