Posts Tagged ‘how to blog’

Beginners Guide to Blogging

Thursday, July 30th, 2009

A blog is basically an online journal where you can write your thoughts, sent5iments, ideas and opinions etc for people to read.

Many blogging sites, offer built in features such as hyperlink, straight texts, pictures etc. Some blogging sites, even allow you to put video and mp3’s on your blog.

Basic Features of A Blog

  • Title- which allows you to label your post
  • Body- this is the content of your post
  • Trackback- other sites can be linked back to your blog
  • Permanent link- every article that you write has a URL
  • Comments- this allow readers to post comments on your blog.

Advantages of Blogging

  • Only few templates are to be used. This means that it is easier to use and create pages.
  • By becoming a member of of a blogging website, they become a part of that particular blogging community. They can browse through other bloggers pages, and link them back to their own blogs. They can also make comments on other members’ blogs.
  • It is not only for personal use.
  • You can use it as a means to advertise.
  • For teachers, they can document their lessons that they have discussed, making it easy for the students to catch up.

But by far, the most popular blog type is the one that takes the form of a personal journal. This is the kind that is usually used by first time bloggers. Individuals who want to document the daily struggle of their everyday lives, poems, rants, opinions, find that blogging offers them a medium in which to express themselves.

Bloggers usually communicate within themselves. This is one of the appeals of blogging. It creates a community of people sharing their ideas, thoughts, and comments with each other.

Blogs varying in topics, themes, and set-ups, can be found in blog directories. First time users who want to get an idea of what the blogging world is all about can browse through a number of blogs using these directories. This way they’d get an idea of what these blogging communities are like.

Just search any blogging directory and you’d get a listing of a lot of blogging sites that are available on the net. It’s easy to search a blogging directory, because it is organized according to category. This way you would get exactly what you are after. Blogging is really for everyone. It is fun, simple and easy.

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Blogging in Business

Friday, May 1st, 2009

If your initial try out with blogs worked well, you can now start setting up your blogs.

  • Study blog design. Blog hosting services provide pre-designed templates. But if you opt for paid blog service, you can ask your artist to design and layout your blog site to match the company’s identity and needs.
  • Choose a topic. Its good to have a line-up of topics you want for your blogs but be sure they are in consonance with your business objectives. This would be a test of your flexibility and open-mindedness since results may be going against the set objectives.
  • Remember the following safety measures in blogging:
    • legal issues are sometimes involved in blogging; it is safer to include disclaimers and limitations of liabilities;
    • corporate communication and legal department are responsible in educating the senior management on how blogs might affect business;
    • create blogging policies; set limits on who gets to blog and what information are allowed to be made public;
    • avoid outright marketing blog or you will shy away your readers;
    • make content updated, relevant and fresh;
    • reinforce the company’s core values; and,
    • encourage employees to use it.
  • Start blogging and complete 20 posts before going to marketing.
  • Begin marketing.
  • Regularly monitor the coming ins and outs of readers and get updates. Then, measure your results.
  • Adjust if needed. You can always play with your designs in the blog site as long as it remains to match the company’s identity.
  • Strive to be consistent with your topic all the time.
  • Try to have unrelated topics with general and broad appea
  • Schedule updates regularly. Monday, Wednesday and Thursday would be best to update blogs.

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How to Start Your Blog

Tuesday, April 28th, 2009

Do you want to start blogging?

Here are some tips to make your blog interesting and successful:

  1. Consider your audience. Even if your blog is generally personal, still, it would be better to consider the minds of your readers. You have to think of something that would interest them.
    It is very important to come with a write up that everybody can understand, not necessarily that these people can relate to it but they can understand it.
  2. Pictures speaks a thousand words. To make your blogging worth the browsing effort of your readers, it would be extremely nice if you will put some pictures in it. It does not necessarily mean you have to place a picture of yourself.
  3. Make constructive and beneficial blogs. Even if you are free to write anything you want to say to the world, still, it would be better to create some write-ups that would be beneficial to your readers.
  4. Avoid making multifaceted and complicated blogs. In order to have an interesting blogs, try not to use some highly technical and highfalutin words.
    Bear in mind that most people who use the Internet usually do more scanning than scrutinizing each site word for word. Therefore, it would be better to come with blogs that will not bore your readers just because you have these lengthy articles.
  5. Make it interactive. As much as possible and if your capacity will allow it, make your blog interactive. Yu can do this by placing some video or audio clips in your blog.
    You can even place an area for comments or for some feedbacks. In this way, you can get some impressions or reactions of other people. Who knows, you might even gain some friends just by making them feel at home in your blog site.

Indeed, blogs are not created just for the mere fun of it. It also has its own purpose in the world of the Internet.  Therefore, for people who wish to harness their craft, as far as writing is concerned, blogs are the best way to do it.

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Make Money from Blogs

Friday, April 24th, 2009

A weblog (or simply blog) is a website that ‘publishes’ or features articles (which are called ‘blog posts’, ‘posts’, or ‘entries’), written by an individual or a group that make use of any or a combination of the following:

  • Straight texts
  • Photographs or images (photoblog)
  • Video (videoblog)
  • Audio files (audioblog)
  • Hyperlinks

Usually presented and arranged in reverse chronological order, blogs are essentially used for the following purposes:

  • Online journal or a web diary
  • Content managament system
  • Online publishing platform

A typical blog has the following components:

  • Post date -the date and time of the blog entry
  • Category – the category that the blog belongs to
  • Title – the title of the blog
  • Main body – the main content of the blog
  • RSS and trackback – links the blog back from other sites
  • Comments – commentaries that are added by readers
  • Permalinks – the URL of the full article
  • Other optional items – calendar, archives, blogrolls, and add-ons or plug-ins

A blog can also have a footer, usually found at the bottom of the blog, that shows the post date, the author, the category, and the ’stats’ (the nubmer of comments or trackbacks).

There are numerous types of blogs. Some of them are the following:

  1. Political blog – on news, politics, activism, and other issue based blogs (such as campaigning).
  2. Personal blog – also known as online diary that may include an individual’s day-to-day experience, complaints, poems, and illicit thoughts, and communications between friends.
  3. Topical blog – with focus either on a particular niche (function or position) that is usually technical in nature or a local information.
  4. Health blog – on specific health issues. Medical blog is a major category of health blog that features medical news from health care professionals and/or actual patient cases.
  5. Literary blog – also known as litblog.
  6. Travel blog – with focus on a traveler’s stories on a particular journey
  7. Research blog – on academic issues such as research notes
  8. Legal blog – on law (technical areas) and legal affairs; also known as ‘blawgs’.
  9. Media blog – focus on falsehoods or inconsistencies in mass media; usually exclusive for a newspaper or a television network.
  10. Religious blog – on religious topics
  11. Educational blog – on educational applications, usually written by students and teachers.
  12. Collaborative or collective blog – a specific topic written by a group of people.
  13. Directory blog – contains a collection of numerous web sites.
  14. Business blog – used by entrepreneurs and corporate employees to promote their businesses or talk about their work.
  15. Personification blog – focus on non-human being or objects (such as dogs).
  16. Spam blogs – used for promoting affiliated websites; also known as ’splogs’.

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All You Need To Know About Blog Hosts

Saturday, January 31st, 2009

A “blog” is a personal and authentic journal meant to be shared in an online community. Blog site is a place where bloggers can publish anything; his thoughts, feelings, photos, special events, experiences, comments on issues and so on.

Many blog hosting services are available on the Internet. But the basic question is which one of the services will be the best to start off your business blog program? Business people are usually clueless to recent technological innovations which would help them maximize their marketing potentials. For these beginners, it is best to study first the services offered by blog hosts. An ineffective business blogging program may damage marketing opportunities instead of enriching them.

A company may 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
  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.

If your company is to establish a business blogging program, considerable options should be made available by the hosting companies shortlisted for the services. Free blog hosting services are popular but they are much appropriate for individual online journals.

Paid blog hosting services offer unlimited packages best for your company’s needs. You may want to suggest checking out some blogs that use the host first, read and examine their layout and design. Another important thing to consider is a reliable technical support the host has.

After, choosing the blog host, a team should be ready to plan the design and structure of the blog: The team should:

  1. Create a style that meets the needs of the audience.
  2. Establish an open, credible tone.
  3. Schedule weekly updating of blog – ideally, a few times a week.
  4. Include weblinks of other website and blogs.
  5. Blog post should be in the “first person”.
  6. Focus on the business blog objectives.
  7. Maintain an honest, engaging conversational quality.

Remember, whatever the look, style and content found on your blog is a reflection of you and your company.

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