Bloggin Ads

For many of us blogging is a natural talent. We have something we want to share, and we have the ability to communicate our ideas. For some of us, blogging can be a little stressful, and perhaps a little questionable when it comes to the reason why you are writing. Blogging can be a very curious medium, but hopefully this post will settle your minds on why blogging is important and how it can beneficial.

Today’s topic will highlight some of the most asked questions about blogging.

What is a blog?

A blog is a webpage that is updated frequently by a user who looks to share a story or insight on a particular topic that interests them or have experience in. The stories can be short, or if long have a URL that links to the longer story.

Is blogging free?

Blogging is absolutely free. Whether you blog for yourself or you blog for a company, the tools you can use are easily accessible and offer a wide variety of resources. Tools such as WordPress, TypePad, and Blogger are web based tools that simply require a login and password, a quick profile setup, and a template setup and you’re ready to go.

What’s a template?

A template is the look and feel for your blog. The template is what people will see when they come to your site, and where you writing will rest. Standard templates are offered through the variety of free blog sites mentioned above, but you can also purchase exclusive designs for your blog to give it a unique look.

How are blogs used?

Blogs are like online diaries, an introspective look into a person’s life or knowledge base. The sites are setup to interact with readers, and provide readers a chance to comment on a writer’s musings.

Examples of how blogs can be used:

Personal diaries

News feeds

Hourly, daily, weekly updates of Web sites

New information on a topic

Product updates: reviews, new versions, new products

This day in history

Birthdays and other special events

Almost anything you can think of

Do I have to use the free tools to create a blog?

The free tools are just options for you if you are looking at getting started quickly. If you’d rather build your own site, then you’d have to purchase a domain name and have a hosting company host your site.

What tools do I use to post to my blog?

If you’ve gone the free tool route, you can post through their web based application. If you’ve gone your own route for example with WordPress, WordPress offers ways to type your blog and post directly using their interface. But there are a variety of tools you can use to get your blog posted from your desktop and browser windows such as ScribeFire, Microsoft LiveBlogger, and Ecto for the Mac. All of them are applications that require installation, but once they are tied to your blog url and servers, they can post directly without any problems, bypassing the use of the program interface offered by the tool of your choice.

Why would I want to use a client tool rather than the blog application?

Client tools offer a wide variety of features that the blog applications do not. The interface of the blog applications are very limited and do not offer the full list of features and ease of use that a client application can offer. Client tools also allow you to work offline rather then being tethered to an internet connection with a blog application.

Can a blog be private?

Absolutely! If you’d rather your blog not be shared with anyone, and utilize it as a personal diary, you can do that as well. Most blog applications offer the user the choice of whether to publish publicly or keep private. If you’re not comfortable sharing your thoughts with the world just yet, this option is definitely for you.

Are comments necessary and why would someone leave one?

Comments are not necessary, you can actually turn the feature off if you do not want people to leave their messages. The idea of comments is for readers to leave constructive, community building commentary, even if it disagrees with what you write to continue the conversation. Debate can be healthy, but it depends on who is leaving the comment and how the bloggers chooses to interact with the community. Most popular websites have healthy conversations in the comments section that take the blog post deeper for a richer understanding.

What is a blog network?

Blog networks are simply a way to submit your blog to be a part of an online community. The way an individual might join a forum to be a part of a community of like minded individuals with a common interest, a blog can be submitted to join a community. Other readers can view your blog and allow the bloggers to link up and possibly drive traffic to one another’s site. It’s meant to be community oriented for the sake of directing traffic to sites where they might have otherwise overlooked.

What is the blogosphere?

The blogosphere is simply the online world of blogs. Every new blog that is created is termed as having been added to the blogosphere. Since its inception the world of blogs has grown dramatically, with over 2,000 blogs being added daily.

I know what a blog is, what’s a vlog and moblog?

As stated in another post here on Bloggin-ads, blogs come in many forms. Aside from the standard writing format, blogs can be video recordings called vlogs. Applications that allow you to create vlogs are Seesmic and 12Seconds. These tools typically require a camera of some sort and the ability to upload that same video online. On the other hand a moblog is a mobile blog done entirely with your mobile device. Robert Scoble was popular with using moblogs for interviews and other short musings for a period of time. If you’re mobile device can handle picture taking, audio recording, video recording, and texting, you’re set up to be a moblogger.

How do I become a better blogger?

There is no easy answer to this. My recommendation is write, write, write. Write about what you are passionate about, what drives you to live everyday. Those tend to be the most successful people. My second recommendation is to support sites like Bloggin-ads which not only can share with you how to be a better blogger, but also how to monetize your efforts.

What is RSS?

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication, and it’s a proven method to inform people of your most recent posts. When you set up your blog account, you’re site will have a specific coding that designates an RSS signal which is picked up by RSS aggregators world wide, alerting people of when there is activity on your site.

What is an aggregator?

Aggregators do exactly what they say, they gather, typically information shared via an RSS feed. A very popular reader tool is Google Reader. Google Readers allows you to setup feeds to come directly to Google Reader to save you time from having to visit each and every site you follow by putting all the updates in one location. If you’re wondering if there is a feed for a specific topic, most readers have a search tool that allows you to find your topic by doing a quick search and adding the feeds you find.

If you would like to receive free updates on future posts about blogging, please subscribe to Bloggin-Ads’s blog feed.

Continue with the second part here.