Published in The Gudgeon - June 2008

Blogging is an abridgement of the term “web log.” It can be a personal website with views on a particular subject, or it may be a personal diary published online. Many companies, politicians and media outlets also have blogs to generate interest and involvement from readers.

Blogs have now become an uncensored alternative to newspapers. It has given people the opportunity to get their views into the public sphere, bypassing the traditional media outlets.

If you would like to set up your own blog, it is very easy and you can do it for free. You simply sign up, decide on a name, choose one of the free themes and start blogging. If your blog is personal to you, you can set your privacy options so that only close family and friends can view it.

I personally use Wordpress which has lots of excellent and free designs to choose from which help to make your blog look unique and it offers very good protection from spam (contact from unsolicited sources). You can also add free widgets to your blog so that you can show your online photos or links to websites that you recommend.

Blogger is a good alternative to Wordpress and it is owned by Google. It is perhaps easier to use but not as flexible. It is also worth looking at Vox which also prides itself on ease of use, its privacy controls and ability to import photos and videos from outside websites.

If writing regular and lengthy posts is a bit daunting there are such things as ‘microblogs.’ These are designed to enable you to quickly post random thoughts, quotations, links, photos or movies. Tumblr or Pownce are good options.

Perhaps the best known microblog is Twitter in which you provide updates in less than 147 letters of what you are doing now. You can elect to “follow” your friends or the famous. It is strangely addictive and a great way to keep in touch with their random goings on. Even Gordon Brown has a Twitter feed.

The great thing about blogging is that it gives you your own individual space on the internet and gives your friends and family a chance to share in your thoughts, opinions, activities and photos.

As always, you can find links to all of these websites at www.del.ico.us/gudgeon

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