Michael Sync

Introduction
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This article is a collection of useful links for those who are new to blogging. Initially, I was thinking to write each and every tips by myself but there are a lot of cool articles about blogging so that I don’t need to repeat again. (I don’t want my blog to be a clone blog.) What I’m going to do here is that I will give you a collection links of useful articles written by professional bloggers (such as Lorelle VanFossen (Lorelle on WordPress), Darren Rowse (ProBlogger) and so on). One thing you should know is that it’s NOT like I just read one article and give it to you. I was spending so much time for reading about this in different blogs. All links that I’m giving you here are the best and my favorite. I believe that you will find it useful.

What is a blog/weblog?

• Introduction to blogging by Wordpress Codex : This article covers everything about blogging. It mentions very clear definition of blog, the differences between a blog and CMS, some important blogging vocabularies, some blogging tips and etc.

• What is a blog? by ProBlogger : If you are still confused, I wanna suggest you to read this article written by Darren Rowse, the owner of problogger.net. He shares his own opinion and other people’s opinions about what a blog is in this article. You can get the definition of blog from different point of view.

The History of Blogging

• Weblogs: a history and perspective by rebecca’s pocket

Very important points you should know before start blogging

• Blogging is kinda hard. Blogging is not for everybody. Blogging is harder than you think.I have seem a lot of people who left their blogs. They just lost their interest of blogging due to a lot of reasons. Actually, building a successful blog is really hard. It need time to build it up.

• Your blog is not your diary. This is very important point that you should know before start blogging. Some people might say that blog is like online diary or something. I’m not agreed with that. There are some people who lost their jobs cuz of their blogs. EngTech wrote excellent post about 5 Reasons Blogging Leads to the Unemployment Line (You’re Fired!). ( I don’t wanna hear that you have arrested cuz of your blog. )

• Copyright Copyright is very important thing that you need to keep in mind. You need to respect other’s creation or work. The same way, you should know what to do when someone is stealing your work. Finding Stolen Content and Copyright Infringements and What Do You Do When Someone Steals Your Content from Lorelle’s blog are the best for this issue.

Okay. Now, you have some ideas about what you should know before jumping into blogging world.

Think about blogging platform

• Chossing a blog platform : This article is written by the owner of problogger.net. It will give nice idea about which blog platform is right for you.

Are you gonna use free blogging software?

If you are gonna use free blogging software then the following list are very popular blogging platform. You can choose one of them.

• Wordpress.com
• Blogger.com
• Windows Live™ Space
• LiveJournal

Maybe, you might wanna read the comparison between those blogging service. Unfortunately, I don’t have the completed list. If you are interest about wordpress.com and blogger version 2, you can read my article “Wordpress.com Vs Blogger2“.

Note: If you choose to use Wordpress.com then you can ask me if you have any problem in using wordpress. I’ve been here over 1 year. I think I might able to help you.

Paid-hosting?

Paid-hosting is nice but not suitable for novice bloggers since you have to take care of everything. You have to know how to instal your blog, how to use FTP, security, bandwidth, domain name and configuration, budget and etc. However, you can do it if you want to. Don’t forget to read this article “Chossing a blog platform” again.

The following links might be useful for you ~

• Choosing the Domain Name for your Blog : If you are launching a blog for yourself, it’s easy. You just need to register your name. But if you are creating a blog for specific thing then it’s very important to have the right domain name which is match with your content. The article above will guide you everything about choosing the domain name for your blog.
• Genealogy Blog: The Blog Budget - How Much Does a Blog Cost? This article covers all expensive such as buying domain name, hosting, tools (camera, scanner, printer), software (photo editing software) and so on.
• Blog Building: Who Controls Your Blog? You? Your Host? The most of people think that if we buy a hosting, we can do everything. Sometimes, it’s not like that. There are a lot of hidden pain with hosting service provider. Who controls your blog? By lorelle and Do you own your website? by Dawud Miracle are the best for you to read for this point.

Advantages of having a blog (Why blog?)

As Engtech said in this post,

• Blogging makes you stand out from the crowd
• Blogs are the modern resume (ask Doug)
• Blogging helps you expand your network of contacts
• Blogging is a great way to learn new skills
• Blogging can be a career of its own

Conclusion

Those are the things that you should know before blogging. I believe that blogging is really nice. At least, you have something to do in your spare time.

There is one point that doesn’t include in this article. This is about driving traffic to you blog or promoting your blog or building a relationship with blog reader. I will write about this in another post. Please keep on waiting.

Feel free to let me know if you have any suggestion.
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Thanks a lot.