If you’re here, you probably know what a blog is. I was lucky enough to first hear about blogs from my estemed Chief Technical Officer, Ramana Rao, the heart and founder of Inxight where I work. At least five years ago he said blogs were going to be big. I respected him, but I didn’t get it. It seemed a blog was just a website that you write articles on. Now I finally think I understand a bit more why blogs are such a big deal, and why it’s part of something much bigger that has been happening on the internet. Blogs are about a major shift from broadcast media to conversations, passive media consumption versus interactive participation. Bloggers may be able to generate some degree of popularity online just by the merit of their content, but they may hit a wall by relying on this alone. Perhaps through the use of an Instagram growth service (like this – https://nitreo.com) they will be able to reach a larger audience and build their following organically so that more people can view their content and give their blog more hits. Whilst social media is a great way to pull more people over to your blog, you could also consider promoting the blog itself. To increase your blog’s online presence, it might be worth looking into search engine optimization. This method, offered by companies like Victorious, can help bloggers to rank higher on search engines internationally. This method has the potential of drawing new readers from all over the world to your blog. Perhaps that’s worth considering too, it should help your blog to become more successful.

This post is titled “a blog diet” because diet has such a tremendous impact on our health, and blogs should be a big part of every net citizen’s diet. But perhaps the title should have been “a blog diet and exercise”. Just reading blogs won’t do it. You can’t really understand the dance until you dance yourself. Don’t just read blogs, find ones that let you comment, and post comments. Even if it’s just “thank you, great post”. You’ll understand the value of this more though if you start your own. It’s free, it’s easy, and it’s fast. I like blogspot.com, but there are others if you want to google around, like WordPress (though you’ll need to host these ones on platforms like https://www.hostiserver.com/, which isn’t difficult). The important factor there is that it is a system you find easy to use and is quickly understood. Being confused and flustered will likely cause you to quit before you begin, which would be a shame!

To get you started, here are a few blogs you might want to look at:

Creating Passionate Users Kathy Sierra makes technical learning fun with her Head First series of books. There’s lots of great interesting and fun stuff here. Check it out.

100bloggers – One hundred bloggers post to a single blog space. You’ll find lots of intersting reading and interesting folks to talk to. I post here too, check it out.

In the Blogging World You Don’t Have Sex on the First Date – Here’s a great bit of advice if you want to get serious about blogging. It can be a money making career by itself, but it also is a great way to market your goods and services.

Make it Great – Check out this guy’s blog, it has lots of positive thinking in it, and references to the great blogs of others.

Gaping Void – Hugh Macleod has quite a following, with interesting cartoons. Might be fun, but this particular post has blogging advice – take as humor, but do take it.

Bernie Dekoven’s Fun Log – It’s about fun. have some every day, it’s good for your health.