BLOGGING FOR BEGINNERS
Catch Up on the Blogosphere in the 21st Century!
Blogging in 21st Century: Introduction to Online Journaling
Blogging and
social networking are inextricably linked in the sense that both contain certain features and certain properties of
one another. Both are aimed at creating a wide
movement as far as multimedia interaction is concerned. Though it is
true that blogs can be regulated and kept very private, the main purpose of them is to reach out to a number
of people, to have
a medium to voice your opinion.
Another
similarity is that both these concepts have existed in cyber space for almost a decade now, but in the initial stages both
were rather exclusive of one another. Only in
the recent times
have they been merged, and their
similarity in motives truly recognized. Blogging is essentially done to channel your thoughts out on to
an online journal. You also want other people
to read what you
have written.
This way, you go
about coming in touch with people from all over the world who you would not have otherwise known. Similar is
the function of social networking. It is a hub
where the young and the hearty flock. The chances of getting an audience
at such a platform are high.
The origination
of the term ‘blog’ is interesting. It was initially called a ‘weblog’ meaning a log or a diary or a journal that helps
you to record your thoughts on a day to day basis. In that sense it was rather in its primitive stages and did not
turn into an instrument for propaganda
immediately. This term was later shortened to blog and this is when free blogging
services like Blogger became
extremely popular.
As mentioned
earlier, blogging today is not restricted to only maintaining a journal. It has truly become a platform where various
kinds of people from all walks of life, whether they have the same ideologies or not, conflate, and discuss the
matters they think are important to them.
Blogging in the
twenty first century has come to become an important tool for advertising for people who wish to market their
products online, for politicians who wish to sell their ideologies, and reach out, to the masses.
Moreover, creating
a blog and maintaining it does not require a fortune. Everybody
now has a personal blog and
it is all free of cost. Also, one does not need to be a computer engineer
or a graphic or web
designer in order to embellish
their blog.
Unlike a website
which operates on a different domain, and for which every single template and tab needs to be designed and
created from the scratch, blog sites do not
need such knowledge. The blogging service providers have their own
inbuilt templates and fonts which
have to be chosen by the bloggers as per their own tastes and preferences.
Blogging is an
ideal way to make new friends and come in contact with more people than you can do in the actual word, from
all quarters of the world. Such diverse people
will obviously have differing viewpoints. Therefore, this gives scope
for a good deal of discussion and debate with all points of view being
taken on board.
Blogs can also be for
the sole purpose of making new friends and socializing.
That is why social networking sites have picked up the clue and in these
times social networking and blogging
has, to some extent, been combined, and almost become indistinguishable.
It would be
interesting to note that the word ‘blog’ is both a noun and a verb. This leads us to the fact that blogging in some sense
also helps get rid of hassles of publishing.
Though your work
will not come out in print, you know that you can publish your work – your articles, pictures, videos, etc – yourself through you blog.
Therefore, it may
be your own personal journal that you wish others to read or you works of art in terms of the stories or
articles that you write, or the movies that you make. You can share almost any content
with the world at large.
It must also be
noted that just like you do not have to be a web designer to create your own blog, you need not be a professional
writer, a film maker or a photographer to publish
content on your blog. It is just a space for you to indulge in your own small artistic pursuits and share those moments
with others. Blogging must therefore be exploited to its full potential.
How Can Online Blogging Be Profitable to Ordinary
Individuals?
Ranking of any
website depends on a few factors. It would basically depend on the relevance of the article according to the
key words used; the number of times that page
has been linked and viewed, etc.
These are quite easy to follow,
and if these factors are carefully noted and looked into, the rankings of your website
can increase considerably.
The first step is
to get your website linked through various other pages. The more the pages are that contain your links, the
better ranking they will receive. The second aspect to be kept in mind is
how often you update the content on your
website.
Frequently edited and updated
sites receive higher
ranking in search
engines than those that
have not been looked at by the owners for ages. Always editing the content of
your website as a whole may not be an option.
In this case what you can do is add a Blog to your website. A Blog will
function as nothing but a forum for
people to come and discuss the themes that concern your website too.
It will create a
platform, as well as become a journal whereby you can also post updates about your operations and your website.
The advantage is that the content on such Blogs will not be restricted only to text, but pictures and videos can be posted too.
The few easy steps as
described below will take you through how to create your own blog and what are the things you
must look out for:
·
Cost can never be
a problem because free blogging
services are quite popular all over the world. If you choose sites like Blogger or LiveJournal, you are sure to get exactly the kind of platform you are
looking for. They are
absolutely free.
·
If you are not very comfortable with web
designing techniques, you need not worry.
Creating your blog is not as complicated as designing template for a website.
These blogging services
provide a wide range of templates from which you can
choose the one most suited to your tastes.
·
You must also use your discretion while
blogging. Especially if you are incorporating
your blog within your website, or creating a blog to increase awareness of your product, you need to
keep in mind that this is an open forum which
is read by all. You do not want to say anything that may end up angering your clients. Politics and religion are
the two most controversial themes, and therefore anything about those must be carefully blogged about.
·
Anything that is particularly reader friendly
and does not anger too many people is considered ‘safe’. If your aim is indeed to increase the ranking of your site, you will have to make sure many people read
it. You can do this by making your content user friendly.
·
Also keep an eye on what other people write or
say on their blogs. This can give you
a general idea of what kind of responses those articles receive, and you can get valuable
tips from them.
Blogging has
come to be considered a highly effective marketing tool. You can easily create awareness of your product and get
clients and customers to interact with each other. And not only customers, also those who are
relatively new to your product get a platform to ask questions and clear their air about your product.
Moreover, it also
increases your website rankings can increase because the blog is constantly being updates, commented
on, and discussions are always
going on.
Because of its
sheer activity, the rankings
improve, creating more awareness of the product.
The following are the pointers based
on which you can blog about your
product:
·
Never make the blog post too long uselessly.
It must be well written. Long posts tend to get
dreary and they are not ‘catchy’ enough for people to sit and go through
them.
·
Update regularly. Since
you don’t need to write
long posts, that is not much effort.
Ideally, blog 3-7 times
a week.
·
Be entertaining where required, everyone
can do with some light hearted humor,
without being derogatory.
·
You need not stick only to text. Video and photo
blogging are fats catching on and
are interesting ways to share your thoughts, and make your videos and photographs well known.
·
Be yourself.
Do not to ape, imitate
or copy someone
else’s content.
How to Start
Your Own Blog in Less than 15 Minutes
Creating a blog
is nothing that you need to be afraid of. There is no elaborate planning required either. However, there are a few
things you would need to decide. Since these
blogging service providers give you a lot of choice in terms of template
and color themes, would be require to take those decisions yourself.
The following is a quick guide of
what to think over before
creating your blog:
·
Theme: Determine
what you would be writing about or the nature of the content that you would be sharing with your
readers. This depends mainly on your interest.
Topics blogging to the field of politics, poetry, arts, current affairs, or almost anything under the
sun can be chosen. You can stick to one theme or you
can choose to write about whatever concerns you on a day to day basis.
Since it is your very own web
journal, you can make it as flexible as possible in all aspects.
·
Blogging
Provider: Next you need to decide upon which blogging service provider you would like to use. This
depends on the kind of reviews that you get about
them from friends and acquaintances, or something about them that you may have read online. Otherwise, you can always
try out something and find out if you like it. You can try out one of
these popular sites: Blogger.com, WordPress.com, Typepad, Blogagotchi.com, Livejournal.com, JournalHome.com, TheDiary.org, Mindsay.com, Blog.com,
Diaryland.com, Blogdrive.com, or Xanga.com.
·
Templates: A wide range of templates will be made available on any blogging
service you decide
to start you blog. Select
the one you most prefer or
like.
·
Freebies: The advantage with these blogging
service providers is that they make your blogging experience as dynamic and
interactive as possible. They enable you
to install add-on features that include button, pictures, blog chalks, imoods, tagboards such as myshoutbox.com, guest
maps, guestbooks, comment boxes for readers'
thoughts and views, etc.
·
Additional
Features: These interesting ones may not be free. By paying a price you can
avail of them.
·
Nature
of Blog: You must determine who should read your blog-whether you want it to be read only by a select
circle, or must it be open to all. This will
depend upon the content, mainly.
·
Layout: Again,
there will be a wide range to choose from in terms of layout and color schemes.
·
Content:
You could pick up a specific theme and write about it consistently,
or merely decide on any random topic
as and when it interests you. You could try putting up content for a while and see the kind of response you get, and alter
or modify it accordingly.
·
Blogging
Circle: Blogging is a great way to come in touch with people from across the globe. You can surf and visit
other people’s blogs. Do not spam in their
comment section, but write a genuine comment if you have something to say about a particular post.
·
Skins: You
can customize and personalize your blog as much as you want. Using software like Photoshop you can create
your own skins and make your blog attractive as well as make it reflect you own personality.
·
Publish:
Finally when you are done selecting the setting and preferences, selecting a content to put up, you need to
publish the content. Do not, however, forget
to send the link to your blog to your friends and acquaintances so that they may come visit you.
Once you have
started your blog, you will have noticed that it hardly takes fifteen minutes
to do so. Maintain the blog is
even easier. Here are a few tips that would help you successfully keep your blog going:
·
Update: Update
frequently otherwise visitors may stop coming to your blog. It will also
give you more confidence to churn out more well worded posts in the future.
·
Personalize:
Even though you might be discussing general and universal themes, add your own personal
touch to make things lighter
and interesting.
·
Theme: If
you have a theme blog you can Google for other blogs of a similar kind and build
you network.
·
Spelling
and Grammar: Make sure you proof read your posts. Spelling and grammatical errors can be a major put-off for many readers.
·
Advertisements:
You could play host to sites like Google AdSense and earn revenue
by placing their links on your blog.
Writing Content and Getting Constant
Traffic to Your Blog
Blogging has
truly revolutionized the way one experiences the digital age. There is, it seems, no
limit to what one can do with the help of
blogs. Even the smallest aspect
of your daily personal life
like recording journal entries has been given an entirely new dimension.
Going on from
there, there is a lot of scope of picking up interesting debates and discussions through blogs. You can even
start some of these discussions yourself. Moreover,
there is nothing as interesting and attractive than that fact that
you can even earn some money while blogging.
This is, by far,
the most path breaking innovation that has entered the blog sphere. The requirements for this are very low. You
need not be a scientist who posts revolutionary details about his latest experiment.
If you blog well,
that is to say, if you blog well enough for people to come read it, you earn good chances of making quick money,
by just going about your daily activity of posting blogs!
Here are some of the things you can do to make sure that your
blogging activities get rewarded by more than just comments
and praises:
You could
get yourself registered with a search
engine. But keep in mind that
you must do it only if you are confident enough that your blog gets good
traffic. That way, the higher the ranking
your blog achieves, the more you
get paid.
While writing
your blogs you also need to keep in mind a few things. This is not only to ensure that you get a steady traffic,
but also for the fact that your blog readership can increase so that the ranking
of your blog with search engines
go higher.
Here are a few tips that should see you through this:
·
Reader Friendly Content: At all costs keep your content –
articles, poems, photographs, videos
– reader friendly, that is to say, it should keep more and more readers
interested. Your reader must be at the center
of you post in a way that your reader must feel that he is
gaining something out of reading your post.
This is the basic rule
in marketing.
·
Worthwhile:
Never let the reader feel that he has been tricked into reading your post or clicking on your blog link. You
are thwarting all your long term chances of
that reader coming back to your blog, in which case your blog rankings
over the long term are in a dicey
position.
·
Check for errors: Making grammatical and spelling errors can be a major put off for many readers. They may not visit your
blog again simply because the errors that
you make are too high. Always proof read your blog. A small typo here and there can be understood, but make sure you don’t
make any major errors.
·
KISS:
Or, Keep It Short and Simple. This is the thumb rule you must follow
at all point. Long winding posts tend
to get boring. And it may contain nothing that is interesting to the reader. Also no one has the time enough for
your blog, no matter how well you
write. In fact, your blog will be much more appreciated if you put your thoughts
simply and shortly.
·
Interesting:
Make sure that you hold your reader’s attention by making your posts snazzy. They must not be written
in a tone that is tiring to read. Write short
sentences and keep then crisp and precise. Always hit the point
immediately in the course of your article.
·
Link:
Keep linking the blogs you read to yours in order to build a network
those people will be in turn
encouraged to link you. Remember, linking increases rankings.
·
Keywords:
Using the keywords of your posts frequently increases the search ability of that particular article of
yours which in turn leads more people to visit
your blog.
·
Clear Thoughts: Make sure you put your thought
clearly before the readers so that it does not become tedious
for them to read.
·
Colloquialism: You can write in a friendly tone.
Avoid using too many slang words, but otherwise,
if your post demands it, you can be colloquial.
·
Post Title:
A catchy post title or headline is half your business solved. It can glue a reader to your post almost immediately.
However, do not put misleading post titles, or you
will lose creditability.
So, be consistent with your blog
content and watch traffic flowing in to your blog!
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