RavensLog

I’ll try not to bore you with a history of the term ‘blog’ and get straight into what it is and how you can start your own.

A blog is typically a website that displays your entries in order of your last entry first and allows you to categorize and archive your entries according to the dates it was posted and/or the topic categories that your posts are related to. The term ‘blog’ is really just a shortened form of ‘weblog’ or ‘web log’ that is often a collection of online journal entries about a subject or subjects you want to blog about. Most blogs are primarily textual but some bloggers use video blogs (vlogs), audio blogs (podcasts) and photoblogs to share their interests and/or knowledge on the blogosphere (a term that describes all blogs and blog interconnections).

So now that you know what a blog is, let me tell you how you can start your own blog. I’ll start off with the more popular and free blogging platforms before I get into setting up a blog on your own domain.

It is quite simple to get your own blog started with one of the free blogging platforms like blogger.com that allows you to signup for your own customizable blog. They provide you with a selection of customizable templates and a simple drag-and-drop feature that lets you arrange your blog page elements to suit the theme of your blog. They’ve also made it easy to upload images and even blog via your mobile device or email account with mail-to-blog. Visit www.blogger.com to find out more about this option.

Another popular blogging platform is wordpress.com. With wordpress you have the option of a hosted blog or if you prefer to run your own blog then you can use the open source wordpress installation. If you choose to run your own blog then you will need your own domain that is hosted by your preferred web host. The wordpress hosted option is free whereas the cost of the latter option depends on the cost of your domain plus the cost of your hosting. Both these options have a myriad of features and templates to choose from and it is quite simple to set up and get started, check it out for yourself at www.wordpress.com and wordpress.org. To find out more about the differences between wordpress.com and wordpress.org have a look at this link: http://faq.wordpress.com/2006/05/07/wordpresscom-vs-wordpressorg/

Blogging can be fun, educational and profitable but apart from the theme of your blog there are a few more things to consider before you get started.

Here are some more points to ponder:

• Consider your blog audience so write posts that are interesting and relevant to the people who will be reading your posts.
• Try to optimize your posts for search engines by using relevant keywords and phrases.
• Submit your blog and RSS feed to a few directories.
• Build relevant links to your blog.
• Create buzz about your blog. Try to get readers to pass on the information contained in your blog.

There is so much more to blogging and the blogosphere that it’s not possible to delve into it all with just one article. I will be covering other interesting blog topics so visit my blog again or subscribe if you would like to receive email notification of updates.