Truth about BLOGGING!!

For those who still don't know the truth about blogging, here's an article for you to read. The moment I leaned about it, I started searching any article that explains why people are becoming addicted to blogging and how it works. I know you all agree with me, which you may have read this already... but it is worth reading this all over again if in case we all have forgotten.

Quick and easy self-publishing
You may not realize how insanely fast and easy setting up a blog can be. Using Blogger, and allowing them to host my blog at Blog*spot, I literally had my first blog set up in about fifteen minutes. And it was free with this particular provider. Thus, an obsession was born. A five minute post here, a ten minute rant there, add a feature or two on the public face of my blog, and soon I had a small body of writings that seemed like something almost substantial. I played with different styles or looks to the blog, and learned to tweak the underlying HTML code to have fonts and colours looking the way I wanted.

The next step was to tell others about it. I sent messages to two email lists inviting colleagues to read what I had posted. I had long been a prolific contributor to email lists, and could see how the blog would become my new outlet for professional news and opinions that might not be of interest to everyone on the lists. I also found some blog search engines and submitted mine to the mix.

Those fascinating web traffic statistics
One of my first readers told me how to track web traffic statistics: yet another free web-based application. Soon I was checking two or three times a day to see the number of hits, the popular pages, and where readers were from. I really get a kick out of seeing where readers are located. Bloggers don’t like to admit to it, but we all watch our stats like hawks. Any sudden increase in hits is a triumph; an unexpected drop is just discouraging. Thus the obsession is entrenched in our psyches.

Instant Expert
My own blogging has led to guest blogging on others’ blogs, regular participation in collaborative blogs, increasingly prestigious speaking opportunities, invitations to teach, requests to have blog posts republished as newsletter articles, and invitations to contribute articles to newsletter type publications. We often hear “to be seen as an expert, write a blog,” but how quickly this medium opens doors has really been a great surprise to many. It is not unusual for those blogging about professional issues to be invited to write articles, speak at conferences, and to take part in a range of collaborative projects. I frequently compare notes with fellow bloggers, and have found many have been approached to expand on the perceived expertise demonstrated in their blogs.

Testing out the SEO
For most bloggers, an increase in popularity is made in small increments. One or two blog posts receive some notice from more popular bloggers, and a few more people discover you. Or perhaps you happen to write a post title that jumps you to the top of the search engine results.

Taking this a step further, bloggers can watch their popularity according to links to their sites with services such as Technorati and The Truth Laid Bear Ecosystem. We are tracked, ranked and re-ranked, moving up and down according to varying esoteric means of measurement.

A Biblioblogosphere Community
The use of blogs as a quick, self-publishing platform for opinions, the quantifiable evidence of one’s own popularity with statistics services, the ability to quickly experiment with search engine listings, and an increased professional profile are all things that hook the blogger. Probably the best thing about blogging, however, is the community. I really had no idea a community existed until I actually experienced it. As bloggers discover each other, we contribute comments to blog posts, reference each other, and email each other support.


The Truth About Blogging
If you are about to embark on setting up a blog for the first time, you should now have a better idea of what to expect. The truth about blogging is you will be disappointed that a million readers don’t find you immediately. You aren’t going to become rich from blogging. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. On the other hand, you will likely be surprised at who contacts you and professes admiration. You will likely find it gives a boost to your career if you are professional in attitude and find your own honest voice. And there can never be too many clear, truthful voices on the web.