Starting Your Own Blog
Copyright © 2004 John Taylor
How To Get
Paid To Blog
I was sitting in my local Internet Cafe yesterday, I like to
get away from my "home office" from time to time and
it's a great place to go for a cup of Espresso and to meet interesting
people.
The rather attractive lady sitting next to me
was typing away furiously and, when she had finished, I asked
her what she was writing - I'm interested in learning how other
people use the Internet... some people call that being nosey!
It turns out she was a "Blogger" and she
was updating her web site through a web browser. She was really interested
in vegetarian cookery and she was adding a new restaurant review to
her blog.
If you spend any time at all online these days you
simply can't avoid reading something about blogs, they are becoming
increasingly more popular; and they are a great way of building an
online presence without the need for any technical knowledge. A blog
is an abbreviation of the term 'web log' which is a relatively simple
content management system.
Quite a few years ago, web surfers began collecting
information and interesting links that they encountered during their
online travels. As time passed they started to create logs of the
information that they collected and they soon started to develop their
own web logs. These web logs enabled them to update the information
and links as often as they wished.
Blogs are more permanent than posts to an online forum
or to a discussion list, they are much more dynamic than the traditional
style home pages. They are also more personal than standard journaling,
and definitely more public than diaries. A blog is often a mixture
of what is happening in a person's life and what is happening on the
Web, a kind of hybrid diary site. So, there are as many unique types
of blogs as there are people.
There are a few common characteristics of a blog,
but there may be slight variations within the classification. Some
blogs provide succinct descriptions of links within the chosen theme
of the blog. Some others contain commentary and links to the news
of the day. A few are endless stream of blurts about the writer's
day. Others are - political blogs, intellectual blogs, some are hilarious
and some topic driven. They are all - Weblogs.
As mentioned earlier, blogs are posts that are short,
informal and sometimes deeply personal no matter what the topic of
discussion is. They can be characterized by their conversational tone.
If a person has a web presence but is disappointed
with static homepage - if an elegant treatment of posts on a global
platform is what they want, then 'blogging' provides an ideal platform.
They may also consider blogging if they are seeking feedback from
their chosen audience.
Weblogs are definitely the mavericks of the online
world. Two of their greatest strengths are their ability to filter
and disseminate information to a widely dispersed audience, and their
position outside the mainstream of mass media.
There are many different options available to the
new and seasoned blogger alike. Some blog scripts are available for
you to install on your own domain and these require at least a basic
understanding of FTP and HTML. There are many hosted blog services
available some free and some paid. If you are serious about blogging
then I would strongly recommend that you use the best system that
you can afford and that meets your needs.
I personally have used the "Moveable Type"
stand-alone script and although quite complex to install, I found
it very easy to use. My recommended choice of hosted blogging service
would have to be the Blog4Cash.com system that includes a wide variety
of high quality features and has a built in two tier affiliate scheme
that enables you to generate a recurring income from all your referrals!
John Taylor - November 2004. John is a prolific writer
and is the author of several books including Testing
& Tracking . John's weblog
provides insightful comments on all aspects of online marketing and
is well worth a visit! For information on *How
To Get Paid To Blog* click here
