For Newbs: How to Blog-Overview

The official definition of a blog is that it is an interactive Internet journal in which entries are published in reverse chronological order. The term “blog” is the short version of the word “weblog” which was first coined by Jorn Barger in December 1997 and was soon after shortened to the well known version by Peter Merholz of peterme.com.

Brian E. Redman created the first blog when he started up his Usenet group mod.ber. In this group, Brian and his friends wrote about the interesting things they found while surfing the Internet. It wasn’t long before the novelty of this new media format caught on and people, like Justin Hall, began using it to share their daily lives with others in the web world. Like a small country town suddenly exploding into a metropolitan city, blogging has since evolved from being a hobby of the uber geeks into a public megaphone for anyone with access to a computer and an Internet connection.

Should you jump on the blogging bandwagon?

People start blogs for a lot of reasons. Some want to express an opinion or release their pent up creativity. Others blog to inform the public about the injustices in the world or to generate support for charitable causes. And some do it just because all the cool kids are.

I think blogging is the best thing since sliced bread. I feel it promotes a sense of community in this fractured world of ours as well as put a human face on tragedies like the war in Iraq. You can generate income through blogging or use it to draw in customers for a new or established business. Bloggers also served as digital archivists, preserving information at risk for extinction when they blog about obscure topics. On top of that, many bloggers, such as Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit, have been able to cross the digital divide into television and radio because of their blogs.

Blogging has many positive benefits but there are drawbacks. In many ways, the Internet is like the wild west of American history. There is always a threat of an ambush by lawsuit from those claiming to have been defamed by a blog post. Bloggers have been known to face off in virtual communities at digital high noon over a simple misunderstanding. Several bloggers have lost their jobs because of things they wrote on their blogs while others have had to endure death threats because of their blog. If that isn’t bad enough, blogs are constantly being hijacked by villainous spammers who spew their viagra and pharmaceutical graffiti everywhere for the hapless blogger to clean up. It’s enough to put anyone off the idea of starting a blog.

Putting aside the negatives for a moment though, I think the greatest benefit to becoming a blogger is the potential to affect society in a positive and tangible way. In 2002 US Senator Majority Leader Trent Lott made a comment about how much better the United States would be if Senator Strom Thurmond, an advocate of racial segregation, had been elected president. The television networks and newspapers failed to report on the incident even though Lott made the comment at a public event. It was the bloggers who broke the story and the political scandal that followed forced Lott to resign his position.

To decide if blogging is for you ask yourself:

1. What is it that I want to get out of blogging?

2. Can I commit the time necessary to keeping my blog updated and spam free?

3. Can I handle the negative elements floating around the Internet such as trolls and psychopaths?

4. If I become an Internet superstar, will I be able to handle the notoriety?

5. Am I able to commit to learning about the art of blogging and associated topics in order to make my blog the best it can be?

Words of Wisdom

If you’ve decided that blogging is right for you, here are a few tips to help you make the most of your blogging experience.

Know why you are blogging- Before you start looking for a platform with which to begin building your blogging empire upon, you need to decide why you are blogging. This will help you make better decisions regarding how to run your blog. For instance, if you write about your personal life, you’ll want to consider using a pen name as well as changing the names of the people you talk about in order to preserve your relationships and your job.

Make a sensible commitment- Blogging is like being the host of a television show. If you want to keep your audience, you need to make sure the show comes on regularly. At the same time, you don’t want to over commit yourself. You will only end up lowering the quality of your life and blog to keep up. Start with one day a week and see how things go. If you find you have more time and energy, simply increase the number of days you blog.

Think for yourself outside the box- When you first begin blogging, it will be tempting to take everything other people say about blogging as the law of the virtual land. While it is good to read the advice of “experts”, don’t be afraid to declare it all rubbish and follow your own path. Not every square peg will fit into the same square hole. Experiment. If it works, great! If it doesn’t work, trash it and move on. Find what works for you and go with it.

Understand that Success is not guaranteed- You can do everything right and still fail. This is just a fact of life. One of the major advantages of blogging is that if things don’t work out as planned, the most you’d lose would be time and maybe $50 if you purchased a domain name and website hosting. So don’t let the fear of failure deter you from trying in the first place because as John Whittier once said “For of all sad words of tongue or pen, The saddest are these: ‘It might have been!’”

Give it a year- True overnight success is rare. For the most part an “overnight success” is the result of years of hard work. It is unrealistic to expect massive traffice and accolades the first day you set up your blog. Give your blog some time to grow and the blogosphere time to get to know you. I recommend at least a year simply because I’ve always felt that you don’t really know a place (or a job or a house or a city) until you’ve experienced it in all four seasons.

Have fun- Don’t get so caught up in your blogging adventure that you forget to have fun. The world is full of people who take themselves way too seriously. If you find yourself falling into this mindset, take a break. You’ll come back more relaxed and your blog will be that much better for you having taken the time to refresh yourself.

In the next article, For Newbs: How to Blog-Getting Started, I will show you the tools you need to quickly and successfully jumpstart your blogging adventure.