Archive for the 'Articles' Category

4 Simple Steps To Blogging For Business

Friday, November 13th, 2009

Blogging is a practice that has been around for at least 5 years. It began with average, but opinionated people with something to say, who wanted to share their opinions with anyone who would read them. While it has been popular with the general public, it hasn’t caught on with many businesses until recently. Blogging can be a powerful tool for marketing and exposure for any business if done properly. This article will cover the first steps businesses will need to take to set themselves up for successful blogging.

1. Select the Appropriate Hosting for Your Business Blog

You first step is to select an appropriate host for your blog. There are a couple of solutions that you can use to host your blog. You can:

1) Host it on your own server
2) Host it at a blogging hosting server, such as livejournal.com or blogger.com

If you host your own blog on your own web site, you will need to find blogging software that you can use on your web site. You will need to determine what your web site server capabilities are, and then determine what blogging software will work within your server environment. You will then need to install the software and configure it in order to begin blogging.

If you host your blog on a blog hosting system, then everything is already set up for you. All you have to do is sign up for, and configure your account. Some of these blogging services are free and some of them will have a monthly hosting charge.

2. Configure Your Business Blog

Once you have determined how you want to host your blog, and have installed it, or signed up for your blog service, you will need to configure your blog.

Configuring your blog includes, what template you want to use with your blog. Most blogs whether they are on a blog hosting service, or software that you have installed, will come with several templates. If you are new to the Internet, and don’t have a lot of programming experience, it is probably best to stick with one of the templates that has come with the software or service. It is however, better if you have some programming background, or have the funds to hire someone, then you can get your blog to look like your business web site. Even if your blog is hosted elsewhere, you can do amazing things with the templates to get your blog to look very similar to your business web site. Most services will allow you to modify the templates that come with their subscription.

Other things that will need to be configured are settings such as the name and description of your business blog, the email address you want messages from your blog to be sent to, how you want your blog archived (posts saved for future access), what ping services you want to notify when you update your blog, and other settings too numerous to mention in this article.

3. Determine the Content of Your Business Blog

This next step can be done before you actually install your blog, but you will need to determine the topic of your business blog, and how you want to convey your information to your target market. The content and topics of your blog should relate to your industry. You can focus as narrow or as wide as you choose think is appropriate. In general, it is a good idea to cover many areas within your industry and then separate the different areas of your industry into different categories within your blog.

For example, if you are blogging about your real estate business, the big topics would be commercial real estate, residential real estate, and investing in real estate, etc.

However, it would be better to specifically focus in your main category/industry. For example, if your main industry is residential real estate, you could have topics such as renting out your home, buying a home, and selling a home. Each of these would be a separate category within your blog.

Lastly but most importantly, you should choose topics and categories that will be of interest to your visitors. You will need to research the keywords that your customers would use to find you. There are many keyword research tools available on the web today that will tell you what exact phrases, and how often, your target market is using to find you. These keywords will determine the topics of your blog entries. You should also use some of the phrases you have found in your research in your business blog posts.

4. Begin Blogging for Your Business

The last step is to start blogging. You can choose from a number of different formats to add entries to your blog, as blog entries can take on any format. Some formats that you may want to consider include:

1) Writing articles and posting them to your blog.
2) Finding related news items in your industry and posting them with comments as to what you think of the news item.
3) Answering frequently asked questions you get from your clients.
4) Writing reviews of products/services in your industry
5) Writing “how to” posts
6) Using a free-style posting of anything you feel would be of interest to your potential clients and/or customers.

Your style of posting should match what your target market would find interesting.

Now that you know the basic steps of what needs to be done to begin business blogging, you can choose how you want to host your blog, what keywords your target market uses to find you, and what format would make the most sense to begin blogging. There are many web sites that have more articles and in-depth information about business blogging. You can use these resource sites to help guide you through the process from making your first post, to getting your first customer from your business blog.

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To Blog Or Not To Blog: The Ups And Downs Of Blogging

Thursday, November 12th, 2009

Whenever the subject of the phenomenon called blogging is raised, most people immediately think associated it with an online diary or weblog. The term weblog refers to key words. First is web from the World Wide Web and log, as in keeping a log. Even though it’s not that difficult to pronounce it was eventually still shortened to just “blog”.

From the time that the first ‘blogs’ made its appearance in 1994, the act of recording thoughts and experiences online spread like fire all across the globe. Today, blogging become an Internet sensation.

Actually most people are unaware that there’s much more to blogging than what we usually see online, where individuals simply write down their daily routine in a diary-like way. Blogging is now seen as a viable way to spread information and more and more professionals are getting in on the act to report on areas that interest them. It has now expanded so much that a blog can be made into practically just about anything you want it to be.

However, not everyone is enthusiastically jumping in the blogging bandwagon. There are still those remaining few who are still taking their own sweet time making the decision whether to blog or not to blog. So, what are the reasons why they are not blogging?

There are several reasons but most simply do not realize the huge the benefits of blogging. All they see is the downside like the monetary and time costs involved. Another reason is that they are intimidated with the technical side of blogging.

Also, most articles found on the net only talks about how great blogging is, without telling you why or showing you how. Or we tell you how to get the best results with your blog, but don’t tell you where to start. So here are some basic facts you might be interested in.

If have envisioned your site going from getting 10 hits a month to getting a couple of dozen visitors a day from search engines, well blogging can make that possible if you do it right. The structure of a blog, and the fact that most of them automatically generate content feeds, also make them the best food for your friendly neighborhood search engine spider.

Now, if you wish for your visitors to keep coming back to your site over and over again until they finally make a purchase, then you might want to try your hand at a blogging. An informative blog that engages your audience will cut down the sales cycle, plus it also creates a courtship period. Blogs make it possible for your visitors to subscribe to your thoughts, see if they like you and even get to know more about you.

Keep in mind that people usually buy from the people that they like. So if your visitors do not feel like they are getting a personality vibe from you, they are often less likely to buy. Vibe means buy, so keep that in mind. Furthermore, remember that blogs make it easy for you to vibe.

Another benefit you can gain from blogging is that you can create new targeted search engine pages for your site without the need to hand-code a new page, or fire up your HTML editor every time. All you need to do is simply log in to your blog admin panel, type your thoughts, proofread, and press publish. Voila! You have a blog!

Blogging can also help you with free one-way links back to your site that contains your lucrative keywords. So, even if your SEO efforts all went down the drain, or been the unsuspecting victim of an algorithm change, as long as you aren’t banned by a search engine, blogging can help bring you back into top results. Why you ask? Well, it simply because blogs have a search engine friendly architecture, and can make use of your keywords automatically, without being gratuitous. Blogs are the easiest way to get into a search engine and stay in.

Downside to blogging number 2. Blogging can be hard and expensive. This may be true enough, particularly if you’re busy, or have a medium sized to large business. In which you may have to hire one of the few consultants that works on these types of issues. Unfortunately, it means expenses.

But there is a way you can get away with that, if you’re a small business owner or a home-based business with an online element then you can get away with firing up a free blog. All you have to pay for is the very affordable custom template if you can’t install one on your own. Most blog consultants will do all the keyword research, etc for you, so that all you’ll have to do is log in and blog.

Many of the most common blog software systems are free or inexpensive, especially when weighed against the cost of only using paid methods to attract visitors.

Another reason why people do not have blogs is because they are under the impression that it will not work unless they are a competent writer. This is a fallacy. With blogging you can easily get away with just a few simple paragraphs. There is no need for you to write in professional manner or use industry jargon. By nature, blogging is done in a casual, conversational tone. Otherwise, it loses its spontaneity that is its trademark.

Moreover your blog posts do not have to be long article-type entries like either. Keep in mind that some of the articles you often find in a blog are done by an avid writer. Your audience will be thrilled with a few paragraphs every day, as long as they’re informative, consistent and understandable.

So why not take that plunge? Start blogging today and see for yourself. As for those who tried just once and immediately gave up, give it another shot. Remember that the positive out weighs the negative. Think of all the good things you’re missing. Start blogging now!

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Is Blogging for Everyone?

Wednesday, November 11th, 2009

Blogging is a relatively new phenomenon. It basically involves the creation of an online journal which is displayed in reverse chronological order. The blogger who is maintaining the blog may opt to post new blog entries as often as he desires. This may involve posting new entries more than once per day, daily, weekly, monthly or even at a less frequent interval. The postings in a blog are typically related in some way but they can be about any subject the blogger desires. Bloggers may maintain a blog for a number of different reasons and these blogs may be private or public in nature. This article will describe the difference between a private and public blog and will also explain blogging professionally as well as blogging for personal reasons.

Private vs. Public Blogs

Blogs can also be private or public. Private blogs are ones in which only the blogger and others who have been approved by the blogger can view the blog postings. Public blogs are available to any users of the Internet. A blogger may opt to make a blog private or public depending on whether or not he is comfortable with others reading the blog. For example a blogger who creates a blog for the purpose of venting about frustrations in life may opt to keep a blog private so friends or family members are not able to read these vents. Conversely a blogger who is blogging for a purpose such as to promote a cause will likely opt to make the blog public so his message can reach as many Internet users as possible. However, bloggers who create a blog to express themselves through their writing, poetry or other form of expression may opt to make the blog private or public depending on whether or not they want to make these personal feelings available to others. Some bloggers in this situation will make the blog public because they want to reach others who may either share their feelings or may benefit from reading their blogs. There may be other bloggers in this situation who will make the blog private because they do not want others to see these personal forms of expression.

Blogging Professionally

Blogging can actually be done as a source of income for some bloggers. There are a number of companies who maintain a network of bloggers and pay bloggers to maintain a blog in the network. These bloggers may be compensated per post, according to the number of page views the blog receives or through a combination of the number of posts and the number of page views. A career as a blogger requires a great deal of dedication. The blogger must be willing and able to update the blog regularly and to keep the blog interesting to readers.

Blogging for Personal Reasons

Blogging can also be done for personal reasons. Some bloggers use their blog to stay in touch with family and friends while others use it to express themselves or to share information with others. Blogs created for personal reasons can be a great deal of fun but the blogger must be sure to avoid allowing the process of maintaining the blog to become a stressful situation. A blog which is maintained for personal reasons should be an enjoyable experience for the blogger.

Turn your little dumb blog into profits with Make Money Online Blogging.

Li Ming Wong is an internet marketing entrepreneur. Visit Making Money Online Blog for tips and guides to starting your own online business. How To Make Money Online – Free Ebooks Download, register for free.

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Maintaining a Successful Blog

Monday, November 9th, 2009

Creating a blog is relatively simply. However, maintaining a successful blog is a far more difficult process. This is because there are so many different factors which can contribute to the success of a blog. Some of these factors include the subject of the blog, the popularity of the blog and even the aesthetic layout of the blog. Additionally, the ability to properly promote the blog and reach a large audience of interested Internet users will also have a profound impact on the success of a blog. Although there is no one simple formula for creating and maintaining a successful blog, there are some basic tips which can help to ensure a blogger will enjoy success with his blog. This article will outline some of these basic tips including posting new entries regularly, writing for a specific audience and properly evaluating changes made to the blog.

Posting New Blog Entries Regularly

The importance of posting new blog entries on a regular basis cannot be underestimated. This is so important because regular postings offer dedicated blog visitors an incentive to keep returning to the blog. Readers may visit a blog originally by chance but become committed to returning to the blog regularly based on the content which is provided on a regular basis. If the blogger allows the blog to become stagnant, the readers do not have motivation to keep coming back to the blog. However, if there are new posts on a regular basis, visitors are likely to return to the blog often in anticipation of new postings.

The length as well as the depth of a blog post can vary considerably based on the subject of the blog and the expectations of the target audience. However, in many cases even a relatively short blog entry offering only a small amount of information may be enough to keep readers interested. This can be useful when the blogger is unable to provide in depth posts but in the long run, blog readers are looking for a certain degree of sustenance and will likely expect the blog to be updated with new posts regularly. Furthermore they will come to expect a certain voice and quality to the blog posts so bloggers who enlist the use of guest bloggers should carefully screen guest bloggers to ensure they are capable of posting blogs the audience will appreciate.

Understanding the Blog Audience

Successful bloggers should also be adept at understanding the blog audience. Most successful blogs focus on a rather exclusive niche which draws a unique set of visitors. By keeping the information posted in the blog related to this niche, the blogger helps to ensure the audience will remain interested in the blog. However, the subject matter is not the only important aspect related to understanding the target audience.

Bloggers should also be well aware of the type of information the blog readers are seeking and the way in which they prefer to have the information provided. This is important because some blog readers may enjoy lengthy pieces while others may prefer posts which are brief and to the point. Still other blog visitors may prefer to have posts provided as bulleted points in an easy to read manner. Providing the information in a way in which the visitors can process the information easily is as important as providing quality information.

Evaluating Changes to the Blog

Finally, all successful bloggers know how to make changes to the blog carefully and evaluate the effects these changes have on blog traffic. This is critical because a blog which is already successful can be doomed to failure if the blogger makes a chance which is not appreciated by the dedicated visitors and does not address the concerns of the readers. To avoid this potential problem bloggers should be careful to only make one change at a time and to allow ample time to evaluate the effect the change has on website traffic as well as the comments from readers before deciding whether to reverse the change or make additional changes.

Similarly a blog which is looking to increase website traffic can run into problems if they make too many changes and do not evaluate how these changes are affecting the blog’s traffic. A better strategy would be to make small changes one at a time and evaluate the effect of the change carefully before making more changes. This will help guide the blogger to produce a successful blog.

Turn your little dumb blog into profits with Make Money Online Blogging.

Li Ming Wong is an internet marketing entrepreneur. Visit Making Money Online Blog for tips and guides to starting your own online business. How To Make Money Online – Free Ebooks Download, register for free.

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Money Making Blogging Tips you Must Have

Saturday, November 7th, 2009

If you are new to writing a blog, let me first explain the types of blogs available on the Internet. In general there are only two types of blogs, commercial and non commercial blogs.

Commercials blogs are like Trump University blog where it professional writers post regularly with tons of advertisements or products and services of their own, mostly created by companies not individuals. The most common type of blogs are the non commercial blogs, where people like me and you normally write on.

In non commercial blogs it can further break down into 2 different types of blogs. The first one is blogging for leisure, which means you only blog for the purpose like a personnel online diary. The second type of blog would be business blogs. Business blogs are like blogs like mine where I write this blog and update it regularly to make a living out of it.

If you are wondering can people take blogging as a profession, yes you can. And I have search on the internet there are many others just like us making money from blogging. The reason before I go into some tips to blog right, you need to understand the main role of your blog and what type of blog do you have. Different blogs have different functions to them.

Some people use blogs as a tool to get attention to their main page, some people use blogs just to talk about their personnel lifestyle and there will be some who are serious, lan and structure their post when they write in their blogs which create dollars.

Like in any business, you need to first map out what you want out of your blog before you even start posting your first post. This is very important especially at the start point of your blog when it is very new. You need to give the best impression as you can within the 1st 10 seconds of your visitors to allow them to stay longer.

A great tool that I use that is in build in almost all web hosting package is the Awstats in your cpanel.

webstats

The longer you can keep a reader on your site, you know that your site is of some use for them. During your process when you blog, it is always good to search around for ways to get traffic and publish your blog URL.

Ways get traffic to your blog:

- Offline Marketing (Give out namecards at events)

- Forum Marketing

- PPC Marketing

- Article Marketing

- SEO Marketing

and so much more

From my experience, the best types of traffic you want to get is exchange links from other people who are in the same trade of business as you. Example, my niche is about blogging so what I would do is a Google search blogging and search for the top blogs on the Internet.

When searching a potential link exchange or Joint venture with the bloggers you would want to find two types of blogger. Let say your blog has about 500 hits a day, you can find a blog whose traffic is about the same as yours and you write an email to him to ask for a link exchange. Most likely he will be happy to help as all you need to do is post an article about his website.

The other method would be you can find those popular bloggers who know nuts about traffic and you know they have a lot so what you do you ask them for an exclusive interview with them. Remember this rule in Joint Venture, always think in the way “What is it in for him, not for you”. When you write your email make sure when the person reads it, it has to benefit him all the time! The reason why, because people don’t care how much you care unless you show them how much you care for them trust me this works.

Once you have managed to build a relationship via email, you would want to try to get other ways to communicate like Skype, MSN or Yahoo. To tell you the truth, many websites in fact get tons and tons of traffic FAST not from using Internet Marketing methods but from Viral Marketing or Joint Ventures!

Some great examples would be

- Do a press release (cost US$80 one time) and get published on newspaper to and create a story that is so unique it will viral itself. Have you wonder how those Gurus always get interview out of no where, it because of press release.

- Joint venture with someone very famous or has tons of traffic, if he or she likes you and your website is on the main page of his site. Expect to see a growth of traffic to your website the next day!

- Another great tip would be, buy your way to get traffic. You can go to my review me site here and what ReviewMe does is you can pay me a fix amount and I will do a review about your blog. If you really understood what I am trying to say, this is the cheapest and most effective way of getting traffic if you want to pay for it.

Why I say this is because, imagine the owner of the website itself has already build so much creditability for his own readers on this website. Would an article post review drive more traffic to your website or a banner advertisement? Think about that for a moment. I personally have tried it and on top of the traffic I get I also get tons of emails for joint ventures because the blog I advertise in was about Internet Marketing too. Even until today although it cost US$250 , there is still traffic coming in until today because the website has a PR 5 which people searching for some phrases actually still goes to that review page.

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How to Start your Own Profitable Blog

Friday, November 6th, 2009

Today, blogging has become a phenomenon. Blogging has captured the imagination of everyone, from celebrities to sportspersons to students to politicians. Everyday, almost 175,000 new blogs and over 1.6 million blog updates take place over the internet, according to Technorati – a firm that tracks blogs. By the end of January 2007, 63.2 million blogs were being tracked by Technorati!

Why Blogs?

If the above data doesn’t sound tempting to you then get a load of this. Experts believe this explosive and unheralded growth of the blogging industry is bound to continue for some more years to come. Today, blogging is increasingly being considered as a highly effective marketing tool and there has never been a better time to start your own personal blog than now! Based on the outcome from a recent survey conducted by research firm MarketingSherpa, blogs are the #4 most effective tools for sales leads generation. Their excellent responses to search engines and webspiders have made them very endearing and valuable. They are also the fastest way to build websites – if you don’t know how to build a website in HTML you can use a blog instead.

Blog History

Derived from the term “Web log,” blog is a simply a web page or a website that is partly an online journal or diary, and partly an open forum on which readers can comment. You can either update your blog on a daily basis, or write as per convenience on a weekly, monthly, or any other frequency basis.

Typically, blogs are short, expressive entries (around 200-300 words) and may or may not include photographs, links, etc. Blogging is a technique which needs to be practiced in order to improve. Since blogs are open to everyone, other readers can post their comments or reactions to your writing and continue the dialogue further.

The world of blogs or “blogosphere” literally has several thousands of blogs on every topic you can think of! While many of the blogs are hosted on public blog sites such as Blogger, Windows Live Spaces etc, others are hosted on business or individual websites.

Blog for Profit or Fun

Whether you decide to start your own blog for fun, social interaction or for profit and business expansion, blogging is just plain fun. Moreover, like other marketing tools used by marketing experts, blogs are at their effective best when used correctly. So, even if you a novice at blogging our suggestions will show you how to start your very own profitable blog.

- Sell advertising space. When you sell text links or banners on your blogs, you are essentially selling advertising space to other businesses for the promotion of their services or products. This blog strategy is only going to work if your blog enjoys high page rank on Google and other search engines.

- Offer affiliate advertisements. As a blog owner, you may wish to promote your affiliates by offering visitors links or banners to their products/services. But this would involve setting up your entire blog around the affiliate product or service. You must concentrate on building links to specific website pages for targeted traffic.

- And the simplest way to make profit from blogging is by allowing Google Adsense or any other ads on your blog. Whenever visitors click these ads, you will make money. You can visit www.google.com/adsense for more details. As you can see, there are many ways in which you can not just start your own blog but also make money from it. Use the strategies that are viable for you, match your skill level, and can fit your personal schedule.

Blogs for Business

However, even if you are starting a blog just for social interaction and sharing of ideas there is no harm in make some money as well. If you are starting a blog for business purposes then remember that your competitors are most likely using blogs as well to reach to their customers more effectively. A business blog will help you educate your customers about your business while also making it easy for you to keep pace with a dynamic market.

Simply said, blogs allow your audience to submit their comments, interact with you, exchange dialogues on the information you share with them, allowing you to constantly improve your services and expand your reach at a level where it counts.

A personal blog is a smart statement, so why not start blogging now!

Want to know more information? Then check out this free guide to making money on the internet. Also, get yourself a copy of Blogging To The Bank.

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The 3 Must Know Secrets to Making Money With Blogs

Monday, November 2nd, 2009

In the few minutes it takes you to read this article, hundreds of new blogs will be created and thousands upon thousands of posts will have been made world wide.

The information age we live in, has allowed everyone, from the local teenager to large corporations to jump on to the blogging wagon.

The lure of being able to have a blog installed in under 15 minutes, the incredibly low start-up costs, and the ability to post to that blog from any computer with internet access, has provided many people and corporations with an immediate web presence.

Stories are common place about full time bloggers earning over $100,000 a year while blogging for less than 2 hours a day. And they usually do this while traveling the world!

The most popular blog type for the newbie is one that documents their everyday lives, ramblings and opinions. They use it as a way to express themselves.

Each new blog post generates content which the search engines absolutely love. The conversational and informal nature of blogs usually provides great reading. Readers have the option to easily comment on the posts, providing feedback and their opinions.

Blogs become interactive and service the needs of writers and readers. Video and audio can now easily be inserted on blogs providing a different experience for all its readers.

All blogs can be monetized with advertising, selling affiliate products or selling your own products. A blog with a great readership will attract high paying advertisers often paying for 6 months advertising in advance.

However, similar to any small business, the abandonment rate of blogs is incredibly high. Bloggers often enjoy the initial novelty of blogging, but if they started blogging to make some extra income, the novelty will wear off quickly if the results don’t look promising.

Here are three secrets which virtually guarantee success for any blogger:

The First Secret:

A blog must be tightly themed around a niche, with posts that provide benefits for its readers.

If your blog posts do not provide significant value for your readers, they will not return to read any other posts. Remember blogs make money from its readers, so your content must keep them coming back.

Don’t make the common mistake of blogging about anything and everything. If someone is reading your gardening blog, they have an interest in gardening. If you start blogging about the new car you just bought, you may lose that reader. They want to read about gardening, not cars.

Your readers are reading your posts with a “what’s in it for me” mindset and if its not satisfied they will go somewhere else to find it.

Your blog is similar to an online magazine in many ways, just more informal and updated regularly.

The Second Secret:

Your blog must load fast, look the part and be easy to navigate. When your new readers arrive they should know within 5 seconds which niche you are targeting.

First impressions are everything!

It is very easy to use the default template in any blogging platform, but it will do nothing for your reader’s experience. Look around at the successful blogs and you will find customized themes designed to suit their niche.

Customized themes will cost you less than $100 but this is money very well spent, as it will improve your readers experience ten-fold. And make sure you check your blog in various browsers not just Internet Explorer. A blog that looks fantastic in Internet Explorer could look terrible in other browsers.

The Third Secret:

Continuously generate targeted traffic to your blog. A great looking blog with quality content is not worth anything to anyone without consistent and targeted traffic to it.

You need to continuously promote your blog to attract visitors.

With its incredible speed, power and coverage the internet can distribute a blog post around the world in seconds. A good looking blog fulfilling the needs, wants and desires of its readers can quickly become an authority site in its niche providing the owner with a very healthy income.

Why are some people getting rich with their blogs while others struggle? Find out the answers in these free “Make Money While You Sleep” special reports. FREE Details ==> http://www.ian-mcconnell.com/free.html

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Blogs as Modern Art

Sunday, November 1st, 2009

“In order correctly to define art, it is necessary, first of all, to cease to consider it as a means to pleasure and to consider it as one of the conditions of human life. Viewing it in this way we cannot fail to observe that art is one of the means of intercourse between man and man.” – Leo Tolstoy.

What is art? Art cannot be described as a process which produces beauty as beauty itself cannot be defined objectively. You can only guess what the aim of art is. According to Tolstoy, the aim of art is to provide pleasure, enjoyment, entertainment as well as creating a relationship between the author and the “receiver”. So is blogging – art?

History of Blogs

Blogs were first introduced as weblogs that refer to a “server’s log file.” It was created when web logging hit the virtual market. Since its inception in the mid-1990s, web logging gradually saturated the virtual community making the Internet a viable source of greater information.

Origin of the term “weblog” is uncertain. Many point to John Barger in December 1997 when he coined the term on his own blog. 2 years later, Peter Merholz broke “weblog” into a phrase “we blog”, thus giving birth to the word “blog”. Fortuitously, this play on words eventually took off, and “blog” as a short form not only became a household noun, but also as a verb. With the growth of popularity of weblogs, grew the popularity of the word “blog”. Indeed, in March 2003, the Oxford English Dictionary included the terms “weblog,” “weblogging” and “weblogger” in its dictionary. Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary astonishingly declared “blog” as the word of the year in 2004. (Wikinews,2005)

Starting from the mid-1990 the number of blogs at an incredible pace, at the end of 1999, the total number of blogs was estimated to be around fifty; five years later, the estimates range from 2.4 million to 4.1 million. The site Open Diary, while not using the term blog only until recently, had only two thousand diaries by 1999; by, September 2005, it exploded to 400, 000. The Perseus Development Corporation, a consulting firm that studies internet trends, estimates that by 2007 more than 10 million blogs will have been created. (Drezner and Farrell, “Web of Influence.” 2004).

Blogs as a way of expressing yourself

People who are into blogging carefully choose their words to describe their feelings, emotions and experiences. Leo Tolstoy says in his essay “What is art?”: “Art is a human activity consisting in this, that one man consciously, by means of certain external signs, hands on to others feelings he has lived through, and that other people are infected by these feelings and also experience them.”

In a way, bloggers are artists. They create a relationship with their readers, as professional writers and painters do. Blog is own space, their canvas, their book, where they can share their thoughts, feeling, ideas with others, where they can give and receive information.

As with art, you can write anything you want in a blog, but there are thing needed to be taken into account:

• You should make your blog interesting, informative so that it gives rise to readers’ thoughts and feelings.

• Create something beneficial for the readers. Give your blogs some quality content.

• “Simplicity is the final achievement. After one has played a vast quantity of notes and more notes, it is simplicity that emerges as the crowning reward of art.” Frederic Chopin. Avoid being complicated in your blog. The more complicated the blog is – the less it is art.

Blogs as Modern Art

So what is a blog? Is blogging art? Blog is persons own space in the Internet, his orchestra where he conducts his symphonies, his paper where he writes his essays, his canvas where he paints his masterpieces, in a word – his space where he creates. What is the purpose of the Artist? To create, to communicate the concepts of morality.

Unfortunately not every blog can be categorized as art. Blogs must be comprehensible and understandable. If any unintelligible blog or as any incomprehensible expression of though is to be called “art”, then the meaning of “art” will be lost. Blogs must have the form and content which is are unity with the feeling and ideas which they represents. Blogs that shallow, unsophisticated, awkward, artificial, exaggerated, ostentatious, or banal are not art.

Tolstoy suggests that professionalism kills art; it causes the art to become false and insincere. As long as blogs are kept original, personal and sincere they can be described as art, modern art.

“Generally art is a (product of) human activity, made with the intention of stimulating the human senses as well as the human mind; by transmitting emotions and/or ideas”(Wikipedia, 2008). Blog is a great way to implement this activity online.

All in all, blogs are modern art, as long as you keep them personal, original, honest and smart. Blogs are your web space and you have all the tools and ideas to create your own masterpiece!

To find out more interesting info about blogging check out my personal blog:

http://blog-writing-success.blogspot.com/

University student and online marketer -

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Tell Me More About, Blogging and Blogs

Friday, October 30th, 2009

If you are new to the Internet and have spent some time here, you must have heard about “Blogging” and “Blogs”. But what exactly is a blog? How does it work? And how you can start one? Let me tell you one by one : So what is a Blog? In simplest language, a blog is a daily journal of your thoughts maintained you (a Blogger) on the web. When posting to a blog you will notice that it is arranged in chronological order – with the most recent additions on top. As you keep postings more and more posts, the older posts will enter into an Archive folder so that visitors can view your past posts easily. You can permit your readers to add their own comments/feedback on any of your Blog post. You can add audio to your blog known as Podcast, which readers can listen to. In fact it’s a great way remain in touch with your clients. How one can start a Blog? It’s extremely easy.

There are numerous options available. If you want to have an experience of Blogging without spending some cash, you can opt for the blogging service from Blogger.com or from Wordpress.com. These two websites are world’s most popular free blogs providers and have some great tools for starting a blog. On Blogger.com you also have the option to earn money from your free blog through Google Adsense program. Basically you only need to register at these blogging service for a free account, fill some information and lo your blog is live! Starting a Blog is just like signing for a new email account! However, I strongly advise you that after getting sufficient experience of running a blog on these free blogging platform, you should switch to a professional blog by purchasing own domain name and host. This can be easily done by using the Wordpress Blogging tool (wordpress.org) which is one of the most powerful and free blogging software on earth. Working on wordpress is as simple as a breeze. There are zillions of wordpress tutorials for newbie on internet.

Further, there are many web hosting companies which offered wordpress enabled site hosting where installing wordpress is just a matter of point and click. What a blog can do for me? Well, a blog can changed your life in reality. If your blog become successful, you will be freed from all your financial worries and problems. For many people, their blog has become a virtual moneymaking machine. If you have any doubts over power of a blog ask Steve Pavlina, the guy who is earning $1000 a day (probably more) from his personal Blog. What are other benefits of having a blog? There are many and some of them are: 1. A blog allows you to get to know your customers and their needs, as well as, allowing your customers to know the blogger – that is you 2. A blog is a strong communication tool to keep in touch with your customers. 3. A blog (if updated regularly) can provide daily, quality content – which the Search engines love and thus, increase your traffic. 4. A blog can be used to advertise your links. You can write review of an affiliate product in your blog post thus increasing the chance of a sale. 5. A blog can be used to bring social change as is doing by some bloggers from China, Myanmar and Iran despite stiff resistance from their Governments. 6. A blog can be used to answer inquiries that people may have about your product.

Well , the list is not exhaustive and I have not mentioned all the benefits of a blog as it’s an introductory article on blogging. In my opinion, there is only one weak point of starting a blog – you’ll have to maintain/update it regularly :) In fact a Blog is just like the fish shark. It’ll die if it stops. A blog needs constant feeding of your thought matter to exist. The blog should be maintained on a regular basis or it’ll lose its effectiveness. Now enough of my ranting on blogging. Get up and go blogging. My best wishes for your blog.

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http://www.greatblogbox.com
http://www.blogging.reprintarticlesite.com

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