This Blogging Life
April 24, 2007.
Like it or not blogging is a social networking phenomenal and a powerful tool that big players such as global companies, the media and even MPs are beginning to acknowledge.
Blogging is a form of social networking where like minded people can share their lives, thoughts and ideas as well as promoting themselves online. Just as every thriving business has a website you will be hard pressed to find an artist, company or general Joes Bloggs who does not have a blog.
In a way we all have MySpace to blame for that, the Cinderella story of artists hitting the big time through blogging and social-networking are now common folklore.
Today blogging is so ingrained in society that it now has numerous awards contests. One of the largest is the Weblog Awards and there is also the Bloggers Choice Awards but the new kid on the block is Best of the Brit Blog Awards 07 (The BOBBs). This new award is organised by freebie paper, The Metro and cool lifestyle website, Askmen.com with the aim of finding Britain's Best Blog. Celebrities such as England cricketer, Alastair Cook and TV presenter, Jason Bradbury along with the public have selected from categories such as arts, entertainment, travel and fashion and the winner will be announced shortly.
Blogging is basically an online diary where people post their thoughts, rants and ideas but what is so exciting is that you can upload photos, audio (podcasting) and video (vlogs) The interactive elements allow people to leave comments on your page and create links to other sites.
It is amazing to think that the first blog was created in 1994 just after the internet was started and today a blog is created every second and there are over 60 million blogs worldwide. The launch of blog hosts such as Facebook, TypePad, LiveJournal, Yahoo 360 and the infamous MySpace make is very simple for users to create a blog.
So what is the fascination with blogging, why do people do it and where do they get their ideas from? We spoke to four prolific bloggers to find out what inspired them to blog.
Eddie, the Birdman, aged 31 is an Administrator who lives in New York City.
I started blogging in August of 2005, but I didn't start to take it seriously until December of that same year when many readers started taking notice and interest. Thereafter it snowballed into what you see today. I started because I wanted to chronicle my life in New York City. After what happened in 9/11, the city went through dramatic changes and I wanted to be so much a part of that change.
These are exciting times but by all means, I wanted to practise my writings. Blogging was also my way of letting out the creative energies I possessed. I was an art major in college and I no longer pursued that career. Blogging has allowed me to be an artist. At one point, I cranked out a blog every night or every morning. It became an obsession that needed real management. Now, I blog mostly during the weekdays. It's like a career, isn't it?
I chose Yahoo 360 because it was simply easy to compose and write unlike Live Journal which is more a publishing site. I have a LiveJournal in case 360 goes 'ka-blewey!' Nothing lasts forever, you know. I get most of my ideas from real experiences. I explore NYC as much as I can and I carry a camera phone which helps illustrate my findings.
People are naturally drawn to those blogs, but it’s my thoughts they really want to read. At least from what I see in the comments and hits I receive. I do draw much of my inspiration from other bloggers, magazines, pictures, news, and interests such as fashion, art, films, books, and music. Pop culture and celebrity writing is also a popular blog topic. I try to keep things original and funny
1 comment:
Well welcome to Blogger, BA and what a fantastic article if I say so myself.
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