To Blog or Not to Blog: Should I for My Business? Should I for Myelf? Should I for Both?

Three years ago, the term "blogging" wasn't part of my vocabulary. (And, if you haven't noticed, it isn't picked up very often as a recognized or correct word in spell checking programs.) I didn't know what it was, why people did it or why blogs existed. What is a blog? Let's look at the literal definition:

"A blog is a user-generated website where entries are made in journal style and displayed in a reverse chronological order.

Blogs often provide commentary or news on a particular subject, such as food, politics, or local news; some function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of most early blogs. Most blogs are primarily textual although some focus on photographs (photoblog), sketchblog, videos (vlog), or audio (podcasting), and are part of a wider network of social media.

The term "blog" is a portmanteau, or, in other words, a blend of the words web and log (Web log). "Blog" can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.

The term blog is commonly accredited to the web-journal pioneer Travis Petler. He coined the term on his personal blog in early September of 1997 while studying at Brown University. His use of the word spread to other college campus' where other weblogs were present.

As of November 2006, blog search engine Technorati was tracking nearly 60 million blogs." -- wikipedia.com (a chronological history is available on this site, as well)

Once I learned what a blog was, how to use one and how many options were available I was quickly addicted to the practice of blogging. Not only did I have the ability to freely write about any topic Iwould like, but there's a lot of opportunity to do customization similar to that of web page design. Many bloggers use blog software that offers the ability to mirror the design on the web pages, so they flow together and belong.

For an extensive list of blogging terms, visit here.

There are a number of "free to use" blogging sites available both for personal and business use. The underlying question is, which blog site should I use? Let's look at the blog services I've been using and why:

1: Livejournal.com: I've been using this service on a nearly daily basis since 2003 for both personal and professional reasons. While the majority of my posts focus on personal events and activities, I do post about what's going on in my business and I do take advantage of the numerous communities (and the opportunity to create communities of my own) to spread the word about what I'm doing and trying to achieve. I've noticed the majority of my hits to work related projects are from this site.
2: Blogger.com: I keep a themed set of blogs here focusing on art and writing. Whenever I've written about either of these topics or have a mail art project to talk about, it's linked to these blogs. I'll also write about friends in the industry, their promotions and what they're doing. There will be occasional "opinion" posts about how I feel about certain issues occurring in the industry.

3: blog.myspace.com: this blog mirrors my blogger account in an effort to build exposure to my business. Rarely do I put commentary, unless I'm discussing the progress I've made on a project or if I'm sharing pictures about a particular project.

4: Ebay: MyWorld.com blog: This blog was used specifically to talk about what I was making to sell on ebay, the progress of projects and what was currently listed. I haven't listed items on here in a few months, so I've been copying posts over from blogger.com to keep things current. Once I start listing again, I'll make the posts unique to those items and their creation.

5: Lulu.com's blog: This blog was dedicated to the books I'm selling through this site and to the "book a month" project I have going during the course of 2007. I quickly realized I needed to think outside the box with this blog because people could only stand so much "in progress" type posts. I include links to press I'm receiving about this project, about other books I've collaborated with authors on and what readers can expect in the future.

Even though each service contains very similar content, unique material can still be found on each and I've noticed different readers "friending" or "blogrolling" on each site. So, I've managed to achieve the goal of spreading myself out to a wider audience. I've recently asked web site owners to link to my blogs and my other creative sites and I've seen positive returns from that effort, as well.

Ever since I started blogging, I've noticed a network building also. There's a number of like-minded individuals (artists, writers and enthusiasts) sharing ideas, giving advice, providing resources, inspiring and motivating each other. So, not only has this helped my business in terms of sales, it's also helped grow my business in terms of strength, confidence and use of the proper tools.

There are some things to consider when keeping a blog, though. Like, reading other blogs, for example. I've found this to be very addictive and, before I knew it, I lost two hours of lost work time. Considering my time is limited to begin with, this was detrimental to the day. Another thing to consider is the content of your entries. Try to keep personal commentary and things of that nature to one blog, separate from your business. While some visitors don't mind reading commentary like that, others would prefer seeing posts directly related to your business or the theme of your business.

In addition to those that I've used myself, there are a number of other sites available for free or a nominal fee. The majority of these sites are listed in the wikipedia.com entry I referenced above or by doing a simple search in your favorite search engine.