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If you’ve watched or listened to the media within the past year or so, you’ve probably heard a lot about “blogs”, “bloggers”, and “the blogosphere”. So what is a “blog”? And what are “bloggers”? And for goodness sake what is the “blogosphere”? Simply put, “blog” is a short way of saying “weblog”, which is a type of web site that works like an electronic journal or diary. Entries are made on the weblog and each entry is dated in reverse chronological order, with the newest entries first and the oldest entries last. “Bloggers” are people who create and write in blogs. As well as writing their own blogs, many bloggers also like to read other blogs and reference them when posting entries to their site or create links to other blogs. As a result, blogs tend to be interconnected with each other through this tendency to cross-reference one another. This network of blogs is called the “blogosphere”.

The main page of a blog is made up of a series of individual blog entries. Blog entries can include text, images, links to other blogs and web sites, and even links to video and sound. Most blog entries contain the following:

? A title or heading- contains information about the entry is all about

? Body- contains the content of the entry

? Date/Timestamp- contains the date and time in which the entry was posted

? Comments- brief messages left by those who visit the blog. These messages can contain anything from a simple hello to an opinion about the entry. Depending on how the blog is set up, comments can be left by anyone who visits the site. Some blogs are set up so you are required to sign in before you can comment on an entry. Other blogs turn off the comments feature completely. In most cases, however anyone is free to post a comment.

? Permalink- the full URL or address to a specific blog entry. Blogs are set up to only show a limited number of entries at a time. After a certain amount of time or a certain amount of entries, an older entry is removed from the main blog page and archived. The permalink is the address to that specific entry so it can still be found after it’s archived

? Categories/Tags- individual blog entries are organized in categories specified by the person who maintains the blog. In some cases, categories are also called tags. Categories allow visitors to search entries by topic or subject. The blog owner defines categories and entries can fall into more than one category.

? Trackback or pingback- links to a specific blog entry from another blog. If someone decides to reference a specific entry or discuss a specific entry from someone else’s blog on their own blog, the trackback feature allows a link between the original entry on one blog to the other blog referencing that entry.

In addition to blog entries, most blogs also contain the following features:

? Blogroll- a list of links to other blogs that the blog owner may find useful or interesting. Many times the blogs listed in a blogroll are sites that touch on similar or complementary topics.

? Category list- a list of categories in which each entry is classified. This list makes it easy for visitors to search entries according to subject matter.

? Archives- blog entries remain on the main page of the blog for a limited amount of time. Older blog entries are stored in an archive and the archives are usually organized by date. Visitors can easily search for entries written last month, last week or even last year.

? RSS Feed- RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication”. RSS is a type of “web feed”. Web feeds are used to keep track of web sites whose content changes very frequently. A visitor to a blog can subscribe to a blog’s web feed and use a piece of software called a “feed reader” to keep track of the changes on a blog. When a new entry is posted on a blog, the feed reader picks up the change and you are notified that there is a new entry without having to visit the blog. Feed readers work similar to email programs, but you are not required to give out your email address or any other type of information. You can subscribe to as many feeds as you wish and you cancel a feed anytime you wish.

? Atom Feed- another kind of web feed. It has the same purpose as an RSS feed, but is a different format. Some blogs will have at least one or the other. Most will have both.

So what are blogs used for? When weblogs were first starting out, people used them as online personal diaries, much in the same way as people would write in a regular paper diary. They would write about events of the day, personal opinions, random thoughts, poems, and essays. On the whole, these online diaries weren’t really meant for a wide audience but were more a method of self-expression. As time went on, weblogs started becoming more community oriented. People developed blogs to address current events, discuss hobbies and specific interests like computing and technology, and to discuss politics. The ability to post comments on individual entries and the ability of bloggers to reference other sites and other blogs helped blogs grow from simply a personal expression tool to a community-building tool. The purpose of these blogs were not just to express the opinion of the person writing the blog, but also to get the opinions of those reading the blog and to start a dialog in the community of those visiting the blog.

Nowadays, businesses are jumping into the blogosphere by developing public blogs to market to customers and internal blogs to communicate to employees and shareholders. Business both large and small are beginning to market to bloggers who appear to be leaders in their particular field. The most popular blogs aren’t simply random musings about someone’s dog or getting a flat tire, but are highly focused with a specific range of topics and interests. Because bloggers tend to link to other blogs addressing similar topics, tapping into one blog means that you are also tapping into a community wider than that of one particular blog.

So why are blogs potential important for artists? Blogs provide a great opportunity for getting the word out to a community of people who may be interested in your work. The blog tracking service Technorati currently tracks over 54.2 million blogs worldwide. At this writing over 8,000 of them are classified as art or craft related. Blogs are now an integral part of the Internet and reading blogs and writing in blogs are activities done by a growing segment of the Internet community. There are a number of online tools that make it easy and in most cases cost-free for a person to create their own blog. And while most blogs are free to read, some enterprising bloggers are finding ways to make money from their blog. The interactive and ever changing nature of blogs give people a reason to visit them often as opposed to visiting a static web site every once in a while.

So how can you use blogs to help promote yourself as an artist? You can do so in several ways. One, you can connect with bloggers who write about the type of art or craft you do and encourage them to either link to you or write an entry about what you do. Two, you can start a blog of your own. There are several advantages and disadvantages to both strategies, and you if wish, you can combine both methods. In the following sections, I’ll discuss how to market your web site to the blogosphere and how to develop your own blog.

? 2006 - 2007 Nicolette Tallmadge

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