Starting a Blog

Starting a blog - a piece of cake - quite easy. This blog is set up on Blogger, part of the Google suite of services. If you have a google account, sign in and set up your blog. If not, simply sign up; it is free, you'll need an e-mail address. Blogger is one of many "blogging engines". Here is a site the compares web-logs. Wikipedia's entry on blogs has an extensive including a list of notable blogs (this one is missing:-)) and a list of blog terms (with short definitions :-)).

A co-worker recently said, "I don't like blogs; they all look different. I can't figure them out." I knew what she meant. Initially, I was lost too. What I missed was that most blogs are personal expressions, creative outlets; of course they look different, people dress different too. We know the colors and terms for different articles of clothing. Blogs are new to many of us, we just need to learn what's in common in a blog. Here are some blogging terms. I'm going to use Blogger examples.

A blog Post is an entry into the blog - narrative, photos, video/audio link or a combination. Most blogs are made up of a series of postings. By far most frequently, only one person posts to a blog. That person owns his/her blog, deciidng how it looks and feels and what and when items are posted. Some folks blog daily; basically an online journal. The Blogger start page has "Blogs of Note" in the lower right corner. One is titled "A Tidings of Magpies" - this blog was started in early 2008 with 308 postings during 2008. As of 3/1/09, a total of 61 postings, right at one a day. You may wish to scroll through some of the "blogs of note" - appears to be about a dozen of them - they may change and I have no ideas how they are selected. If you scroll through some you'll get a taste of the variety of looks that a blog can have.

A blog Comment is also a part of most blogs; readers can comment on the post. The Magpie had a post this morning at 6:20 AM; by 2 PM in the afternoon, 11 comments had been made. Viewers/readers can usually post comments to posts. You may have to be a member to see/view a blog or to make comments. The blog "owner" can set the blog up so that comments are not visible until the owner was reviewed them.

Blogger uses 2 categories of actions to personalize your blog. Settings allow you to set up your blog's comments, to design how archives of past posts will be displayed and much more. Layout lets you modify how the page looks - several templates are provided. If you can write HTML, you can modify/add code to customize your blog look.

Summary - just do it may be good advise for setting up a blog. You can start with the defaults and then modify settings down the road. While you are reading other blogs, note features that you like. Experiment with them in your blog. If you have readers, ask them to comment on what they wished you had. Ask them to give you feedback after you've made a change. Good Luck - be creative.