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Clear Blogging: How People Blogging Are Changing the World and How You Can Join Them

The Everything Blogging Book: Publish Your Ideas, Get Feedback, and Create Your Own Worldwide Network

Claim your own corner of the web.

Blogs let you publish your ideas, experiences, and opinions on the internet and share them with the world. If you’re lucky, you could make some money in the process. Join a community of millions and learn how to:

Launch your blog and decide what to include on it
Add photo, video, and audio files to your blog
Use your blog to make money or promote your business

Blogging Basics

Blogging is a way of publishing content, often in an informal or personal voice, on the internet. A blog, short for weblog, is a website that contains such content. The author of a blog is called a blogger. A blog can have one or more bloggers. The blogger regularly adds content to his or her blog in the form of posts, or entries, with the newest content presented first. Often, entries include links to web pages of interest or relevance to the post. Each post includes the date and time of its publication.

A Brief History of Blogging

The term “weblog” was coined in 1997 by Jorn Barger, whose website, Robot Wisdom (www.robotwisdom.com), is considered among the most influential early blogs. The first blogging software services, such as LiveJournal® and Blogger®, were introduced in the late 1990s. Although counts vary, there are believed to be more than 50 million blogs worldwide. The word “blog” now appears in dictionaries and is used in common parlance as both a noun and a verb.

Noun: This year, I started a blog about French wines.
Verb: I blog about my favorite wines almost every day.

What You Can Do With a Blog

Bloggers use blogs to do everything from showcase family photos to promote worldwide businesses. They’re used most commonly to:

Stay in touch: Keep up with family and friends by blogging about your experiences.
Express opinions: Air your thoughts on news, politics, or whatever interests you.
Create community: Post primarily about a particular topic and you’ll likely find—or create—a community of others interested in the same topic.
Promote a business: Attract new customers and retain existing ones with a blog that offers useful content about your products or services.
Earn income: Make money by hosting advertising on your blog. Advertisers pay to be featured on blogs that focus on specific topics.

Types of Blogs

There are several basic types of blogs. Though not every blog can be strictly categorized, and some may fall into multiple categories, most blogs belong to one of the following types:

Diary-style: This style describes a blogger’s daily life and personal interests. Most are private, or read by close friends and family, though some older, more established diary-style blogs are read widely.
Journalistic: This type of blog provides commentary and, sometimes, breaking news on current events, world affairs, and politics. Most follow journalistic codes, citing sources and correcting errors, but often challenge mainstream media.
Topical: These blogs offer insights and opinions on specific topics, such as parenting, technology, or auto racing. Often they feature advertising relevant to the blog’s main topic.
Photoblogs: This style features photography in addition to, or instead of, text-based entries.
Videoblogs: Also called vlogs, these feature video content in addition to, or instead of, text-based entries.
Podcasts: Not exactly blogs, podcasts (a combination of “iPod” and “broadcast”) are downloadable digital, audio-based shows produced by individuals or companies. Many blogs offer podcasts in addition to text-based content.
Moblogs: A combination of “mobile” and “blogs,” moblogs are blogs that are updated using a mobile phone or PDA. Although there aren’t many stand-alone moblogs, bloggers often include a moblog section in their blogs featuring text and other media produced on a cell phone or PDA. News sites often solicit and publish mobloggers’ photos when breaking news hits.

Common Blog Traits

No matter their type, most blogs include a few key traits:

Links: Blogs often link to other blogs and websites relevant to the subject matter in each post.
Interactivity: Blogs usually solicit feedback by allowing users to post comments in response to each entry.
Multimedia: Most blogs are text-based, but many also feature photos, video, and/or audio.

What You Need to Get Started Blogging

There are two main ways to start a blog: use a blogging service or create a blog yourself using blogging software. This chart covers both methods.

Blogging service: A blogging service is a website that lets you create a blog that’s ready to run in just a few minutes. These services are usually free, but may charge for premium features. Creating a blog through a blogging service affords you less customization than creating a blog yourself with blogging software.
Blogging software: This is a software program that you install and configure yourself to design a customized blog. To create your own blog from scratch, you need some basic familiarity with the software and computer code used to design web pages.

Acknowledgments