Blogging/Welcome

Welcome to the Blogging 101 Wikibook. This book (which anybody can edit) is a collection of resources about blogs and blogging. It is divided into several categories. Please add whatever links you think would be useful to people under the appropriate headings. (Off-topic & inappropriate material will of course be edited out.)

Definitions

"A weblog, or simply a blog, is a web application which contains periodic, reverse chronologically ordered posts on a common webpage. Such a Web site would typically be accessible to any Internet user. Part of the reason "blog" was coined and commonly accepted into use is the fact that in saying "blog," confusion with server log is avoided.

Blogs run from individual diaries to arms of political campaigns, media programs and corporations, and from one occasional author to having large communities of writers. The totality of weblogs or blog-related webs is usually called the blogosphere.

The format of weblogs can vary from simple bullet lists of hyperlinks to article summaries with user-provided comments and ratings. Individual weblog entries are almost always date and time-stamped, with the newest post at the top of the page. Because links are so important to weblogs, most blogs have a way of archiving older entries and generating a static address for individual entries; this static link is referred to as a permalink. The latest headlines, with hyperlinks and summaries, are offered in weblogs in the RSS XML-format, to be read with a RSS feedreader.

A weblog is often run through a Content management system or CMS."

(visit: blog for more, plus relevant links) CRP

A good list of blog definitions is here.

Blogging Tools & Where to Find Them:

For a detailed breakdown of blog tool features see: [latestnewsknowledge.blogspot.com]

A similar German-language version is here.

Here is another good post on comparing blogging tools like Blogger vs TypePad vs Movable Type vs blosxom vs b2evolution vs Wordpress

Feature by feature comparison of the two most popular hosted blog solutions, TypePad vs Blogger

Weblogs Compendium has good and long list of a variety of blog tools.

Globe of Blogs is an excellent list of blog tools, hosting & design services, etc.

For an excellent blogging guide with Tips and Tutorials on How To Blog, click here

For a great Windows client that you can use to create rich text WYSIWYG posts for ANY blogging platform, including WordPress, Drupal, MovableType, TypePad, Blogger, LiveJournal, b2evolution, etc, download a free 30 day trial of BlogJet

Hosted on Somebody Else's Server:

• Blog.com
• Blog-City
• Blogsome
• Blogger
• Centada
• Typepad
• Blogware - through re-sellers such as Blogmedia (and many others listed on the Blogware website.

Community-Oriented Blogging Tools:

• MSN Spaces
• LiveJournal
• PhuseBox
• Motime
• Xanga
• Diaryland
• Journalspace
• Mindsay

Mobile Community-Oriented Blogging Tools:

• WINKsite

For Installation on Your Own Server:

• ExpressionEngine
• pMachine Free and Pro
• movabletype: Movable Type

Plug-ins for Movable Type

• Prevents "comment spam": MT-BLACKLIST (Comment spam is spam that gets posted as a comment to a blog entry.)
• Manila
• RadioUserland

Open-Source Blogging Tools:

• Bloxsom
• WordPress
• Drupal
• Textpattern
• Nucleuscms
• Thingama
• b2evolution

Blog-Like Tools That Aren't Really Used For Blogging (But Have Some Blog-Like Features):

• Drupal
• Scoop

How-To Resources:

• Blog on 'How to Blog', from a technical perspective. Provides blogging tutorials, tips, tricks, templates, blog software comparisons, and more Created by a blogger who documented her own experiences in learning how to blog. Main focuses are on WordPress, TypePad, MovableType, Blogger, b2evolution, etc.
• Blogging for nonprofits
• How to increase your traffic
• Guide to Business Blogging
• ExpressionEngine and pMachine HowTo
• Guides to building a blog from the ground up, centered around WordPress, but valid for anyone.

(Can't find a good "how-to" on something people keep asking you about, or you found hard to do? Please create one by making a separate wiki page for it here. Possible ones: BoostyourTraffic InstallingPlugins InstallyourBlogtools and ImportExport)

[BlogPolicies?] How To Create Blog Policies for your Site, and Why -- Your blog policy can cover how you'll handle corrections, troll comments, attribution, and whether or not content on your blog can be used/remixed by others. Why have one? Better to have a policy and apply it when the time comes than have a problem and make up something to deal with it retroactively. Policies can also give you and your readers a strong idea of what your blog is about and why you're blogging.

Books, Comic Strips, & Miscellaneous

Nowadays, there are several books available online and in bookstores on blogging.

An irregularly updated comic strip on the experiences of blogging [* http://sriks6711.wordpress.com/category/slob Secret Life of Bloggers]

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Get Blogging jobs

Aggregators and Newsreaders

An aggregator enables you to skim lots of blogs by pulling together summaries of the new entries.

The summaries are actually RSS feeds. An RSS feed is a little file your blogging software probably creates automatically that contains either the first few lines of a blog entry or the entire thing, depending on how you've set it up. An aggregator goes to the blogs you tell it to and lists all the new entries. It does this by reading the RSS feed.

Why RSS is the Next Big Thing

Links to Newsreader Tools:

• Bloglines
• Newsgator
• Sharpreader
• Rojo
• NetNewsWire
• NewsFire
• NewsMac
• PulpFiction
• Shrook

Mobile Feed Reader Tools:

• WINKsite

Articles About Aggregators/Newsreaders and Why They're Important:

Present And Future Uses Of Feeds & Syndication On Mobile Phones

• http://winksite.com/site/help_bl_view.cfm?blog_id=3730

Mobile Feed Reader With A Twist

• http://winksite.com/site/help_bl_view.cfm?blog_id=3882

Interesting RSS Feeds:

A buoy has a feed of ocean conditions

Scientists are publishing molecular structures via RSS

Learning object repository feeds where you can watch learning objects appear magically

A feed of the spam in this guy's inbox. [1]

Creating Feeds:

• http://www.geckotribe.com/rss/jawfish/
• http://www.howdev.com/services/feedsweep/ (free)

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Blog Search Engines, Traffic-Trackers, and Other Tools:

Traffic-Trackers

• Extreme Tracking
• Sitemeter
• Refer 2.1
• FeedBurner

Search Engines

• Technorati

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Video Blogging

• Video Blogging Info

Audio Blogging (Podcasting)

• iPodder
• IT Conversations
• Adam Curry's Weblog

Open Demo Blogs

• plog: usename:test / password: test
• WP: Login:admin / PASSWARD: beagoodman
• Gblog: username/password combination:Administrator: admin/gblog ; Author: author/gblog (Coming soon)

Examples of Blogs Used in Different Ways

Junior high school student blogging: http://www.hangletonweblogs.org/

College class blogging: GW North Korea Blog

Medical School class blogging: Albany Medical College FP Class Blog

Physicians who blog: Medlogs.com

Politicians who blog: Boris Johnson Dominique Strauss-KahnTom Watson[

Lawyers who blog: Notes from the (Legal) Underground

Corporate blogs:

• Microsoft's open blog
• Googleblog
• Macromedia MX

More info about corporate blogging and organizational blogging:

• Robert Scoble's Corporate Blogging Manifesto
• Corporate Blogging Policy Examples
• Corporate Blogging Survey
• Your Guide to Corporate Blogging
• Edelman Survey on Employee Blogging (PDF)
• Blogging for CEO's

How journalists use blogs:

• How journalists use blogs
• 51% of U.S. journalists use blogs

CEO blogs:

• Mark CubanRichard Edelman

Activist blogs

• Downhillbattle
• Activism blogs index

Nonprofit blogs: Learning Alternatives

Other blogs

Social networking blogs:

• AlwaysOn Network

Industry-specific blogs (not related to a specific corporation): David on IT Outsourcing in China Natural Products Industry Newswire

Money-making blogs:

• Freeafterrebate

Blogs within a geographical community (in this case, a number of Scottish Islands): (http://www.bbc.co.uk/islandblogging)