Posted by Fox on July 14, 2007 at 12:05 PM

What is Blogging?

Blogging : is the act of writing in one's blog. To blog something is to write about something in one's blog. This usually involves linking to something the author finds interesting on the internet.

Blogging : A frequent, chronological publication of personal thoughts and Web links. A blog is often a mixture of what is happening in a person's life and what is happening on the Web, a kind of hybrid diary/guide site, although there are as many unique types of blogs as there are people. People maintained blogs long before the term was coined, but the trend gained momentum with the introduction of automated published systems, most notably Blogger at blogger.com.

Blogging : A weblog (usually shortened to blog, but occasionally spelled web log) is a web-based publication consisting primarily of periodic articles (normally in reverse chronological order). Although most early weblogs were manually updated, tools to automate the maintenance of such sites made them accessible to a much larger population, and the use of some sort of browser-based software is now a typical aspect of "blogging".

What is a Blog?

I'll tell you what I think a blog is. It's a personal web site on which you can easily publish your articles, opinion, news, rantings, photos, video and other such stuff. But DON'T call it a web site. Yes it's a site and yes it's on the web, but don't call it a web site. From hereon we'll refer to it as a blog.

It's important that you get used to calling it a blog as many of the bloggers tools and services won't feature your blog if you call it a web site. I'm serious. Refer to your blog as a web site when signing up to some of the essential tools and you'll be refused entry. EEK!

It's STILL a web site though :)

So a blog makes it easy for you to publish yourself on the Internet, but you'll need find a blogging application first.

What is a Blogging Application?

Like me you're probably not a database/application programmer or have all of the numerous skill sets required to create a blogging application from scratch. So you'll be wanting to find someone who can provide you with one.

You Have Three Choices

Self Hosted Blog : You buy or download a free blogging package/software/template. Rent or buy server space and then install and maintain the technical aspects of the blog yourself.

Free Hosted Blog : You sign up with a Free Blog Provider, and start publishing in minutes.

Hosted & Managed Blog : Much like the free hosted blogging services, everything you need is in place, but you'll have much greater control over your blogs features.

Worth noting that having a hosted blog means your blog will run on a seperate server to any existing site you may have. This is important becuase it does mean you'll have restricted connectivity between your blog and your existing sites.

I use a hosted blogging service called Typepad, so when it comes to setting up a Self Hosted or Free Hosted blog, I'm afraid I'll be of little help to you.

As I write this I'm considering that I should rename this blog to "theukboggersusingtypepadguide.com" - I'm confident that much of what is written will be relevant to all UK bloggers, regardless of their chosen blogging platform, but Typepad users will get more techical support from me.

Finally, which type of Blogger are you?

While I hate to pigeon hole you, for the purpose of clarity in this guide, you'll fall in to one of 3 types of bloggers:

Business Blogger : You work for a company. The company already has a web site and you're creating a blog to support/enhance the existing activities of the business.

Commercial Blogger : You blog to generate revenue. Of course if your blog become uber popular, it can become a business in it's own right, but you get the picture.

Personal Blogger : You're neither of the above, but want to share your opinions, photos, videos etc. Got to mention again that I'm really not sure that this guide is for you.