Blogs in Plain English 

By Lee LeFever

What is a blog? 

You really need to know what is a blog in the first place

A Wikipedia Definition

A weblog (usually shortened to blog, but occasionally spelled web log or weblog) is a web-based publication consisting primarily of periodic articles (normally in reverse chronological order).

A ProBlogger Definition

By Darren Rowse from ProBlogger

Getting started on your very own blog 

A YouTube Video explaining what is a blog

Step #1 : Decide what you want to blog about 

Unless of course you already know what you want to tell the world about

Seems simple enough, but many people jump into blogging without first considering what they want to talk about. Its all about content, content and content. Is there something you know that people will want to know? Say .... Rhubarb Pie ?

Step #2 : Create your own blog in Blogger 

Its as simple as 1-2-3-4

1. Create a Blog at Blogger

a. Register and create an account
b. Name your blog
c. Choose a template
d. Publish your blog

That's it !

2. Additional material you might want to read

If you want to know more about creating blogs, you may want to read this additional material. Otherwise, its optional and you may skip to step #3.

Here's a video to show you how 

Step #3 : Go and promote your blog 

You do want to drive traffic to your blog don't you?

1. Promote your blog

This article is a great step-by-step article on what to do to promote your blog. Go through it at your own pace. You will find many tips and tricks on how to drive traffic to your blog and website.

2. Set up your feeds

Feeds often come with either RSS or ATOM specifications. If you use Blogger, it is most likely to be the ATOM format. Many feed aggregators or websites tend to use the older RSS format. Use Feedburner to create a feed that can generate both formats.

a. Register
b. Burn your feed

Its that easy !

3. Register your blog with Technorati

Technorati is THE place where people go to when they want to search for blogs. Any blogger worth his/her salt will want to register or "claim" their blog at Technorati. With Technorati, it is even simpler to register your blog if you are using Blogger.

a. Register your account
b. Claim your blog using the feed created in step 2
c. Track your blog's performance

That's it !

4. Register your blog with IceRocket

IceRocket is another Internet search engine specialized in searching weblogs (or blogs). Backed by Mark Cuban, IceRocket is headquartered in Dallas, Texas, USA. Its simpler to register than Technorati. You don't even have to register. Just follow the above link to "Add your Blog". I'm not too sure how effective this site is, I'm still monitoring the situation after adding my blog a few days ago.

5. Register your blog with PubSub

PubSub is yet again another Internet search engine for searching blogs. The site operates by storing a user's search term, making it a subscription, and checking it against posts on blogs which ping the search engine. When a new match is found, the user is notified, even if it occurs months after the initial search. This feature has led PubSub to call itself a matching engine.

You need to register to use this service. After which you need to go to your account's homepage, look for the "Add your feed" link on the left side bar. Then follow the instructions to add your feed. I'm also not too sure about the effectiveness of this site, I will monitor the situation and let you guys know soon.
Results can be read on the service's website or on an optional sidebar, available for both Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox.

6. Register with Google Site Maps

Search engines such as Google discover information about your site by employing software known as "spiders" to crawl the web. Once the spiders find a site, they follow links within the site to gather information about all the pages. The spiders periodically revisit sites to find new or changed content. Google Sitemaps is an experiment in web crawling. By using Sitemaps to inform and direct Google's crawlers, Google hopes to expand its coverage of the web and speed up the discovery and addition of pages to their index.

Step #4: Drive Traffic to your Website 

Increase traffic using a free SEO service called HitTail

Step #5 : Set a monitor for your blog 

You should track and monitor your blog

Register your blog trace at tracksy.com

Monitoring your blog statistics is so easy using this website. If your blog is on Blogger, its even easier with tracksy as it embeds all the neccessary track and trace code for you automatically. tracksy's reports are also very comprehensive. Try it !

Step #6 : Enjoy your blog ! 

Well, that's it ! You've created your first blog !

Well done ! That's it ! You have created your first blog. Now remember, keep your content constantly updated. Only if you do this "will they come !". Have fun !

Step #7: Improve your blogs 

Read these if you want to do more for your blogging

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Step #8: Learn about viral marketing 

Improving your blog by reaching out using viral marketing

The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference

by Malcolm Gladwell

Amazon Price: $8.99 (as of 09/05/2008)

The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use News Releases, Blogs, Podcasting, Viral Marketing and Online Media to Reach Buyers Directly

by David Meerman Scott

Amazon Price: $16.47 (as of 09/05/2008)

Word of Mouth Marketing: How Smart Companies Get People Talking

by Andy Sernovitz

Amazon Price: $16.47 (as of 09/05/2008)

Step #9: Learn about blogging from Squidoo lensmasters 

Read these if you want do learn more from the lensmasters

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Step #10: Use my favourite blogging toolset 

If you want to drive traffic to your blog, do use these !

This list of cool and exciting tools and websites are used by many people for various aspects of blogging.

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Step #11: Learn from the best blogs 

To be the best, learn from the best

The best way to learn about how to design a very good blog is to learn from others whose blogs are among the best on the net. These blogs usually have a very high ranking on Technorati. The ranks shown are the blogs' ranking on Technorati as of 14 June 2006.

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Follow the PRO himself on Twitter 

Mr. Problooger - Darren Rowse

Follow problogger

Step #12: Learn about Google Page Rank 

Wanna see your website appear in Google search results?

Google Pagerank Explained

So what is Google Pagerank? How did this concept make Google's founders one of the richest guys in the world today in such a short time? Read about it here.

What is Google Page Rank 

Step #13: Improve your Google Page Ranking! 

Step #14: Read books on Blogging from Amazon 

Need more reference materials for blogging ? Try these !

WordPress For Dummies (For Dummies (Computer/Tech))

by Lisa Sabin-Wilson

Amazon Price: $16.49 (as of 09/05/2008)

Blogging For Dummies (For Dummies (Computer/Tech))

by Susannah Gardner, Shane Birley

Amazon Price: $14.95 (as of 09/05/2008)

Blogging Heroes: Interviews with 30 of the World's Top Bloggers

by Michael A. Banks

Amazon Price: $16.49 (as of 09/05/2008)

That's it ! You're done ! 

If you have got this far, you are definitely on your way to creating great blogs

Hi there ! Thanks for dropping by. I do hope that you enjoy this lens. If you do, please give me your feedback. If you don't, I would really appreciate it if you could leave your comments so that I can work at improving this lens. Thanks a million !

WhitneyWells Really good lens Chris, lots of valuable information! I'll defintely look into your advice! Posted March 05, 2008

staceyapeitos 5 stars, Chris. I'll be referring back to this lens regularly. I look at a lot of artists' blogs and slideshows from slide.com is becoming a popular feature. Posted May 02, 2007

chrisyeo This new module is really cool. Its a great way to get feedback from the community. Thanks Squidoo team! Posted June 12, 2006

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Where technology impacts ordinary lives

Ever felt that you can't keep up with the fast changing pace of technology? Suffering from information overload? Gadget obsolescence? The purpose of this blog is to examine how technology impacts our everyday lives. It chronicles the impact of technology on the life of an ordinary guy living in ordinary Singapore. So .... here we go, a blog called "Open Book"

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Come on ! Let's network !

Hello there ! If you think that my work here interests you, then maybe we can work together and create a network of links. All you need to do is:

1. Contact me using the "Contact the Lensmaster" link, that's the one located on the right side bar just beneath my profile

2. Tell me which blog or lens you want me to link to and feature in my blogs or lenses

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