The Hobby of Blogging

What are you reading?
When I first heard the word blog, I thought that someone was about to vomit. I soon came to realize that it was nothing more than a website where entries are made in journal style and displayed in a reverse chronological order. In the past few years, the art of blogging have taken over our lives by infiltrating our home via nightly news broadcasts, substitution of your newspapers and creating a delightful alternative to reading about Hollywood gossip. Just think, if blogs were never creating there would be no way that you would looking at the words you are reading right now. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic. The term "blog" is derived from "Web log." "Blog" can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.

Finding A topic could be the hardest thing to do.
When beginning your blog, you must first devise a topic. If you are reaching out to a particular audience, you want to make sure that your posts lie well within the interests of that group. If not, your blog could be read as often as the Cincinnati NAMjA's blog in Indianapolis. Make sure that you have a clear and concise topic and that all of your post follow in line. If some do not, make sure that it is clearly stated why you strayed from the main topic.

Pick a site that will let you do what you want to do.
There are several free blog sites such as Blogger.com and Wordpress.com. These blog sites even let you add in your own templates and pictures. If you want to have a bit more control over your design and privacy, you may have to fork over a bit of cash and choose Typepad.com.

Once you have picked your subject matter and chosen a service in which to use that best fits your needs, it is now time to navigate through your particular service to see what type of style you would like to use. If you are no web designer, or better yet, haven’t the foggiest ideas how to read or write hyper text markup language (HTML), than using one of the templates provided by the site is your best bet.

Let your readers comment
There are several ways to allow people to commit on a blog. You can simply allow ever Tom, Dick and Harry comment without any restrictions. This may not be the best thing if the subject on your blog is controversial, but you still may choose to do so. Some blog providers offer the option of just allowing registered mebers to be able to post a comment. I would recommend the best of both worlds. Use the option to moderate your comments, that way you have a bit of control as to who and what is being said on your blog.

Some things to watch out for when posting
Depending on the material of your blog, you could get into big trouble. By posting rumors or out right lies about people with some sway, like your boss or the mayor of a major metropolitan city could get you in trouble. On the other hand, you should not be afraid to say what you want to say.

Post like your life depended on it
This may be an over statement. You do not want to inundate your readers with several daily posts. It may be too much for them to read at one time and to keep up with. Make sure the you keep your readers updated on your topic. Depending on the topic, this could be as much as every day or as sparse as weekly. You and your readers will be the judge of that.

I began my writing career using blogs about a year ago and have learned so much, especially from my fellow bloggers. With the amount of blogs that have graced the internet now, you should not be hard pressed to find one that you would like to emulate. Blogging is on the verge of becoming an art form. If you follow these simple steps in the beginning of your blogging career, this coupled with practice will lead you to success.