“Introduction to Blogging” A Blog By: WordPress.org Mike Mannone ENGL 393 Ms.Harris Summer Session I 2009 Due:

Introduction This article was put into place so as to define “blogging” and its various uses for the public. Main Points  What is a blog?  The blog content  Comments  The difference between a blog and a CMS  Things bloggers need to know  Blogging tips

What is a blog? "Blog" is an abbreviated version of "weblog”—a term used to describe web sites that maintain an ongoing chronicle of information. Blogs are frequently updated, personal websites featuring diary- type commentary and links to articles on other sites. Blogs range from the personal to the political, and can focus on one narrow subject or a whole range of subjects.

What is a blog? (continued) Most blogs share some variation of the following features: A main content area with articles listed chronologically, newest on top. Often, the articles are organized into categories. An archive of older articles. A way for people to leave comments about the articles. A list of links to other related sites, sometimes called a "blogroll". One or more "feeds" like RSS, Atom or RDF files.

The Blog Content Most blogs are comprised of articles written by any number of authors that contain information about observations, reviews, or basic thoughts. These articles are usually composed using a web- based interface, though many authors take advantage of stand-alone “weblog client” software to work offline and upload at a later time.

Comments Most blogs have a method to allow visitors to leave comments. Authors of other blogs may leave comments without even visiting the blog using techniques called “pingbacks" or “trackbacks,“ and they can inform other bloggers whenever they cite an article from another site in their own articles. This ensures that online conversations can be maintained painlessly among various site users and websites.

The Difference Between a Blog and a CMS Software that provides a method of managing your website is commonly called a CMS or “Content Management System.” A CMS provides the features required to create and maintain a blog, and can make publishing on the internet as simple as writing an article, giving it a title, and organizing it under one or more categories. With blogging tools, users can focus on what they want to write, while the tool itself makes the work presentable and publicly available.

Things Bloggers Need to Know Terms and Concepts Archives- Gives users the ability to organize and present articles in a composed fashion Feeds- A function of special software that allows "Feedreaders" to access a site automatically looking for new content and then post updates about that new content to another site. Blogrolls- A list, sometimes categorized, of links to web pages the author of a blog finds interesting. Syndication- The process of updating blogs and displaying new articles automatically as they’re written. Managing Comments- Trackbacks, pingbacks, comment moderation, etc.

Blogging Tips Post regularly, but don't post if you have nothing worth posting about. Stick with only a few specific genres to talk about. Don't put 'subscribe' and 'vote me' links all over the front page until you have people that like your blog enough to ignore them (they're usually just in the way). Use a clean and simple theme if at all possible. Enjoy, blog for fun, comment on other peoples' blogs (as they normally visit back).

Conclusion In closing, blogging is a fun and useful tool for those who wish to publicize information. Despite the infinite number of aspects to blogging, if using a reliable blogging tool or CMS, the process is usually rather intuitive.

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