A Blog on.. Blogging

Seeing as I am new to blogging, I thought that this week I would write about it..

The idea of blogging was at first rather irrelevant to me. In my opinion it was an open diary; a means of attention seeking; a way for people to gain popularity through posting dramatic monologues about themselves or other things. I now realise that this was a naïve view of the whole concept and after contemplation and by looking at a few of the millions of blogs that are online, I’ve changed my mind. I can now see the method behind the madness and that blogging is used for hundreds of things that I never considered and not just the self centred means of getting your whining heard.

Blogging has managed to make news personal. We know longer have to hear opinions or stories from experts, it means that pretty much anyone can become a writer, editor or have their own website. It took me about 20 minutes to create this blog site. I probably could have done it even quicker if I hadn't messed around with the layout and personalised the colour scheme, but even that is relevant to my point. It is a way of delivering your own opinions, your own personalised means of communication to the masses in a fast and easy way. And with just as much ease, the masses can communicate back, reciprocating with their very own take on what you have said. Whether or not they are a friend or a stranger, from this country or the next doesn’t matter. The interactivity of blogging is revolutionising the idea and pushing the boundaries of freedom of speech.

A blog can create a massive stir amongst online communities and one comment can make or break a business if posted by the right person at the right time. One Blog I read featured a man who had a well followed blog and was receiving bad customer service from a certain company. He e-mailed the company, simply threatened to negatively blog about how unhelpful they had been; the company automatically responded and were happy to help in any way possible.

Most businesses, brands and influential people have blogs now, which update their ‘followers’ on the latest promotions, products, press and goings on. Popular blogs by ordinary people can now be ‘monetised’ by gathering enough followers and then selling advertising space on the blog site. Philadelphia is not going down as a great city to blog. The city has begun to request $300 from those with a blog website. The city calls it a "business privilege license." Proving that blogging is an easy effective and currently free (in most places) way to make money through the interaction with others!