subject: To Blog or Not to Blog - Business or Pleasure? [print this page] To Blog or Not to Blog - Business or Pleasure?
Blog - this word is a combination of two words: web and log - such as you would log into a website.
You may have asked yourself many times why you should start a blog, or who would be interested in reading another one?
Your purpose for starting one may help you answer those questions.
There are several reasons to start an adventure like this. For many people it is a way to document a personal journey. I know of women who keep a blog, full of pictures and weekly posts as a history for their children to have one day. Everything can be kept in one place and easy for more than one person to access.
As a personal example, my husband and I recently became beekeepers. Blogging is a way to keep track of our journey and a great resource to look at historical data. For instance, how many swarms of bees did we catch last year?
Many people have found that blogging has become a great way to preserve a piece of their family history in one way or another. They have no interest in making money from their blog, or even opening it up for the public to read. It is purely for their own enjoyment and own personal use.
Others look at blogging more from a business perspective - wondering how they can turn this into a business and create some online income.
If you are interested in pursuing this adventure (which I find somewhat addictive), there are many places on the internet where you can find bloggers in your niche to get some ideas from. I think you will find that most bloggers are pretty friendly people!
It really is not hard to get started, and in most cases can be completely free. Blogger - which is owned by Google, and Word Press are the two most well known. I have found both of them to be user friendly and easy to navigate.
Once you have decided on a name for your space on the web, it is fun to check out the different templates that are available and customize it to your preferences. It doesn't take long to find one that is your style and you can begin posting right away!
You may then be wondering, "what should my first post be"? That is the great thing about blogs - it is a place where you can write about whatever is on your mind. You will get much more out of your experience if you post on a regular basis and make comments on other blogs that you have an interest in.
And don't forget to add pictures, post links to great videos and have fun! If this is something you have been thinking about, the easiest way to get started is to decide which service you are going to use, and go through their tutorial to help get you started.
At the end of the year, you just might be surprised how much you have captured and shared along the way!
