To Join a Blogging Site or Not to Join

Joining an established blogging site like live journal or

blogger has plenty of advantages, especially for the blog

novice. Sites that host a lot of different blogs often have

very useful tutorials about building and updating your

blog, and you are likely to encounter a very user-

friendly software interface at an established blogging

site. In addition, these sites provide a kind of instant

community of fellow bloggers who can provide advice,

insight, and feedback. These established sites often

keep directories of their members, which can be great

news for your traffic logs because it means that other

bloggers on the site will find out about your pages.

However, there are also some downsides to linking up

with a large blogging site. By posting within the

established templates of a site like blogger, you run the

risk of having your blog look and feel like everybody

else's. The blogging movement is very much about the

creation of distinctive sites and the development of

individual voices, so it makes plenty of sense that many

bloggers would shy away from the cookie-cutter look

and feel that these blogging sites often promote. Many

bloggers feel that the content of a blog is what makes it

distinctive, not the look of the blog, but many members

of the blogging community feel that the visual impact

of a blog should match the originality of the writing.

The Pros and Cons of Video Blogging

Video blogging has a lot of advantages over text-based

blogging, and it is little wonder that this new

technology is catching on all over the globe. Video

blogs very effectively grab the attention of web surfers,

and people are much more likely to become excited

about the dynamic content of a video blog than they are

likely to find a written posting very thrilling. The more

enthusiastic viewers are about a site, the quicker the

word of mouth spreads, and the more traffic the site will

get.

Of course, there are plenty of disadvantages to video

blogging as well. Hosting a v-blog requires quite a bit

of server space, which can make it difficult to get

started. It takes more time to process and upload a video

file than it does to dash off a quick bit of text, which

means that running and updating a video blog can be

quite a bit of work. In addition, web surfers sometimes

grow frustrated with the slow loading times of the files

on many video blogs. Whether you opt for a video blog

or not depends on what kind of subject matter you want

to cover, and how much time you can devote to video

blogging. Before you decide to pursue a video blog,

consider if there is an easier way for you to get your

Picking The Best Free Blogging Site

Choosing a free blogging site can feel overwhelming

because there are so many options. There are several

large free blog-hosting sites that dominate the

blogosphere, but there are also smaller sites. Whether

you decide to join up with an established site like

blogger or whether you choose to sign on with a

relatively new venture depends on what your priorities

are.

Reliability is perhaps the best reason to opt for a large

and well known free blogging site. When you choose to

have an established brand host your blog, you can feel

secure that your blog will not crash often and will not

disappear in the middle of the night. A company that

has been around for a while is likely to have the

resources to make sure that its clients aren't

unpleasantly surprised by any technical glitches.

However, many bloggers decide that this isn't enough

of a selling point. The bloggers who choose to go with

smaller, newer blog hosting sites do so for a variety of

reasons, but perhaps the number one advantage is a

fairly abstract one. Bloggers tend to relish the fact that

the internet is a place where the underdog has a strong

chance of success, and by choosing to have a small

company as a blog host, a blogger is casting his or her

vote for David against Goliath.

The Exciting New Frontier Of Professional Blogging

Professional blogging is a very new idea with a lot of

potential for entrepreneurs who have insight, drive, and

a basic understanding of today's innovative web

technology. The ranks of so-called pro bloggers are still

quite small, and there are very few people who make

their living entirely off of their blogs. However, every

day there are more and more people who have managed

to turn their weblogs into cash cows that supplement

their income. The number of pro bloggers is growing by

leaps and bounds, but it is difficult to say whether this

trend will continue.

Many bloggers dream of entering the sphere of

professional blogging. There are very few people who

happily devote an hour or more each day to their blog

without at least occasionally wishing that they could

earn some kind of financial reward for all of their work.

Several models exist for making money with a blog, the

most popular being to sell advertising space through

Google's AdSense program or directly to a company

that wishes to reach the demographic that your blog

appeals to. However, there are very few people indeed

who can make a comfortable living just by selling space

on their blog sidebars.

A lot of the people who read weblogs are bloggers

themselves, in part because of the fact that the people

who use blogging technology on a daily basis are most

likely to be interested in what other writers are doing

with the medium. This fact begins to explain why the

people who succeed in the world of professional

blogging are mostly people who have devoted

themselves almost entirely to learning about, talking

about, and writing about blogging. More than any other

topic, pro bloggers turn their attention to the

phenomenon of blogging itself. A lot of pro bloggers

make the topic of blogging the stunningly self-reflexive

ongoing focus of their blogs.

Of course, professional blogging is destined to become

much more complicated in the future than it is today. In

the current moment, pro bloggers who attract the largest

audiences and make the most money are mostly

concerned with investigating the blogging movement

and with offering advice to amateur bloggers. However,

as the kinds of people who regularly read blogs

changes, and the demographics of bloggers expand and

diversify as blogging software becomes more user

friendly, it is very likely indeed that the world of pro

blogging will begin to reflect these changes. Indeed, it

is very difficult to predict exactly what kinds of blogs

will be reaping the greatest financial rewards five or ten

years down the road. The world of pro blogging is one

of constant change and flux, which is part of what

makes it so exciting.

Blogging for Profit Begins With a Long Term Plan

Many people dream of blogging for profit, and this goal

is not far beyond the reach of someone with average

intelligence, a willingness to work hard, and a basic

grasp of blogging technology. However, very few

people manage to reap the profits they want from their

blog. Most people who attempt to make money with

their blogs do not succeed for two reasons. Often,

bloggers have unrealistic expectations of how fast their

readership will grow and how much money they will

make, and when these expectations are not met the

disappointment can crush the desire to continue

blogging. The other trap that many bloggers fall into

has to do with lack of planning. If you want to turn a

profit as a blogger, the key to success is to make a

realistic plan and stick with it.

To succeed at blogging for profit, the main thing that

you will need is a large readership. The higher your

traffic, the more advertisers will agree to pay you.

However, cultivating the regular visitors that you will

need in order to make a profit isnt easy. As more and

more blogs appear each day, having a great idea or a

wonderful writing style is no longer enough to get

attention. You need to be able to market your blog

effectively.

Too many bloggers spend all of their time writing posts

and almost no time marketing their project. To be

certain, updating as often as you can is a great way to

keep your blog high on blogrolls and high in blog

search engines like technorati, and once your readers

know that you update frequently they will return to your

site on a regular basis. However, it does not matter how

often you update if nobody is reading your page, so dont

skimp on the time that you spend drawing visitors to

your site. To make your dreams of blogging for profit a

reality, try decreasing your number of posts and using

some of that time to draw new visitors by setting up

link exchanges with other bloggers, making contacts in

the blog community, and following other established

modes of winning traffic.

Of course, even if you are a marketing genius or have a

really great idea for a blog, success is not going to

happen overnight. Building the kind of readership that

blogging for profit requires takes time, and in all

likelihood it will be at least several months before you

are able to turn much of a profit. Try to stay committed

to your blogging project during this initial rough period.

To stay motivated, set goals for how often you will

update and how many readers you want to attract, and

then reward yourself for sticking with your plan.

Blogging For Business Owners

If you run a small company, you may find that the world

of blogging for business owners is a world that you

want to be a part of. Blogging is a great way to get the

word out to consumers about your product or service,

and it can even be useful for inspiring employee loyalty

and helping you keep your workers at peak morale. If

you are looking for a way to take your business to the

next level, consider what starting a blog might be able

to do for you.

Blogging for business owners has a lot in common with

all other types of blogging, but it has its own unique

pitfalls and strengths. The key to having a successful

blog as a business owner is keeping your goals clear

and concrete at every step of your blogging adventure. It

can be all to easy to get sidetracked, especially if you

are just learning about the exciting possibilities of

blogging technology, but if you want your blog to

succeed you need to stay focused. Write up a plan for

how often you will update, how you will promote your

blog and retain readers, whether you will feature

photographs or video, and other aspects of your blog,

and then stick to it with the same kind of determination

that you used when you built your company.

Learning How to Make Money Blogging

There are two major types of business models that

entrepreneurs use to make money blogging. The first

and most common way to turn a blog into a profit

making machine is to sell advertising to different

companies and brands who want to reach that blog's

readers. The second kind of money making blog is one

that helps a single brand improve its image by creating

positive associations between the blog and the product

in the mind of consumers. Both kinds of blogs can

make a lot of money, especially if the creator has a keen

mind for marketing.

If you are blogging with the goal of selling advertising,

there are two basic ways that you can go about

recruiting sponsors who want to put ads on your site;

you can let someone else do all of the legwork, or you

can do the work yourself and keep all of the revenue.

Within the first group, many people make money

blogging by selling space through Google's AdSense

program. The advantages of this program are numerous,

as it requires very little effort on the part of the blogger

or webmaster to begin raking in profits. However, most

people discover that they make less money through this

method than they had hoped that their blog would earn.

Selling advertising directly to companies who want to

put banner ads or sponsored links on your blog can take

quite a bit of time, but it is often fairly lucrative. If you

have a lot of contacts in industries that are related to the

topic of your blog, you may want to try to go this route.

People who have a strong background in sales and are

experienced at pitching proposals can make quite a bit

of money by renting blog space to interested companies.

The most serious problem with this model is that you

often have to build quite a sizable readership before you

can attract advertisers, which can mean that you have to

do several months of work before you start to make

money blogging.

As blogging becomes a more and more lucrative

business, a lot of established companies are considering

how they can get into the action. One way that

companies are capitalizing on the blog movement is by

having blogs that provide a kind of friendly face for

their corporation. Often, a company will employ an

established blogger to create a weblog designed

specifically to appeal to that company's customers and

to create positive associations with the brand in

consumers' minds. More than one writer who never

even dreamed that he or she could make money

blogging has been approached by a company and

offered quite a pretty penny for this kind of gig.

Blogging Teens

Every day, blogs are created by people of all ages and

from all walks of life, but when it comes to blogging,

teen writers are truly on the cutting edge of the

movement. Because today's teenagers are the first

generation of people to have grown up using the

internet at every stage of their development, many

adolescents have a seemingly innate sense of how to use

web technology to express their innermost thoughts and

ideas. Older writers often experience a kind of learning

curve when they begin to blog, but many young people

find that using a word processor and blogging software

feels more natural and direct a mode of communication

than writing in a diary ever could.

One of the reasons why blogs have undergone a kind of

explosion in the teen community and are growing by

leaps and bounds is the fact that they provide a unique

mixture of visibility and anonymity. A teenager can

invite friends and peers to read his or her blog with a

simple email, thereby winning attention or possibly

even praise. Of course, with visibility usually comes the

possibility of embarrassment, but the fact that it is

possible to blog anonymously with an invented handle

or nickname negates a lot of the potential for

humiliation. Many a blogging teen lives in fear that a

parent or guardian will discover his or her blog, but by

publishing under an alias a teenager can spill his or her

secrets without fear of being traced.

Outside the world of blogging, teen writers often have

very limited opportunities to be published. Magazines

and journals are often reticent to publish young writers

who may not have as much credibility as older writers

with a lot of experience and extensive credits to their

names. This can discourage adolescents from writing or

from seeking chances to publish their work. By

blogging, young people can begin to gain a following of

readers without first having to win the attention and

support of an editor or publisher who may not be very

interested in teenaged authors.

Between the fact that blogs provide young people with a

chance to exercise their impressive technical aptitude,

to gain visibility without compromising privacy, and to

build a readership for their writing without having to

jump through the traditional hoops of the publishing

industry, it is little wonder that are so many teenagers

with blogs. For some teenagers, blogging is even a very

social endeavor that allows them to meet people with

similar interests from all over the world. Many a

blogging teen has discovered that having a weblog on

the internet is a great way to explore self-expression

and, often, to win positive feedback from new friends.

Blogging News Stories as They Happen

Blogging news stories as they unfold is one of the most

exciting and controversial applications of technology

that bloggers have discovered. One thing that makes the

blogosphere so active is the fact that it is possible to

update a blog instantaneously, so the news on blogs

tends to be more current than the news in the paper, or

on television. Unlike news delivered by these other

media, news that appears on blogs does not have to

travel through a series of editors and administrators

before it reaches the public eye. This has some

advantages, and some distinct disadvantages.

One of the most notable cases of news hitting a blog

before appearing in other media took place in July 2005

when terrorism struck London. As passengers were

evacuated from a subway car near an explosion, one

man took several photographs of the scene with his

cellular phone, and within an hour these images were

posted online. First-person accounts of the catastrophe

began appearing on blogs soon after these photos

appeared, and people all over the world learned about

the events in London by reading the words and seeing

the photos posted by bloggers.

The fact that these stories and images were being spread

directly by individuals operating without the added

filter of a reporter helped to make the crisis feel very

immediate to people across the globe. When it comes to

blogging, news often appears in a very personal context.

This has the potential to be the beginning of an exciting

new era of reporting, one that takes "New Journalism"

to it's logical next step by putting the power to shape

how the news is written and read directly into the hands

of the public.

Many bloggers and cultural commentators who are

champions of the weblog movement feel that this

growing trend of individuals who getting their news

from blogs is a good thing, because it makes the flow of

information more democratic. By decentralizing the

control of news, blogs allow more voices to enter the

field of debate about important current events.

However, many people are adamantly opposed to the

use of blogs as news outlets, and there are plenty of

good arguments on this side of the debate. Unlike

newspapers or television stations, few blogs have fact-

checkers, and there is little attention paid to journalistic

accountability on many blogs. This can lead to the rapid

spread of misinformation, and more than one falsehood

has taken the blogosphere by storm. The questions

about whether blogging news as it happens is ethical or

not are very complicated, but no matter where you stand

on the topic of current events blogs you are almost sure

to agree that this movement has the potential to

revolutionize how modern people get their news.

If You are Already Blogging, Money May be Just a

If you already spend a fair amount of time blogging,

money may come to you literally as soon as you ask for

it. Once you have an established blog with a regular

readership, it is easy to turn a profit through advertising.

By hosting sponsored links or banners, you can see

income from your hobby almost overnight. Even if you

did not start your blog intending to turn a profit, making

supplementary income from your blog may be easier

than you think.

Of course, even for people who have spent months or

years blogging, money from advertising revenue may

not add up to a large sum. The amount of money that

you can make as a blogger depends on a lot of different

factors, but perhaps the most important element of the

equation is the topic of your blog. If your blog is on a

subject that appeals to a demographic that advertisers

have a strong desire to reach, you will be more likely to

be able to turn a large profit on your blog than if your

blog is on a fairly obscure subject that does not draw

the kind of audience that advertisers need to appeal to.

Of course, the only way to find out where you fall on

this spectrum is to try hosting some ads. If you are

already blogging, you have nothing to lose.

The Right Blogging Platform For Your Needs

Choosing which blogging platform to use is one of the

most important decisions that you can make as a

blogger. The right platform can make blogging a

breeze, and the wrong platform can make blogging a

chore. Because the program that you use to blog with is

such a powerful part of your blogging experience, it is

well worth putting in the time to find a platform that

provides your ideal balance between a user-friendly

interface and a flexible framework that allows you to

make your blog look and feel unique. Finding the right

platform isn't always easy, but with a little bit of

contemplation and a little bit of research, you will be on

your way to finding the perfect blogging platform.

Deciding what your priorities are in terms of ease of use

versus customization. Most highly customizable

blogging platforms, like moveable type, are a bit more

difficult to use than very automated platforms like

wordpress. If you are new to blogs and to internet

technology, you might want to sacrifice the ability to

create a custom background design or to integrate a

unique font into your template in order to find a

program that will be easy for you to use. On the other

hand, if you are a veteran web designer with knowledge

of html or javascript, you will probably find the

limitations of a user-friendly platform to be frustrating.

There is no such thing as a blogging platform that is

objectively the best platform, because every blogger has

unique needs. The blogging movement is very much

about individuality, so it makes plenty of sense that

there would be many different platforms available that

are designed to meet the needs of different kinds of

individuals undertaking different kinds of projects. This

diversity is a good thing, because it means that you will

almost certainly be able to find a program that suits

your level of technical aptitude.

However, the fact that no two bloggers need the same

thing from a blogging platform can make your search

for the right platform a bit tricky. When you are reading

reviews of different platforms, try to keep your

priorities in mind and do your best to take into account

the position that the reviewer is coming from. For

example, a negative review written by an accomplished

software designer who complains that a popular

platform is too limited may tell you that the platform in

question is ideal for a beginning blogger. There is no

such thing as the perfect platform for everybody, so

instead of looking for the "best" platform, look for the

best platform for your specific criteria.

Photo Blogging May be the Pinnacle of Modern

Many people feel that photo blogging is the most

exciting kind of blogging that exists. Building and

maintaining a photo blog is no more difficult than

creating and updating a text-based blog, and many

people feel that the internet's high speed, full-color

technology reaches the pinnacle of its appeal with the

transmission of images. Posting photographs in a blog

format on a daily, weekly, or occasional basis is a great

way to express yourself while reaching viewers in an

emotionally charged and aesthetically engaging way,

and surfing photo blogs can help you to get a whole

new perspective on the world in which we live.

Many people who run image blogs are photographers by

trade, but photo blogging is also very popular among

hobbyists and amateur shutterbugs. To be certain, a lot

of the most popular photo blogs have gained attention

because the pictures on them are of the highest artistic

caliber, and a lot of the people who run these striking

blogs are graduates of prestigious art schools and have

impressive professional portfolios. However, some of

the most well known and most often visited photo blogs

are as notable for their concepts as for the pictures

themselves. Certain photo blogs, like the popular "Cute

Overload" which features picture after picture of

adorable animals, are more about the thematic content

of the pictures than they are about the style in which the

snapshots are taken.

The fact that photo blogs range from forums to display

the work of highly skilled artisans to playful collections

of curiosities shows that photo blogging is a truly

diverse form. The fact that photo blogs are so easy to

build and to update makes this kind of visual

communication very democratic, and enables people at

all skill levels to become a part of the global

conversation about the nature and value of photography

today.

Whether you are an artist or hobbyist who wants to

create a photo blog, or whether you are just somebody

who enjoys learning about new places and things,

spending some time looking at the most popular

photography blogs on the internet can be a very

rewarding endeavor. You can travel to another place or

another time by seeing pictures of faraway locations and

long-gone eras. You can see your own neighborhood

with fresh eyes by discover how local artists have

photographed the town or city in which you live. Photo

blogging allows people to communicate all of these

things and more, which makes it a very exciting part of

the modern blogosphere. If the best thing about web

technology is that it allows people to reach each other in

a very personal way from across great distances, then in

many ways photo blogs are the most successful kind of

Your New Baby, Blogging, and Modern Motherhood

For the mother of a new baby, blogging is likely to be

the last thing on her mind. Taking care of an infant is an

almost incredible amount of work, and between

changing diapers and putting the final touches on the

nursery, it seems unrealistic to imagine that there would

be time left over for any mother to blog. However, a

growing number of new moms are joining the

blogosphere to share their experiences during this

exciting time of life. There is a whole range of benefits

that new mothers can reap from blogging, and the

spectrum covers everything from getting through the

night to helping distant relatives feel closer.

Among the reasons why, for a mom dealing with the

hassles and triumphs of a baby, blogging is a great idea,

is that having a blog about motherhood is a great way to

blow off some steam. Babies often have very erratic

sleep patterns that leave parents up at odd hours of the

night, and sometimes the best way to fill those hours is

on the internet. Many new moms turn to television to

help them weather these dawn vigils, but by blogging

through the night moms can turn what feels like a

somewhat depressing situation into an actively positive

and productive one.

Another reason why new moms often find blogging

very satisfying is that it helps them to be a part of a

community. For moms who are not able to successfully

juggle a full social life with the very tough demands of

taking care of a new baby, blogging can be a great way

to stave off the isolation that sometimes comes with this

stage of life. A baby requires constant attention, and it

can be difficult to attend social gatherings or events

when you are responsible for an infant. Luckily, the

blogosphere is full of other moms in the same situation,

and by chatting with them it is possible to overcome

some of the loneliness that many new mothers are

surprised to encounter.

Of course, for a mom with an adorable new baby,

blogging can be as much about celebration as it is about

necessity. Having a blog about living with a new child

can give mothers the chance to reflect on how powerful

and warm the sensation of motherhood is, and

sometimes sharing the triumphs of this unique time can

make them even sweeter. A blog is a great way to keep

friends and family updated with news about your baby's

first words or first steps, and with new technology it is

easier than ever to make photos and video clips a part of

your blog, so you can give far-away relatives the chance

to feel much more involved in your child's life.

Mobile Blogging is on the Cutting Edge

Mobile blogging is an exciting phenomenon that is

sweeping the blogosphere. One of the reasons why a lot

of bloggers are attracted to the medium of blogging in

the first place is that they enjoy being able to make

frequent updates and posts that keep all of their visitors

up to speed with current situations. Mobile blogs, or

"moblogs," take this to the extreme by allowing users to

post things literally as they happen. This new wave of

moblogs and mobloggers keep web surfers up to date

with good and bad events of importance as they occur

all over the world, helping to make international

communication faster and more accurate.

Many people feel that the limitations of blogging have a

lot to do with geography. After all, there is only so

current that a blog can be when you need to run home

and boot up in order to update it. However, mobile

blogging marks the beginning of an thrilling new era

when web-based communication can happen

spontaneously from any location. Moblogging devices

mean that there is almost nowhere on the planet that

remains off-limits for bloggers.

Mobile blogging is still in its infancy because the

technology that makes it possible has only recently hit

the global market. The first moblog technology became

available over a decade ago, but it is only the past two

or three years that mobile web devices have become

user-friendly enough to appeal to most consumers. As

camera phones and other mobile technology become

more popular, more and more bloggers are getting away

from their desks and are hitting the streets. Moblogging

is becoming much more widespread that it was even a

few months ago, and mobloggers are quickly attracting

a lot of attention with the blogging community. It is not

yet clear whether moblogs will become the dominant

kinds of blogs in the years to come, but the current

trend seems to imply that moblogs are here to stay.

Mobile devices make it possible to blog from the sites

where current events are unfolding, which is one of the

reasons why mobile blogging has so much thrilling

potential to revolutionize the blogosphere. A moblogger

with a camera phone can post blog entries from, say, the

foot of the podium at a presidential speech, or from the

stands during the final moments of the world series.

This enables bloggers to experience the same real time

thrills that live television coverage provides, but in a

more democratic medium. The combination of mobility

and individual control that moblogging provides

certainly places mobloggers on the cutting edge of

today's communications technology, and it is hard to

imagine that the number and prestige of moblogs will

not continue to grow in the coming years.