Blogs: A Primer

Blogs, short for Weblogs have recently made headlines on TV, Newspapers and business publications. A blog is free, fun, way to show the world (almost) anything that interests you via a blog on the World Wide Web.

A blog is a means of sharing thoughts and ideas. Your blog can be a personal diary, a project collaboration tool, a guide, or any means of communicating and publishing information on the web. Its uses are as limitless as your imagination.

Authors use their blogs for creative writing. Others for political writing or technical writing. Teachers and educators use blogs in their courses and classrooms.
Blogs are now a great source of information and quotes for the media about your business. Get your blog mentioned in an article - that's free PR. Or, you can start a community with your blog. Blogs are a great way to drive traffic to an established Web site.

Blogs are free to start and very easy to update. Blogger (http://www.blogger.com) the leading service provider allows you to set up a blog in just a few easy steps.
Give your blog a name, provide a username, password, select a template and you are ready to start blogging. No Web designer required.

A blog has several parts which include:

• Date: The date the post is written. Posts are generally presented in reverse chronological order (most recent first).
• Title: Each post is given a title. This is a pithy phrase, a pun, or even a series of symbols.
• Time stamp: The time the post is uploaded to the blog. The time stamp often is a link to a permanent page just for this post. This allows other bloggers to link to a post.
• Post: A word, sentence, paragraph or essay, with links and names and current news. Key words and names are sometimes highlighted in boldface, which makes the post 'scannable'.
• Author nickname: The name or nickname of the person who wrote the post. For blogs written by one person, the author is often left off (because the author identification can be found on the Profile). For collaborative blogs, the author helps to differentiate contributors. The nickname can also be a link to a page of all the author’s posts.
• Comments: A software feature that allows readers to leave their own comments and reactions to the author’s post.
• TrackBack: A way for one blog post to link to the post of another blog. In other words, one blogger can write about the content of another person's weblog, and the two posts are linked in a web.

Where to Find Blogs

Once your blog is started you can add links to other blogs you’ve read and enjoy. It’s easy to find blogs in almost any city. Just type in blog and the city name into your favorite search like Google (www.google.com) and a list of blogs is often found.

Some Local Blogs of Note:

• Randolph is Talking – a community blog that connects citizens to local bloggers.
• Russlings - the blog of Russ Williams, Executive Director of the North Carolina Zoological Society.
• Flying the King of NASCAR – the blog of Mickey Pugh, pilot to Richard Petty.
• In the Stacks – the blog of the Randolph County Library