Ironically, I wrote this almost two years ago, when I wasn’t even interested in having a blog. WordPress isn’t even one of the sites I researched. It may not be of much help to someone who is already reading or keeping a blog, but the variation in some blog sites is interesting.
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So you got internet a while ago, and you now have email and instant messenger. What’s the next step? Instead of that old dog-eared journal, check out the options for a new, clean, organized blog space online. Blogging is also handy if you’re concerned about privacy. It can be completely anonymous (if you make up a false name) so you can really write anything at all. But what IS it?! A blog is an online journal, used for telling people more about yourself and what goes on in your life. People get to know you better, and you may gain some friends! However, none of these sites are dating services. You may add pictures, varying fonts, sizes, and colors of text, website links (HTML), and videos in almost any blog. People can leave comments, rate, or leave kudos on a blog. When you read a blog later and decide you didn’t really want to curse out your teacher, you can go back and edit or delete that entry (not possible with that old dog-eared journal…).
Blogs are being used for every purpose imaginable. Businesses have blogs where they may post news and articles, job options, things for sale or things wanted, or advice from entrepreneurs in starting and continuing a business. Magazines and newspapers use them to publish articles and the paparazzi post pictures of celebrities. Musicians and bands use them to share music and show talent, gain recognition, and sell albums.
Be aware that other people may be able to read your “diaries.” Because these sites are accessed by more people (and creepier people) than you may want to be reading your blog, all blog spaces have options for making an entry private. The Myspace inventor and advisor Tom posts messages reminding users that the internet is not always as safe as people think. On Myspace, there is an option of making your entire profile page invisible to anyone not on your friends list, but hacking is always a possibility and Tom encourages people to be aware of this. Safety comes with awareness, and the more ignorant the user, the more potentially dangerous the website.
You might want to explore other people’s blogs before you try one for yourself. There are thousands available and a simple, general search about music on Google will come up with countless blogs. Exercise caution, however blogs are not censored (for pictures or words) so if your internet browser doesn’t filter out explicit content, you could be caught off guard. Make sure that the blog site is free (if that’s what you’re looking for) and think before you write.
MySpace.com
MySpace, accessed by millions each day, is more of a friend space than a real blog space. On it, you can create a detailed page with your very own “www.myspace.com/yournamehere” link and any information you want. You can add friends (including well-known or obscure bands or artists, movie websites, or TV shows) who have accounts and write comments on one another’s pages, and send private messages (like emails) as well. Posting bulletins (which are shared with everyone on your friends list), instant messaging, and blogging all happen in MySpace. The blogs themselves aren’t put up front on the page; visitors to your page click on the blog title, which leads to the actual blog.(The Illuminati has a MySpace, too! www.myspace.com/ccailluminati)
Xanga.com
Before Myspace, the majority of blog users had a Xanga account. But now, Xanga users are in the minority. That doesn’t mean this simple site isn’t worthwhile, however. It’s got the bare minimum for a blog site, and sometimes that’s only what someone would want. The blogs are shown right on your main page, which you can design all you want. People may rate or comment on your blog and subscribe to it if they want, which means that they will be notified every time you publish a new blog entry.
Blogger.com
A more professional approach to blogging, this blogspace creates networks between friends and even coworkers. Taryn Broadwater, a writer for the Spokesman-Review, has a blog on Blogger.com, and though she uses it to write about home life and herself, she has a link to the Spokesman-Review website and her profession is displayed. In one blog, she mentions that though she doesn’t put her kids’ names or her husband’s name, she does post pictures of them and it might be easy for someone to find them. But she loves writing for fun (“The blog is a form of therapy for me”) and says there is a limit to paranoia.
Squarespace.com
This site isn’t free, which takes it up a notch in professionalism and probably gives it more credibility as a safe place to post your blogs. You can create your own web page with this system as well. The templates (or the your blog layout designs) are endless, as well as the fonts and colors. Paying for a blog may make it safer, but it might also be unnecessary. Organizations like The Wall Street Journal use Squarespace they can afford to use such a professional space to its full potential. If you are worried about safety, writing under a fake name is your best bet for staying anonymous.
Blogstream.com
Another free blog space, Blogstream has a chatroom and all the typical options for blogs. You may upgrade your blog and pay for it so that there are no advertisements displayed on the page and more room to write or post pictures. If you are viewing another person’s blog, you can click on “Family Filter” at the top of the page so that any inappropriate blog entry is not displayed. Or you can click on “Clean,” which omits anything offensive. Blogstream is still small and relatively unknown, but just as good as any blog space available.
Livejournal.com
This blogging option is another way to keep connected with friends and meet new people. The networking is based on location or similar tastes (but again, this is not a dating service…) or “communities” (groups with the same interests). This is a popular site because you may “post to your journal from anywhere!” which means that, with some phones, you may write a blog on your phone and upload it to the internet from there. Livejournal, which has existed since 1999 and has about 12 million users, is adding a search soon. You can use this to search for a blog topic, an author, communities, or anything else on the site. All of Livejournal’s features are free and signing up is easy.
Mulitply.com
Multiply is great for interacting and sharing your blog with only people that you already know. It’s very personal and specific to you get your own internet address, add your friends who have blogs, then comment with them right on your page. You can even simply import your email’s address book into your list of friends. “Live replies” on your site aren’t exactly instant messages, but they are very fast and enable a discussion of a blog. Multiply is one of the only sites that boasts about being very compatible with pictures, music, video, and HTML links. You can post pictures and HTML with almost any blog space, but music and videos are hard to put on a page without making the site slow or the page format different. The simplest form of Multiply is free, but extra features can be added for a monthly fee.
Search Engine Blogs
You can create blogs with most search engines now (such as Google, Yahoo!, and MSN) and most email providers. These are either private or shown on your profile. This is more convenient to some people, since with Yahoo! for instance, you can have an email account, instant messaging, music provider, and blog all with the same username in the same Yahoo! base. And you can always use these search engines to look for other blog spaces, since the options grow every day.
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