Am such a geek!!!!

As part of our Professional Design Practice unit we are required to look at how the craft sector/designers/artists use social media networks for brand promotion, communications and social networking.

Being new to the world of blogging I thought I’d start this project by finding out a bit more about blogging. There are a number of websites offering help to set up a blog – covering everything from what a blog is and if it right for you to making money from blogs and creating blog networks.

http://www.problogger.net/archives/2006/02/14/blogging-for-beginners-2/

Right now though I’m only interested in the basics.

What is a Blog?(http://www.computersprintersrepairshouston.com/glossary_of_terms.html)

 

From "Web log." A blog is basically a journal that is available on the web. The activity of updating a blog is "blogging" and someone who keeps a blog is a "blogger."

There is also a discussion about what niche topic you should chose for your blog.

Are You Interested in the Topic? (http://www.problogger.net/archives/2006/02/15/how-to-choose-a-niche-topic-for-your-blog/)

A friend of mine explained it this way recently:

“Probably the best place to start thinking about what your blog should be about is to consider what YOU are about.”

Perhaps that’s a slightly awkward way of saying start by identifying your own interests, passions and energy levels for topics. While it might be tempting to start blogs based on what other people are interested in or what makes commercial sense there is little logic in starting a blog on a topic that you have no interest in. There are two main reasons for this.

Firstly if you want to grow a popular and well respected blog it can take considerable time and you’ll be needing to take a long term approach to building it up. As a result it’s well worth asking yourself ‘can I see myself still writing on this topic in 12 months time?’ If you can’t I’d suggest finding another topic.

The second reason is that you readers will quickly discern if you are passionate about your topic or not. Blogs that are dry and passionless don’t tend to grow – it makes sense really as no one wants to read something that the author doesn’t really believe in.