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Category: Blogging

  • Software and Hosting for the Topical Blogger


    Blogging: The adaptable medium

    The Internet has certainly made great strides since those heady days of the “dot com boom;” so much so that today anyone who has writing ability, or aspirations of being a writer has probably already written a blog on the Web. This is because there are various types of blog software are simple to learn and easy to use; and this means that both the individual who is technically proficient, as well as the one who is technically challenged, can easily regularly.

    For some individuals, blogs serve as projects about every day living, as they talk about their daily activities and make tributes to friends and family. Furthermore, blogs assume a profound meaning when written to compose and assemble political statements, endorse a product, provide information on research, and even offer tutorials. Chances are that any subject which is of interest to you has already been written about in a blog.

    Modern-day blogs are now being written by musicians, politicians, sports figures, novelists, newscasters and actors, as well as other known figures. However, (fever?) that existed at the onset of this newfound vocation has also raised its share of controversy. The fact that anyone can compose a blog post regarding any subject matter under the sun invites complaints about certain write-ups that are at issue. In many blogs people’s names have been mentioned in not-so-flattering ways, and this is often the source of such consternation and threats of legal action.

    It is therefore important to keep in mind that, although an individual may have the freedom and tools to write anything that interests him/her in a blog, it doesn’t mean that s/he should not be responsible for the manner in which s/he put content in the public domain, especially when that content includes information about others. In other words, bloggers should avoid making statements which can become controversial, unless those statements are fully sourced by other reputable media. So be prepared, and be very careful about the content provided in .

    Why people blog

    Some folks blog for personal reasons which might include their acquaintances and relationships, while others blog as a hobby. An individual can write a blog about his/her daily activities, and about things related to his/her life as a way of telling family and friends certain things that s/he might not have been able to express verbally (in a face-to-face talk). Likewise, an individual may also just so s/he can express certain feelings about self, or about a certain subject matter that is of interest to him/her.

    Other bloggers prefer to be more topical, in the sense that the blogs they maintain are committed to a specific topic, which could be as broad in range as it is different; and might be about computer hardware, religion or politics like magazines, and similar to print media they have a regular and devoted following.

    Then there are those who by using their blogsite as a marketing tool. This category of bloggers might also include corporations, which also into blogging; and when these blogs are well written and implemented, they can be powerful instruments for business communications, thereby creating eagerness and anticipation about the their products and services they offer. The corporate blog have also been used as tool within the company to keep employees well informed about company issues and news.

    The choice of software

    A typical Web designer or software developer might get a chuckle at the notion of utilizing software developed by someone else. This is because most software developers, while knowledgeable in the field of digital technology and computer science, often adhere to the architecture and fundamentals of their own software platforms, especially when software features and platforms that a client may have differ greatly from that of the developer’s. When it comes to a Weblog software, however, there is no reason for concern when using a package that is pre-written, as most packages were developed through years of study; not just shuffled together over a couple of days.

    In addition, one may study a platform’s feature set; but for a developer, it would take a lot of time and effort to write and compose from scratch, every single feature in the of today. For most people, a blog is there for one main reason, and that is to publish or make known his/her literature and content that exist on the Web, which means that the blogger can spend more of his/her time creating and writing content, instead of coding, if s/he has the ability to code.

    Hosted services

    Finding a Web hosting service for a blog is perhaps one of the easiest and most affordable (many are free) of all the tasks a blogger might do when s/he decides to start broadcasting on the Web; so not having web host to provide space for your blog should not be a deterrent to blogging. In fact some of the services that s/he might consider looking into, are Web hosts that include Blogger, TypePad, Live Journal, and WordPress (the hosted version) in their hosting packages.

    These services are operated or handled for an individual, so there is no need for a new blogger to concern him/herself one about ; instead, s/he can concentrate on the blog’s appearance and content. In just minutes, after signing up for a hosting account, the blogger can actually start his/her own blog. Many of those services, such as blogger, are offered free, except TypePad, which charges a minimal amount for monthly service fee.

    Self-hosted services

    When a blogger has Web hosting on hand, or is eager to buy hosting, in which s/he feels that the advantage will prevail over the problems of keeping up his/her own blog connection and installation, then s/he may want to consider a package that is self-hosted. These platforms include Movable Type, Text-pattern and WordPress (“5 minute installation”).

    Other hosting companies did construct processes of making installation easier, by permitting installation with just a click from a control panel that is browser-based. It is important that a blogger checks with the hosting company so that s/he can determine whether or not this function is offered. Similar to hosted services, some self hosted packages are made available either for free or for a small fee which is dependent on the type of , as well as the basis upon which s/he is using it.

  • About Blog Hosts and Blogging Essentials


    The nature of a blog

    Blog, which is an abbreviation for the term, weblog, is a piece of Internet technology which provides individuals with in a number of different forms; including text, video, audio (podcasts) and photos. The activity of blogging has grown tremendously over the past decade to include users (bloggers) from all over the world, many of whom utilize it to publish and update posts, crop up entries of personalized life snippets that are mundane or bizarre in nature. For most bloggers, however, a blog is personal, unedited and authentic in nature; a journal meant to be shared in an online community.

    Blogsites are locations on the Web where bloggers can publish anything; from their thoughts, feelings and photos, to special events, experiences and comments on issues, in addition to many other types of content. A blogsite in its truest form is similar to an online diary to which entries are made in a variety of content types that might encompass videos, links, documents, newsletters and opinions on just about any topic the reader might have interest in.

    Personal blogs are created and intended to welcome the insights, opinions and comments of all comers, and therefore should not be written in a way that could be thought of as intimidating, or in a way that readers might consider as too formal in context; because such a blog can turn off readers and cause them to turn away and never return. The basic blog should be conversational in tone and context, a format which would be more appropriate to reach desired audiences.

    Blog functions and advantages

    Blogging can reasonably be described as being all about individuals reaching out to other individuals, and as such, blogs have their own sets of advantages, some of which might include the following:

    1. Freedom of expression – If you want people to hear you out and give their own opinions, blogging is one of the best ways to create a line of communication;
    2. Networking at its best – Having a blog is a good platform for exchanging genuine ideas from your readers to you as marketer of certain products. Sound opinions and points of view are often better than simply showing the price quote;
    3. Excellent advertising platform – Blogging as a way to advertise products, is a refreshing change from the traditional advertising outlets, and it is cost-effective;
    4. Gauging public opinion on products and services – The key to this particular activity is nice, catchy titles with new ideas presented in your content. This will assure you of quick and repeated responses from your readers. Blogs are excellent locations for the exchange of ideas between sellers and consumers; and they’re good for measuring public opinion regarding products and services, and can even be effective in the political arena;
    5. Useful tool for internal communication – Blogging can help your company build a knowledge-based community of employees, as it is also good for harnessing employee relations and identifying human resource issues in advance;
    6. Other benefits like search engine optimization (SEO) will help your blog to be seen often by as many people as you wish. This is therefore very good exposure for your products and services.

    Choosing a blog host

    Many blog hosting services are available on the Internet, but perhaps the most important question in this regard pertains to choosing from the many Web hosting services to find one that will best suit your purposes when starting your business blog program. Business people are usually clueless to recent technological innovations which could help them maximize their marketing potentials. For blogging beginners, it is best to first study the services offered by blog hosts, because an ineffective business blogging program may damage marketing opportunities instead of enriching them.

    A company might decide to do the following depending on its capacity and needs: 1) Host their own blog service, 2) Pay someone else to host the service, or 3) Setup a “blog aggregator page” and ask the employees to select their blog hosting services individually. There are paid and free services available for individuals. Business blogs are required to have ; if not, this will prevent them from maximizing their marketing, public relations and SEO potential.

    Basic blogging essentials

    COMMENTS. Welcoming comments provides the opportunity for dialogue; and for business blogs this is a good customer feedback mechanism. This helps based on loyalty and trust. So blogging is an innovative way to converse with your customers.

    TRACKBACK. This helps to maximize company and product exposure in the sense that, your consumers can get back to you for more posts and updates without the difficulty of locating you all over again. If your blog is popular in a specific online community, chances are that links going back to your blog site are everywhere online, other blog sites or even websites.

    CATEGORIES AND TAGS. These are helpful, both in classifying blog searches for ease of navigation, as well as on site searches. Categories act as libraries because they classify posts by subject matter which might include business, distance learning, eCommerce, online auctions and much more. Tags, help in classification, especially in the blog search engine Technorati. Possible customers and new clients locate blogs about certain topics of interest by just clicking the tags.

    RSS FEED. Really Simple Syndication is the feed from your blog that is sent out over the internet, and collected through the various newsreaders and aggregators.

    In order for your company to establish a business blogging program, considerable options should be made available by the hosting companies with the most compatible services. Free blog hosting services are popular but they are more appropriate for individual online journals. Paid blog hosting services offer unlimited packages which may be best for your company’s needs. You may want to take a look at some blogs that already use a particular host first, by simply reading and closely examining their layout and design. Another important thing to consider is whether or not the hos provides reliable technical support.

    The blog: A reflection of the blogger

    After choosing the blog host a team should be ready to plan the in which case the team should:

    • create a style that meets the needs of your audience;
    • establish an open, credible tone;
    • schedule weekly updating of blog – ideally, a few times a week;
    • include weblinks of other website and blogs;
    • blog post should be in the “first person;”
    • focus on the business blog objective;and,
    • maintain an honest, engaging conversational quality.

    Remember, the look, style and content found on your blog is always a reflection of you and your company. Apart from the chat rooms, instant messengers and electronic mails created for communication and dialogue beyond the traditional methods of communication, blogs have emerged as the most innovative and convenient methods used by regular folks to build opportunities for interaction. The need for personalized and human elements of building online communities have changed the technological landscape of Internet life.

  • Blogging: A Money-Making Web Marketing Tool


    From mere comments to profits!

    Blogging has come a long way since the late nineteen-nineties when it was seen as a way to merely comment on existing webpages, or an opportunity for visitors and readers to interact with each other and voice their opinions about various types of content. The amazing thing is, what started as a single-sentence commentary has evolved into pages of personal views on just about any topic imaginable; and as it stands today – March, 2016 – and continues into the future, blogging has increased its by attracting an increased share of online advertising.

    So if you are already a blogger who have spent, and still spend, a fair amount of time blogging, you could simply by asking for it, as long as you had previously laid the groundwork for this eventuality. In other words, if you’ve already established a blog for which there is a regular readership (following), the expectation that a portion – if not the majority – of this following can be transformed into a customer base for any products/services you recommend is certainly reasonable. Therefore you would have an easier time turning a profit by hosting sponsored links or banners on your blog, thereby deriving an income from this activity practically overnight.

    But even if you did not start your blog with the intentions of turning a profit, the ability to may be easier than you think. Keep in mind, however, that there is still a lot of time, work and effort involved in the monetization process; but the question any serious-minded blogger must address is, if s/he is already putting in the appropriate time, work and effort needed to monetize a blog just to maintain it, why not also opt for the monetary reward? And for anyone who is not currently blogging, but might want to embark on a career in blogging, this method of making money on the Web might be just the thing that could start your Web marketing career as will be discussed later.

    Blogging: Simple, authentic, free!

    The simplest and fastest way to express your point of view on the Web is through blogging, because there really no skills required other than the ability to legibly convey your thoughts in a way that others can understand; so in this regard, an average adult who can read, type and click a mouse can start a blog and be good at it. Blogging can be compared to having a virtual piece of paper on which you write your ideas, experiences and new products while hoping that the truth and quality of your articles shine through and entice readers to also try your product. And to think that all you need is a PC and an Internet connection to begin blogging and attracting advertisers.

    In this day and age when advertising saturate our lives, we question the credibility of promoters’ claims, and this is where the authenticity of a blog is not only an asset to its owner, but is seen as a valuable resource to those who read and follow it. And although blogs, in their truest form, allow real people to share their real-life experiences without the distraction of paid advertising, reading a blog about first-hand product use is like talking to an individual about his/her first-hand experience. And after all, don’t most people prefer to buy tried and tested products?

    Blogging is free, and despite the fact that, today, it is considered a marketing tool from which , many blogging platforms like WordPress, Blogger and Tumblr as well as several others, still see it as something to augment current marketing tools and offer it free of charge. This opportunity for a free web space and time is definitely a plus for new businesses that are just starting up, and needless to say, a blogger having the ability to monetize his/her blog pages without incurring an expense for the space and time in which the blog is accessible, can generate a generous income for his/her growing blogging business.

    Blogging credibility builds your market

    A prerequisite to establishing a following and is credibility. Your blog’s title, content and availability on the Web (reliability) must be credible; so that as you proceed through the writing of your experiences on a particular product or industry, your readers will come to realize that they can depend on your posts for their own information needs. Therefore, you become an expert in the particular topic of conversation and are seen as such, which results in more readers visiting your blogsite and more bloggers linking to it.

    When companies and professional organizations notice the growth of your readership base, they will soon contact you with offers for advertising on your blog page or make you an affiliate, in which case you’ll be compensated by the affiliate program for every referral to the merchant’s site that was generated from your blogsite. So credibility is that element of blogging which must be maintained at all costs in order to begin the very important task of ; because unless you are a known entity (pro athlete, Hollywood star, politician, etc.) chances are that nobody reads your blog, except maybe your mom and a few friends and family members.

    However, the group of people you know is certainly not big enough from which to build a market, so you’ll need to start looking at a number of different methods that can be effective in your market-building objective and . because without a viable market for the products and service promoted on your blog, you could be destined to the same fate of those who have spent months or even years blogging just to realize that the money they make from advertising adds up to such a negligible sum that it is hardly worth mentioning.

    Blog market-building tips

    Concentrate on those elements (prequisites) mentioned earlier (title, content and reliability), and then make sure that the subject matter is appealing to your target audience, which in turn will enduce advertisers to reach out to you and help you to . With this in mind, we hope you find the tips and methods provided in following paragraphs helpful to your your blog marketing aspirations.

    Start using your email to communicate, if you are not currently doing so; because today’s blogging is overcoming the popularity of emails to quickly and effectively reach and expand a market. And in this age of speed and quick access, logging in and downloading email is simply taking much longer than clicking into a blogsite. So allow them to explore your blog by using a short email message as a teaser to your blog site; and if your email is on an entirely different subject, simply use your email signature to provide them with a link to the site.

    Invite readers to subscribe to your blog or to a newsletter. In order to do this you’ll need an opt-in form through which your your readers can provide their name and email address, two of the items needed for them to authorize you top send them information via email. Giving your readers an opportunity to subscribe to your blogsite, and providing them with exclusive information that is not given to anybody else, will entice them to subscribe by giving their name and email address. Just make sure to be responsible in your use of their information, as the last thing you want is a comment on your blog that you are a spammer.

    Surveys and blogging networks

    Make a serious and ongoing effort to understand your readers. You can start by conducting a simple survey for them to complete, which will provide you with a better understanding of their profiles and advertising preferences. Ask your blog followers and readers to give you feedback on a post, an ad link, or a product trial that you shared. Using this approach is like interviewing your readers without the commitment and intrusion of a face-to-face interview.

    Consider joining a blogging network, which is a collection of blogsites that consist of content about a common industry, common interests, common readership base, common payment mode, and other similarly common characteristics. Most consumers find credibility and convenience in clicking one link to several real bloggers about a single subject. In this regard, than, and more influential, than a single one.

    Ultimately, the only way to find out if you can succeed in blogging by taking advantage of the free software offered by the various platforms, build credibility, create a market and succeed in attracting advertisers to monetize your blog, is to start one; and if you are already blogging, you really have nothing to lose. So give your online presence a boost by effectively using this that could propel you to new heights in the blogosphere.

  • Selection and Proper Use of Free Blogging Software


    Free blogging software platforms

    There is plenty of free blogging software available on the Web, including WordPress, Blogger, Tumblr and Medium which are positioned atop a list of the fifteen best platforms. These blogging platforms and many others, have been propelled to their respective positions atop the popularity list because there are simple to use by design. But given such simplicity of use, some users – especially newcomers to the blogging community – who have not spent enough time learning the features and functionality of blogging software in general, can still feel overwhelmed when they attempt to use it.

    That having been said, if you are among that group of individuals who feel comfortable expressing themselves in another medium, it may well prove to be worth your time and effort to software, even though the task will not be easy. The important thing to understand about learning to use free blogging software is, it must be approached in a step by step, methodical way, instead of trying to absorb all the features at one time. One way to simplify the learning process is to avoid loading up your blog with all the free accessories you can find, since doing so will be a time consuming distraction.

    Blogging software features

    Features like, a visitor counter, flashy background, exciting new font(s), and a cluster of other quirky animated gifts can certainly wait until you have a better grasp of basic features like standard fonts, paragraph formatting, number of columns, layout, admin panel features and comments mediation, among many others. In other words, the recommended way in which a from free blogging tools is to be discriminatory in his/her selection. The main thing that will help a user find success as s/he learns the new kind of blogging software is to take things slowly, as stated earlier.

    Unfortunately, some folks get so excited about learning to blog that they rush into the thick of it and start exploring the most complicated features of a program right away, which invariably gets them into trouble and cause some of them to lose confidence which often results in them quitting before they can even get to stage two of the learning process. Taking your time to learn the basic functions of any blogging software before undertaking more advanced techniques, is likely to help you retain what you have learned, as well as to instill confidence and a positive sense about your ability to .

    Approach blogging software with discretion

    What might also be an excellent idea is to learn about different kinds of free blogging tools that are available so that you can make an informed decision about what to add to your blog; but keep in mind that simply because you can have something doesn’t mean that you need to get it. It may be more important to practice restraint by selecting only those options that you think will be useful – if not valuable – to you in .

    A good example of such discretion is determining how many visitors read your blog, in the sense that if you can check your traffic stats without installing a visitor counter, which is likely to add unnecessary clutter, then by all means do so. Another example is the enormous distraction a flashy background will cause, and limited benefit it would provide, if installed on a text-based blog. And remember that even a blog tool that doesn’t cost you any money may not be an asset in the long run; so be realistic about assessing, and select the kinds of blog accessories that will help you crystallize your vision and .

  • Blogging and Teenagers: Perfect Together!


    The blogging movement

    Today’s teenagers are the first generation to have grown up using the Internet at every stage of their development, as evidenced by the seemingly innate sense of Web technology usage skills and familiarity possessed by many adolescents when expressing their innermost thoughts and ideas.

    It’s true that by people of all ages and from all walks of life, but in the case of blogging as a communication vehicle, teen bloggers are truly on the cutting edge of that movement; and while older writers often experience a kind of learning curve when they begin to blog, many young people find that using a word processor and blogging software is a more natural and direct mode of communication than writing in a diary could ever be.

    One of the reasons for blogs having undergone kind of an explosive growth in the teen community, and is still expanding by leaps and bounds, is the fact that they provide a unique mixture of visibility and anonymity. A teenager can invite friends and peers to read his or her with a simple email, thereby attracting the attention or possibly even praise for the content s/he is creating and sharing.

    Communicating through blogs

    Of course, with visibility usually comes the possibility of embarrassment, but having anonymously with an invented handle or nickname, negates a lot of the potential for humiliation. In fact, there are many blogging teens who live in fear of their blog being discovered by a parent or guardian; but by publishing under an alias teenagers can spill their fiercely-guarded secrets without fear of being traced.

    Outside , teen writers often have very limited opportunities to be published; because magazines and journals are often reluctant to publish young writers who may not have as much credibility as older writers who possess a lot of experience and extensive credits to their names. And this kind of reticence can discourage many adolescents from seeking the opportunity to publish their work, or from writing altogether.

    With the advent of , young people can begin to gain a following of readers without first having to obtain the approval and support of an editor or publisher who may not be very interested in teenaged authors; and in view of the fact that blogs provide young people with a chance to demonstrate their impressive technical aptitude, to gain visibility without compromising privacy, and to build a readership for their writing without having to jump through the traditional hoops of a publishing industry which shows little interest in their work, it comes as no surprise so many teenagers blog.

    …And the social aspect

    For some teenagers, as a social endeavor that allows them to meet people with similar interests from all over the world; and a great number of blogging teens have discovered that having a personal blog on the Web is as great a way to explore self-expression and to win positive feedback from new friends as any other medium in existence today.

  • To Blog Developing News Stories Instantaneously


    An active blogosphere

    Blogging news stories as they unfold is one of the most exciting and controversial applications of . One thing that makes the blogosphere so active is the possibility for a blog to be updated instantaneously, so that the news on blogs tends to be more current than news in a paper or on television.

    Unlike news delivered by the other media outlets, news stories that appear on blogs do not have to travel through a series of editors and administrators before it reaches the public eye; and this is one of its big advantages, among many others; but of course there are distinct disadvantages associated with this form of news dissemination also.

    Case in point

    One of the most notable cases of news hitting a blog before appearing in other media took place in July 2005 when terrorism struck London. As passengers were evacuated from a subway car near an explosion, one man took several photographs of the scene with his cellular phone, and within an hour these images were posted online.

    First-person accounts of the catastrophe began appearing on blogs soon after these photos appeared, and people all over the world learned about the events in London by reading the words and seeing photos posted by bloggers.

    The fact that these stories and images were being spread directly by individuals operating without the added filter of a reporter helped people across the globe to get information about the crisis more immediate and direct.

    Weblog movement seen as democratic

    We must view blogging as news that often appears in a very personal context which has the potential to augment the modern era of reporting in a very exciting way, and take “New Journalism” to it’s logical next step; a step which puts the power of shaping how news is written and read directly into the hands of consumers.

    Many bloggers and cultural commentators who are champions of the weblog movement view this growing trend of individuals getting their news from , because it makes the flow of information more democratic. By decentralizing the control of news, blogs allow more voices to enter the field of debate about important current events.

    One glaring deficiency

    However, many people are adamantly opposed to as news outlets; and there are plenty of good arguments on this side of the debate as well. Unlike newspapers or television stations, few blogs have fact-checkers, and there is little attention paid to journalistic accountability on many individual blogs.

    This can lead to the rapid spread of misinformation and, as such, more than one falsehood has taken the blogosphere by storm. This raises the questions as to whether as it happens is ethical or not; and it is a very complicated one, but no matter where you stand on the issue of current events blogs, you’ll like to agree that this movement has the potential to revolutionize how modern people get their news.