Blogging for Laymen

Posted on October 5, 2007

Blogging has become a very popular web tool. Individuals and companies alike have setup blogs. Although blogging is becoming a great tool, I’ve noticed that as I talk to people in the passing I discover there are still many who really have a lack of understanding about blogging. To many, a blog is for someone to journal about their latest vacation or latest romance. True a blog can be used for that, but that is not the full scope of a blog. I hope to give my readers a better grasp on the full use of a blog.

A Brief History of Weblogs
Modern blogging began around the mid 90’s and was referred to as weblogs. While in the beginning a blog was basically an online journal. For online businesses many had a “what’s new” section where they posted an index of articles posted by date. As an example in 1993 Netscape posted a What’s New section on their website. Around 1994 a weblog emerged named the Drudge Report by Matt Drudge. The Drudge Report was primarily headline links to major news services. In April 1997 Scripting News was launched by Dave Winer. Dave Winer’s company, Userland, would release Frontier, Manila, and Radio Userland which are all web and blog content software. About the same time a website was published known as Camworld. Camworld was launched by Jesse Jame Gerret and featured a list of weblogs he found similar to his own. In the late 90’s the word weblog was changed to wee-blog and then finally to blog. Those who published blogs were known as bloggers. In 1999 Pyra released a blogging tool called Blogger. Blogging has continued to grow to this present day.

A Look At Blogging Today
Today blogs combine text, images, audio, and video to create a unique experience for readers. A blog in it’s simplest form is a website where information is posted on an ongoing basis. The newest entries will show on top and will order by date. Blogs range on topics such as product reviews, news, health, fitness, politics, spirituality, crafts, hobbies and more.

Unique to most blogs today is the ability for readers to post leave their comments about the given topic. By posted comments readers can connect their blog with other blogs. When a reader posts a comment the poster is able to provide a link back to their website. In addition, blogs have a “feed” that users can subscibe to by using a feed readers. Feed readers allow readers to know when new content has been posted to the blog without having to check the individual blogs. For more information about RSS feeds you may want to read What is RSS/XML/Atom/Syndication by Mezzoblue.

So You Want To Blog
I’ve been remodeling my house this past year. I’ve learned having the right tools make life easy when it comes to remodeling. The same is true with blogging. With the popular growth of blogging there are many tools available for free and pay. Services such as Blogger.com, MoveableType, and WordPress.com make it easy to get started. I would recommend reading Choosing a Blog Platform by Darren Rowse to help you better determine what platform to use.

Additional Blogging Resources and Information

spread the joy:These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.