A one page introduction to blogs and blogging for those who are new to all this stuff.

1. What is blogging?
Blogs aren’t necessarily online diaries, no Conversations
matter what people tell you. They’re best
defined as regularly updated websites that One key element of a blog - although not
feature the latest posts at the top. That’s it! always present, depending on the
circumstances - is commenting. This mean
letting readers of your blog leave their own
views on what you have been writing about.
You can adjust the ease with which people can
leave comments, either pre-moderating them
People can use blogs to write about whatever and checking them all before they go online, or
they like. A blog is the whole website allowing them through straight away.
containing all the published content. Each
published article within the blog is commonly To help people to become aware of your blog,
referred to as a ‘post’. it’s a good idea to join conversations already
happening on other blogs. Leave comments
Some folk use blogs to write about what they on them, or write a response on your blog and
are up to, but others use them to publish book leave a comment pointing people to it on
or movie reviews, to report local news, or to others.
provide tips and advice to people.
Linking
You can also blog as an individual, or
contribute to a ‘group blog’ with many authors. A key part of blogging culture is linking to
This is great for an organisation or team, or sources and interesting sites - particularly
perhaps for a bunch of people who can’t post other bloggers.
that often!
So it’s a good idea to read other blogs if you
The best way to learn about blogging is to get get the chance - it might seem a lot of work but
cracking yourself. Just head to one of the using tools like an RSS reader (see the ‘What
popular tools and you can set up a blog for is RSS?’ guide for help on that) can make it
yourself within just a few minutes and a couple easier. When you see something that’s
of mouse button clicks. interesting, write your own post about it, linking
to the original.
Tools
There are a lot of different blogging tools you
can use - have a play and see what works best
for you.
Blogger and WordPress are good general
tools, Posterous is great for quickly firing off
posts via email, Tumblr is perfect for people
who like to post up photos, videos and links to Again, by linking to other bloggers, you make
other sites. them aware of you - and they could then link to
you in return, sending more readers your way!
There’s no right or wrong way to blog, it’s
entirely down to you and what you feel most
comfortable with.
This quick guide was put together by Kind of Digital.
We provide strategic advice, training and technical development to help organisations open up and
make the most of the web - including social media tools like blogs!
Find out more at kindofdigital.com or follow us on Twitter - @kindofdigital
Published under creative commons - feel free to redistribute and edit, but not for commercial gain.