Blogging- America's New Favorite Pastime

Blogging- What Is It?

Authoring a blog, maintaining a blog or adding an article to an existing blog is called "blogging". This ability to organize and present articles in a composed fashion is much of what makes blogging a popular personal publishing tool. Typically, blog authors compose their articles in a web-based interface, such as the ones provided by Blogger.com, Blog-City.com, Wordpress.org, etc. (you can find plenty of other free blog providers using your favorite search engine).

Blogs might be maintained from personal computers, or they might be updated using moblogging technology - web-enabled mobile phones or hand-held devices. However, the blogging community is vibrant and not restricted to technical elite. Where the Internet is about availability of information, blogging is about making information creation available to anyone.

Creating Your Own Free Blog Is Easy

For most free blogging providers, you simply create an account, then fill in a title and description for your blogging Web page. Once your blog has been setup, you're ready to start blogging!

Blogging Software

In early 1999, blogging software entered the scene, enabling anybody to place a blog on their existing website or simply have a blog hosted under their own domain. Any tech-savvy user can download and install blogging software themselves. Most blogging software doesn't require an extensive infrastructure. And because most of it is open-sourced, developers can extend it to work with other software or additional blogging tools.

Blogging Tips

1. Blogging completely anonymously is not a good idea, because people reading your blog will feel disconnected from you and your writings- and with all of the bogus information on the internet today, gaining trust from you audience is a must if you want them to keep coming back. If privacy is a concern, consider blogging under only your first name, or for even more privacy, a pseudonym.

2. Update your blog often- posting new content regularly attracts readers and search engine spiders. If your blog contains fresh content on a regular basis, your readers will visit often. Search engines will visit and index a website or blog more often when it is updated constantly.

3. Allow and respond to comments. Allowing your readers to interact with your blog will boost it's popularity. Yes, there are spammers out there who are ready to pounce on your blog and post a spammy comment with a link to their website. But closing the comments can be equally as hurtful to your blog, and if you moderate your comments you can keep the trash outside, where it belongs.

4. Link building (trading links with other blogs with similar themes) is a pertinent factor in getting your blog seen. Search engines rank websites and blogs according to how many links there are pointing to them. Be sure you set up a link building program with each blog you maintain.

If you do these things, your odds of creating a successful blog will increase significantly. A good rule of thumb is to evaluate your blog from time to time, and ask yourself, "If I were browsing and came across this blog, would I want to read it or tell my friends about it?"

The Future Of Blogging

Blogging is growing as a national (dare I say "Worldwide"?) hobby for the younger generation. New blogging technology, such as videoblogging, creates new communities that continue to develop tons of tools for the techno-blogger.

Expressing onesself has become the "thing to do". Weblogging extends this trend of self-expression to a dynamic, vibrant and energetic form of communication. The importance of the blogging community (and its relationship to larger society) has gained rapidly increasing importance. Anthologies of blog pieces reached print, and blogging personalities have begun appearing on radio and television.

The synopsis- Thanks to the creation of the weblog, as long as there are people with ideas and opinions, and a desire to tell everyone they can all about them, there will always be a medium in which they are able to do so freely

About The Author Manny Leger is a die-hard blogger and the founder of www.flookie.net, a family friendly blog directory