{mosimage}Blogs - It is the most happening buzzword among the netizens and many portals and blog services are making trips and turns to cash in on this phenomenon. But do you know that there is no word called "blog" if you search in Oxford dictionary. Then how come a non-entity became something that rocks the world all of a sudden? In fact, the word "Blog" is derived from "WeB Log", which in actual means logging of activities on the web. For computer illiterates, the logging activity means putting down the sequence of actions in chronological order. However blogs even though meaning putting down your thoughts and ideas time to time, not necessarily falls under the category of chronological fashion.
Why to Blog?
In this seamlessly expanding cyberspace, more and more netizens are coming in everyday, making it a virtual junction place, looking for like minded people across the geographical borders to develop and share their ideas and knowledge.
- I am not talking about those internet experts who do only dirty chat replete with asl?, four lettered F & S words. -
There are people who are genuinely articulate and wishing their creative works to reach more and more people. Going for print medium to reach more people is not possible for everyone, whereas to get your articles published over the net, you need not be a celebrity or expert. That’s where the internet scores over all other mediums. All you have to do is to sign up with a blog service provider and finalise on themes and templates leaving the rest to the service provider. Just concentrate on what to write.
How to Blog?
Once you had decided to start blogging, just search over the net for blog service providers. Previously there were many small sites, but seeing its soaring popularity portal giants like Rediff.com, Microsoft, Google, Blogdrive and Blogspot had started offering blog services to increase the hits. These portals ensure a good publicity and ensures atleast visibility over others.
However based on my experience, I found Microsoft's Spaces and Blogdrive very effective than any other blog service providers. Let's discuss briefly about them.
Microsoft's Spaces (http://spaces.msn.com):-
{mosimage}It is the latest entrant from the giant Microsoft corporation, offering through its msn portal. So you need a Passport i.e hotmail or msn e-mail address to sign up for this blog service. In my opinion this is a dream come true for those who wanted to have a homepage, leave out blog. Besides blogging, this has a photo album, link center, music list, and a customizable menu bar where you can add links to other areas of interest. You can create a profile with your interests, hobbies and complete it with your photo and search for similar profiles over the net. Once you had created your spaces you can "invite" friends from address book to visit your space.
On the downside it is the URL that is very lengthy. My space's address reads like this:-
http://spaces.msn.com/members/maheshwaran/
Blogdrive:-
{mosimage}It is a famous blogspot over the net and is very simple. All you have to do is to sign up and choose your theme, template and header image. The best feature of this blog service is its tag box feature that doubles as an instant chat applet and a calendar. The visitors from Blogdrive are credited with their links in the right menu, making it as a promotional space. Another best part is its URL that reads like a sub-domain. My Blogdrive spot is:- http://maheshwaran.blogdrive.com/
Need More…?
If you are want to set up your own system with other modules like forums, gallery or Link center, you can go for CMS scripts that double as Blog system. As far as my experience concerned, I had used many PHP based CMS Scripts like Agora, Xaraya, PHP Nuke, AngelineCMS and PHPX. While the former three are bit advanced keeping them ahead of the novices, latter both are very useful to setup and running your blog system in minutes. A fair knowledge of FTP, CHMOD and HTML is enough for creating your own systems. The best part of these systems in my view is that they offer previews unlike publishing the whole blogs in a lengthy page that takes bit time to load on.
What to Blog?
The answer is infinity. Just put down the thoughts you feel like wrting down. Don’t limit by the topics or field of interest. Whether it is any serious personal experience or trivial things you notice on road, travelogue or philosophy, movies, music, projects, forums, short stories, sex……. Etc, the scope is endless. Most of the blogs found on the net are frivolous and trivial by nature, yet they make an interesting reading. Some serious stuffs might sound like a comedy, most of them are trash but some are genuinely good efforts. If you keep going on the blogs, you might land up in something that you could identify with seriously.
Future of Blog:-
{mosimage}Whether there is a debate or not, one thing is sure, Blogs had definitely arrived and is here to stay. Once this initial euphoria settles down, the novicers and curious ones settle down leaving the creative works dominate over the net, who come up with consistently good works. Till then you might have to bear up with the mediocority. Fortunately most of the Blog service providers are deleting the filthy stuffs, thus keeping the blogs free from porno stuffs. This itself is a kind of healthy sign that blogs are for everyone.
Come… take a plunge:-
Hope this article about the blogs is informative and had aroused curiousity about venting your works over the net. Sign up for any of the blog service provider and start penning down your thoughts, experiences and waken the creative tiger in you. With the positive hope of meeting you all in the cyberspace, I am signing off.
Useful links:-
Microsoft Spaces:- http://spaces.msn.com/
Blog Drive:- http://www.blogdrive.com/
Rediff:- http://www.rediff.com/
E-Blogger: http://eblogger.google.com/
CMS Scripts:-
PHPX:- http://www.phpx.org/
AngelineCMS:- http://www.angelinecms.org/
Web hosting:-
100 Webspace:- http://www.100webspace.com/
Clawz:- http://www.clawz.com/
In this seamlessly expanding cyberspace, more and more netizens are coming in everyday, making it a virtual junction place, looking for like minded people across the geographical borders to develop and share their ideas and knowledge.
- I am not talking about those internet experts who do only dirty chat replete with asl?, four lettered F & S words. -
There are people who are genuinely articulate and wishing their creative works to reach more and more people. Going for print medium to reach more people is not possible for everyone, whereas to get your articles published over the net, you need not be a celebrity or expert. That’s where the internet scores over all other mediums. All you have to do is to sign up with a blog service provider and finalise on themes and templates leaving the rest to the service provider. Just concentrate on what to write.
How to Blog?
Once you had decided to start blogging, just search over the net for blog service providers. Previously there were many small sites, but seeing its soaring popularity portal giants like Rediff.com, Microsoft, Google, Blogdrive and Blogspot had started offering blog services to increase the hits. These portals ensure a good publicity and ensures atleast visibility over others.
However based on my experience, I found Microsoft's Spaces and Blogdrive very effective than any other blog service providers. Let's discuss briefly about them.
Microsoft's Spaces (http://spaces.msn.com):-
{mosimage}It is the latest entrant from the giant Microsoft corporation, offering through its msn portal. So you need a Passport i.e hotmail or msn e-mail address to sign up for this blog service. In my opinion this is a dream come true for those who wanted to have a homepage, leave out blog. Besides blogging, this has a photo album, link center, music list, and a customizable menu bar where you can add links to other areas of interest. You can create a profile with your interests, hobbies and complete it with your photo and search for similar profiles over the net. Once you had created your spaces you can "invite" friends from address book to visit your space.
On the downside it is the URL that is very lengthy. My space's address reads like this:-
http://spaces.msn.com/members/maheshwaran/
Blogdrive:-
{mosimage}It is a famous blogspot over the net and is very simple. All you have to do is to sign up and choose your theme, template and header image. The best feature of this blog service is its tag box feature that doubles as an instant chat applet and a calendar. The visitors from Blogdrive are credited with their links in the right menu, making it as a promotional space. Another best part is its URL that reads like a sub-domain. My Blogdrive spot is:- http://maheshwaran.blogdrive.com/
Need More…?
If you are want to set up your own system with other modules like forums, gallery or Link center, you can go for CMS scripts that double as Blog system. As far as my experience concerned, I had used many PHP based CMS Scripts like Agora, Xaraya, PHP Nuke, AngelineCMS and PHPX. While the former three are bit advanced keeping them ahead of the novices, latter both are very useful to setup and running your blog system in minutes. A fair knowledge of FTP, CHMOD and HTML is enough for creating your own systems. The best part of these systems in my view is that they offer previews unlike publishing the whole blogs in a lengthy page that takes bit time to load on.
What to Blog?
The answer is infinity. Just put down the thoughts you feel like wrting down. Don’t limit by the topics or field of interest. Whether it is any serious personal experience or trivial things you notice on road, travelogue or philosophy, movies, music, projects, forums, short stories, sex……. Etc, the scope is endless. Most of the blogs found on the net are frivolous and trivial by nature, yet they make an interesting reading. Some serious stuffs might sound like a comedy, most of them are trash but some are genuinely good efforts. If you keep going on the blogs, you might land up in something that you could identify with seriously.
Future of Blog:-
{mosimage}Whether there is a debate or not, one thing is sure, Blogs had definitely arrived and is here to stay. Once this initial euphoria settles down, the novicers and curious ones settle down leaving the creative works dominate over the net, who come up with consistently good works. Till then you might have to bear up with the mediocority. Fortunately most of the Blog service providers are deleting the filthy stuffs, thus keeping the blogs free from porno stuffs. This itself is a kind of healthy sign that blogs are for everyone.
Come… take a plunge:-
Hope this article about the blogs is informative and had aroused curiousity about venting your works over the net. Sign up for any of the blog service provider and start penning down your thoughts, experiences and waken the creative tiger in you. With the positive hope of meeting you all in the cyberspace, I am signing off.
Useful links:-
Microsoft Spaces:- http://spaces.msn.com/
Blog Drive:- http://www.blogdrive.com/
Rediff:- http://www.rediff.com/
E-Blogger: http://eblogger.google.com/
CMS Scripts:-
PHPX:- http://www.phpx.org/
AngelineCMS:- http://www.angelinecms.org/
Web hosting:-
100 Webspace:- http://www.100webspace.com/
Clawz:- http://www.clawz.com/
