Introduction to Online Blogging

Blogging and social networking are inextricably linked in the sense that both contain certain features and properties with overlapping ideas and results.

Both are aimed at creating a wide movement as far as multimedia interaction is concerned. 

These concepts have existed in cyberspace for almost a decade now, but in the initial stages, they were rather exclusive of each another. Only in recent times have they been merged, and their similarity and motives truly recognised.

Though it is true that blogs can be regulated and kept very private, their main purpose is to reach out to as many people as possible and to provide a medium to voice your ideas, opinions and thoughts.

Blogging is essentially done to channel your thoughts on to an online journal plus you also want other people to read what you have written. In this way, you can get in touch with people from all over the world. Social Networking provides a similar function. It is a hub where people of all agers and from all walks of life can flock together to discuss common goals and ideas. The chances of getting an audience via such a platform are high.

The origin of the term ‘blog’ is interesting. The first blog was recognised in about 1994  from a chap named Justin Hall who ran a personal blog for about 11 years but in those days was referred to simply s an online diary. It was not until 1997 that the term ‘weblog’ appeared meaning a web log, diary or journal that helps you to record your thoughts on a day to day basis. This term was later shortened to blog when Peter Merholz jokingly moved the space to say that “we blog”on his weblog in 1999 and thew phrase caught on. From there came free blogging services like Blogger became extremely popular.

As mentioned earlier, blogging today is not restricted to only maintaining a journal. It has truly become a platform where various kinds of people from all walks of life, whether they have the same ideologies or not, congregate, and discuss the matters they think are important to them.

Blogging in the twenty-first century has created an important tool for advertising for people who wish to market their products online and for politicians who wish to sell their ideologies, and reach out, to the masses.

Moreover, creating a blog and maintaining it does not require a fortune. Anybody can now have a personal blog basically cost free and you do not have to be a computer expert, a graphic artist or web designer in order to start and maintain a blog.

Unlike a website, which operates on a different domain, and for which every single template and tab needs to be designed and created from scratch, blog sites do not need such knowledge. The blogging service providers have their own inbuilt templates and fonts which require the blogger to choose the templates as per their own tastes and preferences.

Blogging is an ideal way to make new friends who will obviously have differing viewpoints. Therefore, this gives scope for a good deal of discussion and debate with all points of view being taken on board. Making new friends and socialising may even be the sole purpose of a blog hence the stronger relationship with and similarity to Social Networking sites. As Social Networking platforms have become more business-based and aware, the differences between blogging and social networking have become fewer.

Interesting the word ‘blog’ is both a noun and a verb. This leads means that blogging, in some sense, also helps get rid of the hassles of publishing. Though your work will not come out in print, you know that you can publish your work – your articles, pictures, videos, etc – yourself through your blog.

Therefore, it may be your own personal journal that you wish others to read or your works of art in terms of the stories or articles that you write, or the movies that you make or it may be a vehicle for marketing and selling products and ideas or even training courses. You can share almost any content with the world at large.

It must also be noted that, just like you do not have to be a web designer to create your own blog, you need not be a professional writer, a filmmaker or a photographer to publish content on your blog. It is just space for you to indulge your own small artistic pursuits and share those moments with others.

What has happened to the genre over recent years is that blogging has become the perfect vehicle to promote Affiliate Marketing and so the lines blur again between blogging and other forms of internet contact and interaction.

If you are interested in finding the right way to run a blog, here is the perfect solution

To You Future – And all it may bring.

Gordon J