To Blog Or Not To Blog

Web logs, commonly referred to as "blogs," represent allthe rage right now in online publishing.

Not really a newsletter or traditional html pagepublishing, blogs resemble more of a web-based diary wherethe creator records their thoughts, posts links, orresponds to questions.

With so much confusion online and an absence of "personaltouch," blogs stand to actually bring back some humanity tothe web by allowing people of like minds to come together.

** Why Blog? **

As the sea of information on the World Wide Web gets largerand deeper, people starve for knowledge.

It's a fact that most human beings learn better whensomeone else shows or tells them how to do something, orexplains what something means and its impact on theirlives.

People sitting around a fire and passing information one toanother is as old as human history, and with blogs you cando the online equivalent.

Blogs allow you to do everything from staying in touch withfamily members to building a world-wide following of loyalreaders based around a hobby or your profession.

** Monologue or Dialogue? **

You basically have two choices when it comes to your blog.

You can set it up so only you can post to the blog andviewers just read your posts, or you can allow youraudience to comment on your posts and create a dialoguewith them.

Which model you choose comes down to your purpose for theblog.

If you want to get feedback from customers, family members,friends, or subscribers, then allowing them to post willadd a tremendous dimension to your communication.

If you want to keep it simple, then start out with a blogwhere you post and others only read.

** How Do You Set Up a Blog? **

Log on to Blogger.com to set up a free account (monologuetype).

With absolutely zero experience and without reading thehelp files, I set up my blog - www.ebookblog.com - in about5 minutes.

At first I just posted a few old articles to fill incontent and see how the process worked.

Lately I've gotten the "blogger bug" and plan to startposting several times a week.

Though my blog gets posted on my own website, Blogger.comalso allows you to post to their server so you don't evenneed a hosting account to set up your own blog.

You can get a more full-featured blog (dialogue type) fromMovableType.org.

There you have the option of getting their softwareinstalled on your server or obtaining a very reasonablypriced account hosted on their servers.

Either way you choose, posting rates as simple as typinginto a web form, clicking a button, and your articles andcomments automatically get posted to your blog (no html orftp skills required).

If you want to find one of the thousands of blogs onlineabout everything from cooking to puppy potty training, logon to:

www.daypop.com
www.blogsearchengine.com
www.feedster.com

You can easily and quickly search through rapidly expandingdatabases of blogs open to the public.

(c) Jim Edwards - All Rights reserved - http://www.IGottaTellYou.com

About The Author:

Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and theco-author of an amazing new ebook that will teach you howto use fr-e articles to quickly drive thousands of targetedvisitors to your website or affiliate links...

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