Broblogger : Odd and interesting

 Newpaper cutting from Malay mail

OK, OK. So there’s nothing that tantric about blogging (although if you look at some sites, you might disagree), but it makes a great title, and that is, primarily, what a lot of blogs are all about. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Blogging is a modern day phenomenon. When smutty magazines got online, we got the porn revolution. When shopping malls went online, we got Amazon.com and eBay.com.

And when the humble diary got online, ‘Blogging’ was born.

At its basics, blogging is an online diary.

The name itself comes from the term weblog, as in a log kept on the web.

Written, edited and published by “the peoplethemselves, you get a very wide variation in quality and quantity of work out there, butone thing is for certain – these days, when people have something to say, they say it online (Hillary Duff’s boyfriend recently used his blog to slam Kelly Clarkson; Michael Jackson sent trial messages to his fans through a blog; and numerous other major celebs have blogs where they detail their thoughts and lives, for the viewing of their adoring public).

To start blogging, you only need an internet connection and a computer.

Things like basic grammar, ability to spell and talent are optional.

This is great if you always wanted to write, but failed high school English (or passed the Malaysian version of the subject).

You’ll also need to have some idea of what you want to write about, although when in doubt, the “Today, I did this…style seems to work for millions of bloggers.

When starting out, most people use a blog hosting site, like www.blogger.com.

The handy thing about this site is that it allows you to quickly and easily set up your blog, without any serious hassle to do with coding or site management.

The other option is to buy a website and use serious web publishing software, but we’ll cover that a little later.

Once you get to blogger, you’ll need to sign up and choose a name for your site.

As this is the title and the URL people will have to type to get to your blog, think carefully as there is nothing more frustrating than people changing blog titles down the line.

The sky (and the list of already existing and therefore un-useable titles, which includes all the cool ones) is the limit when it comes to picking a title, but some common ones are paradoxical and deep sounding combinations of words (vividblurry, idlethink, urbannature, etc), cutesy ones (fl uffycuddlebunny, iliketeddies, or bouncingeroticbunny all come to mind), or just plain self explanatory ones (sarahsblog, ilikeicecream, andtheprettyboysclub).

Anything goes, but expect to be rejected numerous times, because anything that you think is original has been used.

When you finally get your title, you’ll be faced with a few options.

You can leave everything basic and go straight to the blogging (very unfashionable) or you can play about with the layout, theme and colour options.

This is best done sparingly, unless you have a very good eye for aesthetics or are copying from somewhere else that actually looks good (again, this can be subjective, so get advice, for the sake of the readers).

Animated, fl ashing backgrounds are not good and neither is text that blends into the background.

Other things to avoid are colours normally only seen on neon signs, fonts unreadable by human eyes, and music of any kind (though this is your blog, so feel free to ignore my advice).

Just remember to preview your blog site occasionally, so that you see what all those check boxes actually do.

Your blog has two main parts to it.

First is the public site, which is what the public sees, and (as all good politicians know) is meant to look good, sound great, attract people and kiss babies (note – kissing babies.

The second part is the nitty gritty working section, the behind-the-scenes area where you’ll control the action and do all the major things required of a web log owner.

This is usually known as the control panel, but can be referred to by numerous affectionate titles, like “secret underground lairand such.

It is here that you will control the look, feel, layout and content of your blog.

Most of the options are fairly straight forward, and you’ll be able to quickly and easily change the options, review comments, and add links from the main page.

When it comes to writing your entries (or posts (as bloggers call them) you’ll be faced with a blank area and a title fi eld.

The title, some would say, is the most important bit.

You can either write the post and come up with an appropriate title from there, or you can think of a wickedly cool title, and then struggle to tie the content of your post back to it.

Either way, title aside, the post itself can be about anything and can be as long or as short as you like.

Most of the time, you’ll be able to add pictures, change font size and colour, and create various effects using basic HTML (Google this for tips), although some blog sites have special panels included through java that do things for you at the click of a button (but they tend to go wrong or always seem slightly off, so go learn HTML anyway, you lazy fi ends).

While you can write about anything, remember that people will be reading this (yes, even if you don’t advertise it, people will fi nd it, like amateur porn, affairs and illegitimate children), so try and keep truly private and important details out, as you could live to regret it.

You may also want to refrain from saying anything too extreme, as people could get offended and enough complaints can lead to your site being deleted by the hosting site.

Also, realise that while you might like the anarchistic effect of a world without punctuation, grammar or spelling, it does make it hard for your readers, so do try (you can always type in Microsoft Word, make use of the tips in there to clean up, then copy and paste your text back into blogger – this is especially handy for long posts, as you can also save, which helps avoid the frustration of retyping after blackouts or accidental deletes).

Once you’re happy with your text, just click the OK (or publish) button, and voilà! – your fi rst piece of online literature has been created.

Whether you do this daily, hourly, or randomly is completely up to you, but never feel slaved to your blog (unless you like that kind of thing).

Once you’ve grown up, and decided you want to take your blog to the next level, there are many options.

You can buy your own site and use one of the handy programmes out there like WordPress.org or MoveableType.org.

These are downloadable, and you have to install them onto your web site server, after which you’ll have most of the options available to you from sites like Blogger, but which are completely private, completely customisable, and much cooler.

You’ll be able to completely change the workings of the blog, unlike the more cosmetic changes available to you from starting sites.

One thing I can’t tell you is why you should blog.

Yes, it can become quite lucrative thanks to advertisers.

Yes, it can be therapeutic and anonymous (though rarely completely and watertight in its anonymity).

Yes, it can even give you that little space in the world to fi ll with your voice.

But the real reason why you blog is something only you can answer.

And it makes a great post