What is Blogging and Why Should I Do It?

July 14th, 2008

by Randall White

A blog is a bit like an online journal, although it can be written by various people, or by just one individual. It’s written on a website in chronological order, although usually appearing in reverse order. Blog or ‘blogging’ are also used as verbs to imply an action - in other words, the action of making a comment on a blog somewhere.

The word ‘blog’ comes from Jorn Barger’s word ‘weblog’ and reportedly sprung into being when Peter Merholz divided it into the two words ‘we blog’ on his website for a laugh.

When people communicate using a blog, they are likely discussing a specific subject of interest for them. So, if anyone wishes to learn what’s the best red widget to buy for his boat, others will write in with their comment on how that particular widget worked - or didn’t work. Blogs are ideal for uncovering what other folk’s experiences have been with whatever you can think of.

If some person is knowledgeable on some topic with plenty of experience that other people can benefit from, then he may start up a blog about it and offer advice. They may also offer links to other websites that promote items applicable to the area of expertise. Also he may offer links to other blogs or other articles about the same topic.

Blogs utilize both images and text, but some blogs emphasize art (artblog), videos (vlog), images (photoblog) and audio, that is, podcasting or MP3. Blogs can be long or short, but those that are very short are referred to as micro-blogging. Blogs are typically updated frequently and the technology utilized today permits people who understand very little about it to become competent bloggers with just a tiny learning curve.

In the early days of blogging, bloggers referred to themselves diarists, journalers, or even escribitionists. An article or comment placed on a blog is called a post, a blog post or an entry. Old blogs on a topic are sometimes referred to as ‘archives’ and may be maintained on a different page or pages that can be accessed via a hyperlink. There are occassionally a variety of links - like the index at the end of a book and they are located on the right or left of the blogging page.

The nice thing about blogging is that persons who have the same interests can all join together and talk about, getting familiar with each other (so to speak) at the same time.

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