by Charles Simmins

Created on: March 26, 2009

I wrote my first blog post on a stone tablet using a crude chisel many years ago. It sounds good, doesn't it? But blogging, one of the biggest buzz words on the Internet, is just a few year old.

Blog is short for "web log". The first people to blog created a personal diary on the Internet. Today, about a decade later, nearly all the blogs in existence are still just a personal diary on the Internet.

What else can you do with a blog if you choose not to bare your soul for all to see and talk about? There are a great many other purposes for writing a blog.

Some blogs are about hobbies. Photography, scrap booking, gardening, all of these topics have thousands of people blogging about them. Some of the blogs are in the expert category as well known members of a hobby community blog. Others are just ordinary people with something to say.

Current events blogs are popular. Politics and sports are both areas where bloggers can build a readership and discussion, or controversy, are often standard fare. Blogging is so popular that people blog in every nation on earth, and often go to prison for political blogging that offends their local government.

There are people who blog about religion. Others have very instructive blogs about home schooling. Fashion blogs exist as do celebrity fan blogs. Pick a topic and the chances are that there are several people blogging about it, in more than one language.

The media have caught on to this concept. You will find blogs on line from newspapers, magazines, television networks and you will even find blogs that are media, existing to entertain and inform. Businesses have also created blogs on their websites, to add value to their marketing efforts and inform their customers.

Some blogs are written by more than one person. Group blogs allow the blog to express a variety of opinions and perspectives, on one or more than one topic. Some blogs do not display their authors, others use "nom-de-plumes". Others use the author's real name.

A blog can be just a number of short posts linking to other sites to provide information. It can be term paper sized posts with citations and all the weight of academic thought behind them. It can consist of collections of news items from many sources, or it can be all photos. A blog can allow comments or not.

A century and more ago, people would gather in a park to listen to speakers. Each one would get up on his soapbox and talk. The most interesting, controversial or entertaining would draw the largest crowd. A blog is everyone's chance to get up on a soapbox and talk. The entire world is your audience. If you have something to say, a blog is the way to say it.

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