Who reads blogs???

[donblay]

I just started getting back into blogging. i set up a blog a while ago, then kinda forgot about it. i think it might be a fun thing for me to do, but i was wondering....who reads other people's blogs. as i write stuff, i kinda wonder who i'm writting for....does anyone read this, and if so who? i think my eyes will be the only ones to fall on these words.
I know i've started to read other poeple's blogs before...but quickly got bored. i was just wondering if there were some out there who actaully like reading blogs?
anyone?

btw, mine is at http://donblay.blogspot.com/

[mcurtiss1970]

i read my friend's blog: www.newkidsontheblog.com

[Ianbiz]

I gave up on those.... i mite start again, every1 has 1.

[640k]

My "blog" is more of a current events in 640k's life type of site

http://5059-party.homeip.net (warning low bandwidth :hee: )

[mcurtiss1970]

i just started one the other day actually...maybe I'll let you suckers know the address at some point

[TexasJulie]

I have a blog. Personal thoughts, ideas, rants.... that kind of thing. Going through some super rough times and it helps to jot it all down. I dont think anyone reads it.... I dont give out the address. Not ready to share it yet :)

[Matt]

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry7230/3.7.1)

Blogs? How retro. The Hello Kitty diary of the net.

[donblay]

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry7230/3.7.1)

Blogs? How retro. The Hello Kitty diary of the net.
lol.....that's one way to look at it. :hee:

[Ted]

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry7230/3.7.1)

Blogs? How retro. The Hello Kitty diary of the net.

yeah. reminds me of one certain kitty. muhahahhahaha.

[AfineAKA]

I blog often on TA, I perfer picture blog sites as opposed to plain text journaling sites.

[jh101_7]

eh, personally, i could care less about blogging
...my friends and family know what's going on, and that's sufficient
..."the whole internet" doesn't need to know

[donblay]

I blog often on TA, I perfer picture blog sites as opposed to plain text journaling sites.
yeah, i tend to agree that those can be more interesting, i'll browse through though sometimes
i actually got one of those too.... http://www.donblay.textamerica.com/ you notice that TA supports video clips now!

[Bohemian Iconoclast]

A word about the downside of blogs: News.com has an article (http://news.com.com/Google+blogger+has+left+the+building/2100-1038_3-5567863.html?tag=nl) about a Google employee who blogged mild criticisms of his employer who has lost his job.

Dreamsiren007 - There is a link in this article to a previous one about a Delta flight attendant who lost her job due to her blog....for having a pic of herself in uniform. Nothing outageous....

[I Just Dont Car]

blogs are so 2003.

[AfineAKA]

yeah, i tend to agree that those can be more interesting, i'll browse through though sometimes
i actually got one of those too.... http://www.donblay.textamerica.com/ you notice that TA supports video clips now!Yep, I post a few videos there sometimes. Just havent figured out how to get Quick time to produce the best replay quality on TA. It's nice finding a good one on the sites though. :)

[donblay]

*sigh*...for some reason none of my blog entries are being posted. i wonder if something is wrong with blogger.com. I send my post, and they never appear :(

[TexasJulie]

*sigh*...for some reason none of my blog entries are being posted. i wonder if something is wrong with blogger.com. I send my post, and they never appear :(
are you clicking publish index or publish blog entry? I usually click publish index.

[donblay]

are you clicking publish index or publish blog entry? I usually click publish index.
I've tried both. and none of my post or test post done via email work. if i publish through thier web site it works, but no more email posts, which is all i use. it used to work until weds around noon.
it still working for you?

[JoMamma]

i have a blog.. www.digital-revolutions.net and my TA blog is.. well in my sigg.. as well as mine.. haha

[DreamSiren007]

A word about the downside of blogs: News.com has an article (http://news.com.com/Google+blogger+has+left+the+building/2100-1038_3-5567863.html?tag=nl) about a Google employee who blogged mild criticisms of his employer who has lost his job.

Dreamsiren007 - There is a link in this article to a previous one about a Delta flight attendant who lost her job due to her blog....for having a pic of herself in uniform. Nothing outageous....

Hi, thanks for the kind regards there, Psyberian. About my job, I don't comment on anything considered confidential... if asked for advice regarding general customer stuff like boarding a flight and what not, then I give you a quick answer. But that's about it. "Professional" is the keyword here. But I appreciate your word of caution....

[sloop]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/4.0 (MobilePhone SCP-8100/US/1.0) NetFront/3.0 MMP/2.0)

does posting nekkid pictures of myself count as a blog?

[donblay]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/4.0 (MobilePhone SCP-8100/US/1.0) NetFront/3.0 MMP/2.0)

does posting nekkid pictures of myself count as a blog?
well...technically, yeah, i think it does...lol. at least a moblog.

[donblay]

Ok, I guess Blogger.com isn't gonna work for me. I can't figure it out and customer support hasn't gotten back to me.
anyone know of another good blogging service???

[Jspired]

I read two blogs every once in awhile but honestly, wouldn't break or make my day if I didn't..

[macaddiict]

I stay up on a blog I ran across after Yahoo-ing (before the days of Google I think) someone who wrote an article years ago. The guy posts random, interesting things that affect him personally... I'm not much into those blogs that are like "I'm listening to bla bla bla and I had lima beans for dinner." I don't need a minute-by-minute rundown, but I do enjoy getting interesting tidbits. I think that's where people go wrong with their blogs... (and why I don't have one!)

[donblay]

Ok, I guess Blogger.com isn't gonna work for me. I can't figure it out and customer support hasn't gotten back to me.
anyone know of another good blogging service???
PING!
Anyone know of any other good blogging sites?

[mcurtiss1970]

PING!
Anyone know of any other good blogging sites?
good? yes. free? no.

[donblay]

good? yes. free? no.
ah, i guess there's always a catch :(

[mcurtiss1970]

blogger.com/blogspot.com is the best free site i've seen

[mcurtiss1970]

try looking here: http://dir.yahoo.com/Computers_and_Internet/Internet/World_Wide_Web/Weblogs/Hosting/

[mcurtiss1970]

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/24/technology/circuits/24basi.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1109289619-ScGkOldtRkSRv7n12GwTcQ

[Nugo]

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/24/technology/circuits/24basi.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1109289619-ScGkOldtRkSRv7n12GwTcQ
So, I copied/pasted for people so they don't have to register :D


Bloggers Add Moving Images to Their Musings
By SANDEEP JUNNARKAR

Published: February 24, 2005


HE Oxford English Dictionary added "blog" to its entries in 2003. The editors may soon have to consider "vlog" and "moblog" as well.

Web logs - the personal online journals better known as blogs - use text to dissect nearly every conceivable topic, and now video blogs, or vlogs, which incorporate moving images, are on the rise. Mobile blogs, or moblogs, have brought blogging into the cellular age by allowing people to post video and photos taken with camera phones to a blog, or to call in an audio posting.


But the object remains the same as with traditional blogs: to inspire (or to provoke) others to post responses to one's ruminations and images.

Some vloggers are further blurring the lines between journalism and blogging by producing news reports of local interest. Steve Garfield of Boston, a self-described citizen reporter, took a video camera to investigate, among other things, whether election campaign workers were following the law by staying 150 feet from polling stations. He posted his report at stevegarfield.blogs.com/videoblog/2004/09/150_feet.html.

Some others produce what appear to be avant-garde film clips. The variety appears as diverse as that found in text blogs.

These offshoots of blogging are producing a cottage industry. Software makers are creating tools for maintaining vlogs, and new Internet services are catering to video and mobile blogs. Syndicated feeds devoted to tracking new video are springing up along with vlog and moblog directories, promising to drive traffic to your video and photos.

Setting Up a Blog

Dozens of free Web-based services, including Blogger.com (owned by Google), Microsoft's MSN Spaces, LiveJournal.com and Blog-City.com, enable people to create a blog within minutes.

Most free services provide only basic features, like posting text, and limit the photos, audio and video that users can upload. But these sites typically offer premium services for $2.50 to $5 a month that provide far richer features.

For example, bloggers without access to a computer can use LiveJournal.com's paid service to update their blogs with an audio post over the phone. Likewise, premium service allows bloggers to post a blog entry by e-mail. Blogger.com provides this feature free. Another advantage of paid services is that you are not obliged to have banner advertising placed on your page by the host company.

One drawback to these Web-based services is that the addresses assigned to the blogs can be convoluted - like ihatemyflatmate.blogspot.com or www.livejournal.com/community/american-idol/ (yes, those are actual blogs).

Many bloggers view those who use a free service, or even a premium one, as somehow not fully devoted to blogging. To add a sense of permanence, some bloggers establish their own Web addresses, or domains, like myblog.com. "I think this shows that the person is obviously more invested in their blog," said Howard Rheingold, the author of "The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier" (Perennial, 1994). "They are hanging out a shingle as being an expert or maven on a particular subject."

Doing so can be complex, but some companies like LivingDot (livingdot.com) make the process easier by offering a service that registers a domain name, provides server space and installs blogging software for $10 a month. Blogging software is also available separately from sites like Moveable Type (www.sixapart.com/moveabletype) and WordPress (wordpress.org).

As a compromise, TypePad's $8.95-a-month Plus plan allows bloggers to use its Web-based service (www.typepad.com) but map it to their domain name.

Incorporating Video

You can use many programs, like Microsoft's Windows Movie Maker or Apple's iMovie, to edit your video, adding captions and background audio, and format it for the Web. But such software is powerful enough to create full-length documentaries and may be overkill for beginning vloggers. Vlog It, a $100 program from Serious Magic (seriousmagic.com) to be released in April, promises to simplify the video editing process; it is a pared-down version of Visual Communicator 2 Web ($190), available now.

The program allows you to place a Webcam or a camcorder on top of your monitor and to read from its on-screen prompter. You can also drag and drop still pictures, other video and sound clips from your camera, camcorder or cellphone onto the prompter script. When that section scrolls up, it automatically becomes part of your recorded video.

If you select a free blogging service, you'll also have to find a place to store your video online. One option is to upload video to the Internet Archive (www.archive.org), a nonprofit enterprise dedicated to preserving past Web pages as well as being a library for freely available digital content. Creative Commons, a nonprofit property rights management system, offers a free tool for Windows and Macintosh that lets you upload video to the Internet Archive called ccPublisher (creativecommons.org/tools/ccpublisher).

A curator at the archive examines the video (to make sure the clip plays, does not violate copyright and does not contain excessive violence or sex) and provides a Web address where the video is stored. It may take as long as 72 hours, though, before your video is posted. Our Media (www.ourmedia.org), using storage space donated by the Internet Archive, plans to begin a free service this week that allows posting and viewing video within minutes.

Mobile Blogging

Cellular telephones with camera and video capabilities are proliferating, and with them the practice of mobile blogging, or moblogging. While most blogs remain text-based, mobloggers deal almost exclusively with pictures and some video.

People can now transmit photos and video taken with hand-helds or cellphones directly to the host sites. Several free services are available, including SnapNPost.com, TextAmerica.com and Buzznet (buzznet.com). You create an account, choose a gallery address (for example, www.snapnpost.com/your-username/), and provide some information about your phone model and wireless service to configure the service. TextAmerica provides a premium service for $50 a year that lets you secure your gallery with a password.

Many services, like Blogger and TypePad, let you upload images using cellular service. Keep in mind, though, that transmitting data by cellphone can be costly. Check with your wireless carrier about monthly plans for data transfer, usually about $20 a month for unlimited service.

Drawing Traffic

Bloggers who want to reach a wider audience can follow a few simple strategies honed by advanced bloggers to draw traffic to their once-fledgling journals, including frequent updates and contributing to discussions on other blogs with a link back to your own.

One way to keep readers coming back is to use the Really Simple Syndication (R.S.S.) feature available on most Web-based blogging services as well as the more advanced software. This feature allows readers to subscribe to your site and be notified with a headline and a link for each new posting.

Most blogging services offer similar ways to set up R.S.S. In TypePad, for example, navigate to Edit Configuration, click on Publicity & Syndication. You decide whether to provide an excerpt only or the entire post. With a click of a button, you can create a "Syndicate Link" that can be displayed on your blog.

TypePad, Blogger and several other blogging services also offer a blog-specific syndication format called Atom. Setting it up on your site is similar to setting up R.S.S. feeds.

For video bloggers, there are special readers for R.S.S. feeds, called aggregators, like mefeedia (mefeedia.com) and ANT (www.antisnottv.org). Vloggers can join mefeedia free; subscribers to their feed will be notified when a new video is posted. ANT is more like TiVo for vlogs. The desktop-based freeware automatically downloads video to your hard drive from the vlogs you subscribe to. It is available only for the Mac, but a Windows version is in development.

If your blog becomes a destination for a growing audience, you may be able to turn your hobby into a business, or at least a hobby that pays for itself, with ad placement from Google AdSense (www.google.com/adsense/) or BlogAds.com. With AdSense, each time a reader clicks on an ad placed on your site, you get a sliver of revenue. BlogAds, on the other hand, generate revenue based on the number of visits to your blog.

Google does not provide details about how much Web publishers can make - going so far as making them sign contracts that state they won't divulge their earnings. BlogAds says that you can earn $50 to $750 a month with about 100,000 visits.

"My sense is that a lot of bloggers, including people with a lot less traffic than mine, are finding that the blog ads let it be a hobby that is effectively free for them and maybe even generates a little beer money," said Glenn Reynolds, whose blog at instapundit.com gets just over five million visits a month. "That seems to me to be a pretty good thing."

[senior05]

I've tried it. But quickly got bored with it. I really don't read other ones either. Unless I know the person. I have a mobog, that's the close to a "og" I will get. My life isn't that interesting to "put on paper" (sort of speak). I might one day try to start one again, but this will be my 4th time starting one.

Eventually the blog phase of America will fade out.

And if something in my life were interesting to happen that was "blogworthy". Then I will just make a thread on one of the many boards I visit, and have a discussion about it until it fades out. That's good enough for me! :D

[Nugo]

I've checked the other two, snapNpost and buzznet, and they are just as slow if not slower than TA. Buzznet also limits free accounts to 60 images per month and does not allow for changing templates at all, unless you get a $36 per year premium account, or buy a "photo" pack, which I didn't care enough to stay any longer to research (nor did I see any video support). Bottom line: TA is still winning until I see something better than these :D

[arpy64]

Podcasting is the new "it" thing for digital junkies.
Kind of like broadcasting, but obviously, it's in MP3 format and you listen to it when you want, where you want with your MP3 player.
You can even be a Podcaster yourself with a mic and some free software.

http://www.ipodder.org/