FAST TRACK TO BLOGGINGFAST TRACK TO BLOGGINGThese Articles covers everything about Blogging. It will make you rich, famous and loved by one and all. Provided you do the hard work we're going to tell you to, and provided you've got what it takes. Articles
What It Takes
2007-11-24 19:15:00 So what does it really take to make it big in the blog world, and, for that matter, the Web world as well? Of course there isn't some instant mantra that you can follow to get blogging success, but by following these simple tips, you can make your mark and, probably, a few bucks as well.Pen... err... Keyboard Ready!First of all, before getting into the real, nitty-gritty of the blogging business, it is important that you have the keyboard at hand at all or most times. This doesn't mean that you need to carry a laptop with you at all times. It just means that mental notes of things you want to blog about are often forgotten, so it is advisable to write it down somewhere (backs of bus/train tickets, napkins at restaurants, etc., make for reasonable idea remembrance).Ideas are no respecters of time and place, they may come at you in the oddest of moments. If you are planning to be a dedicated blogger, always keep a pen and shorthand pad within easy reach. Better to jot down the fleet...
The Queen of the Sky
2007-11-16 14:42:00 http://queenofsky.journalspace.com/Ellen Simonetti was an airline attendant in a major US airline. She used to run a blog called The Queen of The Sky through which she shared her family and airline experiences. The blog was slow to gain popularity, but when Ellen posted pictures of herself, that showed, according to the airline, a more than socially acceptable level of cleavage in some photographs, the airline fired her. Simonetti, obviously aggrieved, filed a lawsuit against the airline for "wrongful termination, defamation of character and lost future wages." The story became suddenly headline worthy and was carried in the press quite exhaustively. More About: The Queen
Gautam Ghosh
2007-11-16 14:07:00 http://gauteg.blogspot.com/The blog title says "Gautam Ghosh—Management Consultant", but on further reading one instinctively knows that the blog is much more than some regular literature on management consultancy. The blog makes for frequent visits for anyone associated with Indian education and management in any way. Ghosh scouts for news on anything related to organizations and companies and opines about them with a touch of salt and no hint of cynicism. His updates on managing organizations are text-book material.Sepia Mutinyhttp://www.sepiamutiny.com/sepia/Se pia Mutiny is a community blog that is updated by people of Indian origin living in the US. The content deals with issues of Indian interest that are brought up by western media. Though you will also find topics of general interest, it is the US-India angle issues that really rock. The site also has very vociferous readers who are not afraid to post long comments in response to what they read.Digital Inspirationhttp://lab...
India Uncut
2007-11-12 20:11:00 India Uncut http://indiauncut.blogspot.com/Amit Varma is a Mumbai-ite with a sense of humour and the ability to find things funny, or find funny things in the most unexpected of places. His blog, India Uncut, was voted best Indian Blog of the year by Indibloggies. His non-conformist style, combined with an uncanny knack to spot the humour in any situation brings in the hits day after day. Again, like Sabnis, Varma was also an early adopter of the blogging phenom in India. India Uncut has been around for the last three years and continues to grow in stature and hits alike. Most of the popular Indian bloggers these days are those who caught on the blogging bandwagon when it was just getting started here. But more importantly, they let everyone know about it and built a strong community of Indian bloggers that is now considered the be-all and know-all of blogging in our country.Youth Curryhttp://youthcurry.blogspot.com/Rashm i Bansal is editor and publisher of JAM, a popular youth magazi... More About: India
Entering the Community
2007-11-12 19:59:00 Blogging can be more than just a personal story telling experience. Sure, the point of having an online diary itself can be rewarding, but these days blogging can make you some pocket money and, if you are really serious about it, a living as well.Blogging For FameThere was once a time when the only people whose memoirs made them famous were politicians and celebrities. But being the great 'changer of everything' the Internet gave ordinary people like us the chance to show our stuff to the world, without a press agent or a marketing budget. And with blogs being the buzzword of today, what better way to get noticed. There are several people who have found fame and/or fortune through blogs. Here's a look at some of them.Vantage Pointhttp://gauravsabnis.blogspot.com/Gau rav Sabnis was one of the early adopters of blogs in India. His blog, Vantage point, is a look at current happenings in news and sport. The writer is an avid quizzer and his style of writing combined with some insight... More About: Community , Erin , Unit
Blogging Mods
2007-11-08 20:18:00 Blogs are one dimensional—with the number of posts listed over time being the only dimension. Consider a situation where you would like to edit a post you made over a month back. Using the existing blogging platforms, it is not possible to retain the previous version. Such a feature is intrinsic to a wiki.A Wiki is a special form of Web page which allows its contents to be edited by anybody. Because of this feature, a Wiki keeps track of all versions of a document, in case the latest edition is erroneous and a previous version needs to be restored immediately. That feature would be of much use in a blog since it would allow one to view the changes that have been made to a blog post over time, in a way reflecting the changing perceptions of the blogger. Also in case of organisational blogs, rather than having many authors creating separate posts, a wiki will allow a single collaborative post.Enter the Bliki also called Wikiblog. A bliki is a two dimensional blog, the second dimensi... More About: Blogging , Mods
Offline RSS Readers
2007-11-08 20:13:00 Creating a stand alone blog and expecting it to be successful is a pipe dream. The extent of cross linking which you do with the blog is crucial to its success. And to cross link, you should be devoting time reading other blogs! While visiting each blog can be tedious, it has to be done as an exploratory exercise to discover new, interesting blogs. Once you come across a blog sub scribing to its RSS feed will allow you to be updated about the latest posts as and when they are published. This saves you a lot of trouble.RSS feeds can be accessed by using a class of applications called feed readers. One popular, free feed reader is Abilon. Surprisingly, Flock presents itself as a worthy contender among feed readers also.Flock And RSSTo subscribe to any site's feed, just click on the RSS/Atom Feed link when browsing with Flock. This will cause Flock's inbuilt feed reader to launch. Clicking on the Subscribe button will store the site address, so the next time you need not visit the si... More About: Readers , Offline
Offline Blogging Clients
2007-11-05 18:10:00 There are many offline blogging clients available, like Thingamablog, Semagic (which works only for Live Journal), SharpMT (which works only with blogs based on Moveable Type) etc. We shall review Flock because of its user friendliness and versatility.FlockFlock is an excellent client when it comes to posting to blogs hosted at blogspot.com, wordpress.com, livejournal.com and typepad.com. Besides these, it can also post to blogs based on the Movable Type, Drupal, Blogger, Atom and Metaweblog platforms. This is another reason to stick to the popular blogging platforms. Flock can post to more than one blog, though not at the same time.ConfigurationThe first time you run Flock after installation, it will ask you details about your blog. Enter the URL of the blog (with the "http://"), and the username and password and you are set. To add more blogs, you can click on the Tools, Accounts and Settings Menu. The steps are the same. Flock will, by default, update technorati.com every time yo... More About: Offline , Blogging , Clients , Client
Feature Comparison
2007-11-04 20:42:00 SRLDescriptionBloggerWordPressBlog-cityLi ve JournalXanga1.VersionsFreeFree / PaidFree / PaidFree / PaidFree / Paid2.TemplatesAbout 3053layout options:10Free / PaidFree / Paid3.File Types supportedimages, videoimages, docs, odf, links, to Youtube, Google VideoImages, flash animation, links to Youtube, flickrimagesimages, audio, video4.Edit CSSYesYesYesYesYes5.Edit HTMLYesNoNoYes, paid onlyYes, limited editing only6.Compatibility with FlockYesYesNoYesNo7.Comment ModerationYesYesYesYesNo, comments can be switched off8.Privacy SettingYesYesYesYesYes9.Links to Digg, del.icio.usYes, can be inserted in HTMLNoYes, interface supportedNoYes, code can be entered10.Posting by emailYesNoYes, paid onlyYes, paid onlyYes, paid only11.RSS FeedsYesYesYesYes, but links are hiddenNo, Xanga has its own subscription service.12.Feed customisationYesYesYesNoNo13.Hosting to external serverYesNo, but redirection is possibleNoNoNo14.Tags/categories, searchYes,YesYes,YesYes,YesYes,NoYes,Yes1 5.Special featuresu... More About: Feature , Comparison
Review Other Platforms
2007-11-04 11:18:00 Other Platforms and HostsMovable TypeThis is a proprietary blogging platform from the owners of Live Journal—Six Apart. Since free hosted versions are not available, we cannot offer a first hand review. However, the platform is free for personal use and can be freely downloaded, but needs to be installed on a Web server and configured to work along with Perl and MySQL before it can be used. This cannot be done without relevant knowledge of PHP, MySQL and Web server administration. Six Apart offers the hosted version of Moveable Type at Typepad.com, but here a free Trial is available only after signing up with Credit Card details.Moveable Type is regarded as an excellent blogging platform. A list of features is available here: http://www.sixapart.com/mov-abletype/vers ions-and-features.html. It can be downloaded here: http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/prici ng.html.If you are serious about finding an ideal blogging platform, it would be behoove of you to test Moveable Type before c... More About: Review
Review Xanga dot com
2007-11-02 20:59:00 Xanga.comXanga.com is an ad-driven free blogging service, with a social networking inclination like Livejournal. The paid version is free of ads and offers a few additional features. If the ads can be overlooked, Xanga stands out because it offers a combined platform for Text, Audio and Video blogging.On successful signup you are allocated three URLs: xanga.com/xyz, video.xanga.com/xyz and audio.xanga.com/xyz (where xyz is your username) for each of the media types. Once you are signed in you are taken to the Xanga dashboard. The right side bar of the dashboard shows your blog statistics.The ClientThe dashboard lists the posts to the blog—to add a new entry, click on "New Entry". This will take you to the usual text editor which has offers all the common formatting features. The presence of the Video and Audio tabs is what distinguishes this editor. Using these tabs you can upload any audio or video file to Xanga, and they are posted in your audio, video blog respectively, along w... More About: Review
Review Livejournal dot com-2
2007-10-31 18:13:00 The PlatformTo modify any platform parameters, use the "Edit Journal Style" under the Journal tab. The options here are severely limited when compared to Blogger and Wordpress. Additionally, certain other options are only available for paid users.Under the Basic tab, you can set the Style System to match your knowledge of HTML. Setting it to S2 level initially is recommended; without that, the available template options are not shown. Under the Look and Feel link, you can set your Layout and Theme options. Clicking on the Samples link will show the 33 templates that are on offer. Certain themes are only available to paid users.Under the Custom Options link you can further tweak the blog appearance. Of special interest under the Presentation link is the "Display Link List" option which shows the blogroll, and the field to enter the code for an external Web counter. You can also set the number of posts to be shown per page. Under the Colours link, you can set the desired colours for t... More About: Review
Review Livejournal dot com-1
2007-10-31 17:59:00 LiveJournalLivejournal is an open source blogging platform which forms the basis of the Livejournal.com site. Originally created by Danga Software, this was bought by Six Apart, a company that also develops the blogging platform Moveable Type and runs Typepad.com.Unlike other blogging platforms discussed, Livejournal has a strong social networking flavour with terms like "friends" and "community" given prominence on the site. We shall be focusing on the blogging platform only. While seemingly lightweight in comparison to Blogger and WordPress, Livejournal (LJ) has a few tricks up its sleeve.To create a blog you need to sign up on the site. LJ offers three types of services, of which the most features are available for the Paid one. Of the other two free services the one offering most features (called "Plus") is selected by default, when you sign up. This one is ad supported, so you have to pay the "price" for the additional features. The other free version, called Basic, is ad-free.... More About: Review
Review Blogcity dot com-2
2007-10-30 20:11:00 The PlatformUnder the "Look and Feel" link, you can change the layout and features of the post. The main blog widgets can be dragged and dropped to change their location. Those which are not needed can be removed from the page.Clicking on the widget box will take you to its configuration page, where changes can be made. BC supports about 48 widgets (including the "Tag Cloud" which is visible on the blog page, a neat scripting trick where the size and strength of the font varies with the number of entries filed under it) and to add more click on the "add new Widget" Link. As expected, some of them are out of bounds for free service users, as is the ability to tweak with the header and footer part of every post. The Blog Entry Widget link, which is open only to paid users, allows inclusion of external code like Google ads.The "Custom Home Page" link also allows changing layout of the first page, but the whole range of options is only available to paid users. Some changes that can be m... More About: Review
Review Blogcity dot com-1
2007-10-30 19:54:00 Blog-city.comBlog-city.com is a feature laden blogging platform and host. The free version has a few limitations—2000 posts, 500 MB monthly data transfer, besides out of bounds features.You need to sign up before you can blog. During the sign up process, you are given a clutch of template options which can also be modified later on.The ClientAfter logging in, use the "blog it" link to add a post to your blog. The customary text editor in this case is supplemented with a few additional buttons. Notably, the "insert Flash Movie" button which allows you to insert any flash animation in the blog; the "Insert Table" button which makes it easier to insert a table; and, the "Media Browser" button which allows you to embed videos from You tube or pictures from Flickr. The editor also grants you the freedom to name the page as you choose.Under the "Entries" link you can view the statistics of the previous posts and edit or Delete selected ones. Besides the Blog posts, you can also create a... More About: Review
Wordpress Review-2
2007-10-21 18:23:00 The PlatformWordpress DashboardA look at the menu and you can correctly conclude that WordPress offers more customisation options and features than Blogger. For starters, there are 53 themes to choose from under the Presentation tab. For those knowing CSS, the paid version of WP allows the use of a custom CSS file. Free service users cannot use a custom CSS file, but the effects can be previewed. Editing the HTML is not allowed, though. So adding external code in the form of ads or scripts cannot be achieved. Selection of a template will influence certain aspects of the layout, most notably Sidebars. Since widgets can only be added to sidebars (described later), if you intend to use them, choose a template which supports at least a two column layout. A brief template description follows every template.Under the Sidebar Widgets tab, the user can change the contents displayed on sidebar of the blog page. Available widgets include Calendar, Blog stats, RSS feeds, pictures from your Fli... More About: Review
Review Wordpress-1
2007-10-21 18:06:00 Wordpress is an open source blogging platform. It is available freely hosted at wordpress.com, where you can create a blog right away, and the platform code is available for download at word-press.org, which is its development site. If you are well versed with PHP, MySQL and Web server administration, you can roll your own WordPress blog by downloading the WordPress setup files from Wordpress.org, and uploading them to a Web server. WordPress is free for non commercial use; the rest can use the freely hosted version at wordpress.com. While the blog platform is not feature limited, the blog host has limitations for the free version. What follows is the review of the features of WordPress as it is available at wordpress.com.To be able to try WordPress (WP), you need to signup for a free account at wordpress.com. After signing up and selecting a unique name for the blog, you are taken to the blog's dashboard. Here you can see the various activities that you can do with the blog. The b... More About: Wordpress , Review
Reviews-3 Settings Tab
2007-10-18 22:48:00 Under The Settings TabThe "Basic" link, besides other self explanatory settings, allows you to enable a link making it easier for a visitor to send the post to some email address. It is recommended to enable this "Show Email Post Link" option. To prevent your blog from appearing in search results, you can disable the "Add your blog to our listings?" option. Doing so only prevents random access to your blog, people who know the URL of the blog can directly access it.Blogger Page Element SettingUnder Publish Link, you can choose where to post the blog. Hosting at an external server has a price—it can be done only if a "classic" template is being used. The updated client created template customisation cannot be carried over to an external webhost. If you intend to host the blog elsewhere, bearing this in mind will save a lot of time in wasted template customisation.Weblogs is a service which tracks blogs. People visit weblogs to track the new blogs or latest post in a blog. Updating ... More About: Reviews
Reviews-2
2007-10-18 21:58:00 The ClientThe Blogger "client" allows you to add a post. The capable text editor allows basic formatting of text, and allows adding pictures. Labels are a way of organising your posts. All posts tagged with the same label can be quickly retrieved by the visitor, by clicking on the label link. Categorising your posts is recommended. If the formatting options provided are not adequate, the client also allows modifying the underlying HTML code.Blogger Client ImageThe PlatformAll other modifications to the blog are possible by interacting with the platform. The platform influences system wide aspects that affect all posts of a blog, like page layout, page colour, font colour, adding additional scripts—like AdSense ads, RSS feeds, pinging blog trackers etc.Blogger Platform ImageUnder the Template tab, you can see the pre-built templates on offer at blogger.com—there are about 30 options. The Page Elements link allows changing the layout of the blog by simple click and drag. Additiona... More About: Reviews
Reviews - 1
2007-10-17 20:35:00 A brief review of a few of the popular blogging platforms follows. At the onset, it needs to be clarified that this review is limited by two aspects: money and know how. Only platforms that offer at least a free trial, and do not require extensive knowledge of database/Web server administration have been reviewed.1. BloggerBlogger—the platform—was the creation of Pyra Labs, which was later bought by Google. After the buyout, Blogger was offered as a totally free blogging service at blogger.com by Google (Pyra Labs offered the service in two variants with only the paid version offering all the features). Blogger.com only forms the client and platform part of the blog, the blog needs to be hosted on a server. While Google will be glad to host the blog for you at blogspot.com (your blog site will be xyz.blogspot.com), you are free to configure blogger to publish the blog on another server. Interestingly, blogger.com will post to any ordinary Web host and doesn't require any add-on... More About: Reviews
Blogging Platform Feature Support
2007-10-16 07:29:00 Besides bookmarking sites, easy posting to community editing sites like Digg.com is also a plus. Offering a link that allows the post to be emailed is recommended. An "About me" page offering information about the blogger would offer a face to the content.From the above we can conclude about the features that a blogging platform should support. These are:Range of template options: The template controls the page colour, page layout, and font characteristics. The default template need not be to everyone's taste, but having a range of options ensures some level of customisation.Ease of template modifications: Bloggers conversant with HTML/CSS should have the freedom to tweak the code of a template to create a unique layout.Ease of layout modification: The position of various items on the page—calendar, search box, comment box, blogroll etc.— should be easily customisable.Comment regulation: Regulating comments ensures that only those approved by the blogger are displayed, comments... More About: Blogging , Feature , Support , Platform
Choosing A Blogging Platform And Host
2007-10-14 19:35:00 To understand what features constitute a good platform it is best to revert to our earlier discussion on making the most of the blo-gosphere as a visitor. We can conclude that the following features can be considered as visitor friendly:Font Characteristics: Fonts should be large enough so that the visitors do not have to squint to read the content. Font colours for normal text and links should be such as to allow sufficient contrast with the background.Page Style: Garishly coloured pages are a put off; not many like to read red text off a bright yellow page. But if the mood of the blogger is a happy one, using a gloomy grey would also make it difficult to connect with the reader.Page Layout: The reading experience should not be marred by an obstructive layout. Inserting ads right in the middle of the post text is generally a bad idea, as is the practice of using a very narrow post column leading to lot of scrolling. Having links to important pages at the very bottom of a long page ... More About: Blogging , Host , Platform
Blogging Platforms And Hosts
2007-10-14 19:28:00 The Blogging Platform is the core of the blog's structure. All aspects of a blog, except the post content, are controlled by the platform. This ranges from the page colour and layout, to the way in which the posts are stored and retrieved. While all platforms include a blog client, which can only be used when the blogger is online; they do not come with the host bundled. This is contrary to common perception. Many platforms, especially those that are the result of the Open Source movement are freely downloadable. A user can install and configure the platform to work on a host.There are many blogging platforms, and selection of one has to be in the light of the knowledge of the advantages and disadvantages of each. The popular blogging platforms include Blogger, Moveable Type, WordPress, TypePad, Livejournal. etc.Of these, WordPress and Moveable Type are freely downloadable. Moveable Type which is free for personal use is not available freely hosted—even with feature limitations. ... More About: Hosts , Platforms
Blogging Deciphered
2007-10-14 19:18:00 Contrary to popular assumption, blogging isn't achieved in a single swoop. There are three distinct processes and three not-so-distinct entities involved in blogging.A blogging client: The post content is prepared using a blogging client. A client allows the blogger to forget about the intricacies of creating a Web page in HTML and allows him to focus on creating the content. A client usually includes a text editor that allows text formatting; it may include additional tools to facilitate the inclusion of pictures or other files into the blog.A blogging platform: A Blogging platform is the software part of a blog which contains the code that grants a blog its features and layout. A blogging platform needs to be installed on a server, along with other essential add-ons for the blog to be functional. Add-ons include the language interpreter in which the platform is coded, like PHP or Perl; and a database where the posts are stored, like MySQL.A blog host: Every site on the Internet i...
Making the most of Blogs
2007-10-14 19:08:00 As is the case with the search for any other topic on the Web, you start off with a search engine. Two popular, specialized, blog search engines are available at technorati.com and blogsearch.google.com. Both sites offer an Advanced Search function and that is the best place to start. While technorati.com can offer results based on "Authority", which is an indicator of the number of other blogs linking to it; blogsearch.google.com can search on the Author field.From the results thrown up, you pick one and land at a blog. At first glance, the font size and colour, and the page background colour should not jar the reading experience. The content you are after preferably should be easily accessible without requiring a lot of scrolling. The layout should not be difficult to comprehend with too many links and ads strewn all over. The Page content should not leave you feeling ambushed—as would be the case when a couple of 500 KB images start loading, when all you were expecting was a re... More About: Blogs |
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