Starting Your Own Blog

I was sitting in my local Internet Cafe yesterday, I like to get away from my 'home office' from time to time and it's a great place to go for a cup of Espresso and to meet interesting people. The rather attractive lady sitting next to me was typing away furiously and, when she had finished, I asked her what she was writing - I'm interested in learning how other people use the Internet... some people call that being nosey!

It turns out she was a 'Blogger' and she was updating her web site through a web browser. She was really interested in vegetarian cookery and she was adding a new restaurant review to her blog.

If you spend any time at all online these days you simply can't avoid reading something about blogs, they are becoming increasingly more popular; and they are a great way of building an online presence without the need for any technical knowledge. A blog is an abbreviation of the term 'web log' which is a relatively simple content management system.

Quite a few years ago, web surfers began collecting information and interesting links that they encountered during their online travels. As time passed they started to create logs of the information that they collected and they soon started to develop their own web logs. These web logs enabled them to update the information and links as often as they wished.

Blogs are more permanent than posts to an online forum or to a discussion list, they are much more dynamic than the traditional style home pages. They are also more personal than standard journaling, and definitely more public than diaries. A blog is often a mixture of what is happening in a person's life and what is happening on the Web, a kind of hybrid diary site. So, there are as many unique types of blogs as there are people.

There are a few common characteristics of a blog, but there may be slight variations within the classification. Some blogs provide succinct descriptions of links within the chosen theme of the blog. Some others contain commentary and links to the news of the day. A few are endless stream of blurts about the writer's day. Others are - political blogs, intellectual blogs, some are hilarious and some topic driven. They are all - Weblogs.

As mentioned earlier, blogs are posts that are short, informal and sometimes deeply personal no matter what the topic of discussion is. They can be characterized by their conversational tone.

If a person has a web presence but is disappointed with static homepage - if an elegant treatment of posts on a global platform is what they want, then 'blogging' provides an ideal platform. They may also consider blogging if they are seeking feedback from their chosen audience.

Weblogs are definitely the mavericks of the online world. Two of their greatest strengths are their ability to filter and disseminate information to a widely dispersed audience, and their position outside the mainstream of mass media.

There are many different options available to the new and seasoned blogger alike. Some blog scripts are available for you to install on your own domain and these require at least a basic understanding of FTP and HTML. There are many hosted blog services available some free and some paid. If you are serious about blogging then I would strongly recommend that you use the best system that you can afford and that meets your needs.

I personally have used the 'Moveable Type' stand-alone script and although quite complex to install, I found it very easy to use. My recommended choice of hosted blogging service would have to be the Blog4Cash.com system that includes a wide variety of high quality features and has a built in two tier affiliate scheme that enables you to generate a recurring income from all your referrals!

John Taylor - © November 2004.

About The Author

John is a prolific writer and is the author of several books including 'Testing & Tracking' (http://www.Test-and-track.com). John's http://www.MarketersBlog.com weblog provides insightful comments on all aspects of online marketing and is well worth a visit! For information on 'How To Get Paid To Blog' click here now to visit... http://www.Blog4Cash.com

This article may be reprinted online, within ezines and newsletters on the condition that this resource box remains intact.

____________________

Advertisement: Honest Riches - Click Here!

Advertisement: Lost AdWords - Click Here!

Advertisement: Get $1 Million A Month In Google Pay-Per-Click Ads Free! - Click Here!

Advertisement: Who Loves Money? - Click Here!

Advertisement: SEO Elite, the GrandDaddy of SEO Software - Click Here!

---

Why Wordpress is now my Blog of Choice

The more I use Wordpress, the more I love it. It has 2 very important features that Blogger doesn't yet support.Number 1, you can set up Wordpress... Read More

Got Blog?

In 1999 I asked my friends and colleagues if they blogged. The responses I received ranged from odd looks to questions about the blogging practice. The end... Read More

The 7 Steps to Promoting Your RSS Feeds on Your Website

RSS gets 100% of your content delivered, but it's no good if no one subscribes to your feeds.So your first order of business after planning and creating... Read More

Is Blogging For You? Take This Quick Quiz

What The Hell Is A Blog Anyway?The word 'blog' is a shortened version of 'web blog'. A 'web log' just means a log or diary-type entry on... Read More

How to Make Money With Your Blog?

Make money blogging is fun: you enjoy blogging and getting money from blogging. As long as "making money with your blog" is concerned, it doesn't matter matter... Read More

RSS for Newbies; A Quick Tutorial

"RSS" stands for "Really Simple Syndication". It is a new way to distribute content. Any content: websites, blogs, forums, etc. To explain what this means, for once... Read More

Blogging: A Profit Making Internet Option

Blogging is a relatively new form of communication, closely related to the newsletters of days long past. Your thoughts, ideas, and activities are posted for the world... Read More

#1 Mistake Most Blogs Do

As much as this might surprise most bloggers, the #1 mistake most blogs are doing is not publishing their content via e-mail, as a supplement to their... Read More

Are You Thinking of Republishing RSS Feeds?

There is lively debate about the republishing of RSS feeds on other sites. The argument surrounds the use of RSS feeds from the feed publisher being used... Read More

RSS ? Will It Really Become Mainstream?

I am not one to have New Year's resolutions, but I do plan ahead. As we reached the last quarter of 2004, I decided that 2005 would... Read More

10 Reasons to Put RSS on Your Site!

RSS and Blogs are the topics of the moment. Seems like everyone is talking about it. Granted, there is too much hype about RSS and Blogs.But where... Read More

The Best Marketing Tool For Your RSS Feed and Its Free

Do a search on Blogs on Yahoo and you get 236 Million Results.A Yahoo Search on RSS yields 558 Million Results. A Yahoo search on RSS Feed... Read More

Do Marketers Really Need RSS?

The recent Forrester Research study, which claims that only 2% of online households in North America use RSS, took the internet marketing world by storm. Does this... Read More

Using RSS Feeds to Set Off a Traffic Explosion

RSS, or Really Simple Syndication, is the perfect answer to your needs for sharing and distributing content. The way this works is webmasters can share bits of... Read More

If an RSS feed is the Yahoo Backdoor, is a Blog Googles?

Though the answer is in a book I wrote this July, the question is still asked of me repeatedly. Why does it work for some sites and... Read More

Blog or Ezine? Top 7 Reasons to Blog Now!

Many of my small business clients ask me: "What is a blog and do I need one?" As a marketing consultant and business coach, I too had... Read More

Business Blogging - 5 Tips to Help You Smashl Through Writers Block

It's inevitable. Everyone hits the wall. Whether you've been blogging ten weeks, ten minutes, or ten months, eventually you'll find yourself with absolutely nothing to say. ... Read More

How To Avoid Blog Burnout

Blogging is a time consuming process. It involves the process of gathering, reading, digesting and compiling information into a nice, meaty post that gives your... Read More

Using Feedburner to Add Statistics to Your RSS Feed

Out of many of the free RSS and blogging services that I have tried one of the most useful has been Feedburner. Feedburner allows you to publish... Read More

The Language of Blogs

I read over a lot of blogs each week, casually surfing one or two of the blog exchanges I belong.I realized yesterday that I seldom read the... Read More

How to Make Money with Your Blog

-- What Is A BlogA blog (or web log as what originally called) is the modern day equivalent of a journal?think 'captains log stardate?' and you're heading... Read More

Tips for Better Blogging - Promote any Product or Service

People start blogs for all kinds of reasons. Ego. Political comment or agenda. Staying in touch with family and friends. Marketing. Why did you start your blog?If... Read More

Why Use RSS?

So why use RSS? Well, I can find a whole lot of reasons why. Although I'm not technically inclined I do understand the power behind syndication. Anyone... Read More

Blogging For Business - Great Reasons For Every Business To Start A Weblog

If Howard Dean's failed political campaign accomplished anything, I would say that it brought to the mainstream the use of something called a weblog or "blog" as... Read More

How to Create an RSS Feed

An RSS news feed can be used to communicate with your target audience. It is an ideal means of notifying people of new content on your website... Read More

The Holy Grail that Online Advertisers, Merchants, Publishers, and Shoppers have been Looking for!

For Online Publishers/RSS Feeds users - RSS (Real Simple Syndication) is a popular way for online users/publishers to pull news and information from across the web. RSS... Read More