Blogging is a form of journalism, and often involves writing about your experiences and views on a subject; usually one that you are interested in or passionate about.
Blogging is not limited to any particular subject, as long as you have the knowledge and the desire to write, and others have the interest and the desire to read!
In recent years blogging has gotten so popular and versatile it has merged with news reporting, as they both cover similar areas. When you want to find out about a new album release or review of an event, it may be covered in newspapers or magazines, or, you do a simple internet search for the information and there is a good chance you’ll find it online.
The blogging world has developed so much that there are now an enormous number of tools to help you get started, and a few you may already be using without even realising;
Some of the more popular sites include ‘Facebook’, ‘Twitter’ and ‘Youtube’ – yes these are all classed as blogs!
These types of sites have allowed for near-real time news reporting, beating the journalists who haven’t been able to get there on time. This often happens via the public, who share the information through photos and updates on these social media platforms.
To start a blog, you should first decide on the type of content you will be publishing, will it be short updates that could fit into a 140 character Tweet – such as announcing where on holiday you are, along with sharing the occasional picture; or, will you be doing a full write up on your latest recipe for scallops, including additional information such as ingredients, pictures and even videos.
In effect, the best way to blog is to find a platform you like, whether it be a specialised website, a large social network, or a tight community focused on that subject:
– A website will allow the best structure for your content, and you will have full control of the design and features.
– A large social network has the benefit that certain posts your friends/family comment on will appear on their network feeds, so is a great way of your content getting shared and read by others.
– A tight community based around a subject will be different in that the majority of your visitors will be the other bloggers from the site, which will provide opinions from both experienced people in the field, as well novices.
Sharing and distributing your posts is another kettle of fish, as new sharing platforms are being developed continuously. There are however a number of tools available that will help you to distribute to multiple networks easily. Some of these tools include:
– Hoot Suite
– Seesmic
– TweetDeck
– OnlyWire
– post.ly
– Ping.fm
Whichever blogging platform you choose the way to get any of your posts noticed is quality: Writing what you know will show, and get you a long way!