My Experiences with Blogging

As part of my course, Writing for the World Wide Web, I was asked to create a blog. The subject of the blog, frequency of posts, and format were open. I decided to continue to write in a blog I’ve kept for a number of years. In “The Design and Implementation of laffer1,” I write about politics, technology, and my everyday life experiences. The title of my blog was inspired by one of my favorite technology books entitled “The Design and Implemenetation of the FreeBSD Operating System” by Marshall Kirk McKusick and George V. Neville-Neil. Laffer1 is an online nickname a friend bestowed upon me in high school. I find blogging allows me to vent frustrations, and talk about issues important in my life.

Many of the other students were not familiar with blogging. The term originates from “weblog.” It is often thought of as an online journal or diary. Blogging began as a grass roots movement to talk about important issues, keep up with friends and family, and share information with others.

Steve Krause, our professor, directed us to a webpage filled with ideas to get started with blogging. On “Writing Your Blog: A Few Tips,” suggestions include reading other blogs, linking to other blogs, using feed readers, writing brief entries, write often, and directing entries toward an audience. As a regular user of blogs, I was in the habit of reading blogs by family, friends and people interested in technology. I often post links to other blogs, news articles, and websites of interest to me.

I tend to vary the amount of blog entries I write. Some days I write five to six entries about different topics. Other days I might not write any entries. The amount of time I have available in my schedule influences how often I blog. Writing effective entries takes a great deal of time. I can write a quick post about my daily ritual in a few minutes. I also tend not to write when I do not have easy access to the Internet or a computer. The process of writing blog entries can be very refreshing; it is worth the investment in time and a nice way to look back at life experiences. Sometimes people remember events differently. By having a first hand account of events, it can be useful to share with future generations. I maintained a different blog in 2001. I wrote about the events of 9/11 and my grandfather’s death. He was in the hospital unable to speak when our nation was attacked. He was unaware of the events. The combination of the two events was very stressful and I found blogging a helpful tool in dealing with life.

I tend not to use feed readers to read blogs, but they are very popular among some computer users. A feed reader is a program or website that allows you to subscribe to information in a special format. You can publish your blog using popular formats like Really Simple Syndication (RSS) or ATOM format. I often use RSS feeds to read CNN articles, or track new stories on Slashdot, a popular technology site. Some websites allow you to subscribe to feeds and integrate it into your blog. One popular website, Live Journal, allows you to put feeds on a “friends” page. You can post comments to stories and share those with other users on the site. My blog includes a subscriptions page with Weather Channel and CNN feeds.

One interesting resource about blogging was Chuck Olsen’s “Blogumentary.” The hour long video on blogging offered insight into common uses of blogs. In the video, Olsen discusses the success of blogging in Howard Dean’s presidential bid. Dean successfully used blogging to raise funds to support his campaign. Bloggers posted ideas to help the campaign. Dean included some of these ideas in his speeches. Another blog called “Power Lines” was featured in the video. The author of the blog writes about conservative topics that he feels are not expressed in the media. He often corrects stories found online and does research to support his own agenda. The blog has a wide appeal among conservatives. Olsen’s mother published a blog outlining her struggle with cancer. She used the blog to write about how she was feeling. At times, Olsen learned things about his mother’s battle with cancer she was unwilling to discuss in person. Blogging helped him understand his mother’s feelings and help her through the difficult ordeal. Another blog mentioned in the piece was called Plain Layne. It was about the life of a young woman who had a life changing experience and sexual liberation. The blog disappeared one day. Fans of the blog tracked down the author who turned out to be a middle-aged man. Blogging can be interesting, insightful or fiction. The anonymous nature of the Internet can let people explore ideas they would not feel comfortable writing about in real life. It can also let people deceive their audience or write fictitious works.

Trying to attract readers to your blog can be a difficult task. One blog post “How To Make Your Blog Sticky,” had some suggestions. The first suggestion, “Design for Repeat Visits” is the most useful. It suggests that blogs should be easy to read with few extras to get in the way. Most people don’t want to navigate through a sea of links. Good choices of color and plenty of white space improve the readability of blogs. Some of the other suggestions included minimizing ads and providing a list of recent posts. Those two suggestions are often out of the hands of the blogger. Blogging services often control the feature set of the blogs and advertising. There are software packages to create your own blogs like WordPress or Movable Type. With those packages, you can control the advertising and features. WordPress has plug-ins to add features to your blog. My blog uses custom software that I’ve been writing over the last few years. The source code for Just Journal is open source and available online. I have a recent entries list on my blog and have avoided using any advertising.

My blog uses a ping feature that tells Google’s blog search and Weblogs.com that I have updated my journal. Those services can share my new blog entries with the Internet. Google’s service often adds my posts into their search engine within minutes.

I will continue to maintain a blog after the course ends. I enjoy blogging because it helps me relieve stress, maintain contact with my family, and share new ideas that someone might find while searching the Internet. It is a fun activity that helps me improve my writing on a daily basis.

Works Cited

Olsen, Chuck. Blogumentary
<http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8920472176280937346> 21 June 2007

Wilson, Nick. How to Make Your Blog Sticky
<http://performancing.com/promotion/general/how-to-make-your-blog-sticky> 21 June 2007

Holt, Lucas The Design and Implementation of laffer1
<http://www.justjournal.com/users/laffer1> 21 June 2007

Krause, Steve Writing Your Blog: A Few Tips
<http://www.stevendkrause.com/academic/wwww/?page_id=10> 21 June 2007