Blogging With Janet Classes

What is a blog?
The word “blog” comes from “weblog”, a log on the web. It was shortened to blog. A blog makes you an instant reporter. It’s like immediate self-publishing. You don’t have to hire someone to create a web page or write for other people’s site. In fact, some people use a blog as their only web site. Search engines will find you quicker when you blog than from any other way. When you put up a web page, it’s usually short and you almost never change it. So a search engine comes to index your web site so people can find it. A search engine will come to the site again to see if anything has changed. If it hasn’t, it comes back later. The less you have changed your web site, the less often a search engine will index it. You can train a search engine to come to your web site more often if the site changes frequently. Each time you add new information there are more pages that someone can find.

Why blog?
I love blogging because it connects us to other people and communities who are thinking and talking about the things we care about. Blogging has given me visability and respect. I’ve found jobs from my blog. I’ve made friends all over the world both online and in real life. The unique part of blogging is that people can leave comments about what you write. So you get almost instand feedback on your thoughts. It can make you smarter!

Start out with your mission statement about your blog. This is your way to tell the universe who you are, why you’re here, and where you’re going. It’s creating what you want and exploring possiblities.

About Blogging with Janet Classes
Want to learn more about blogging? Janet is teaching blogging classes. She will teach what a blog is, how to find blogs, and how to start one. A blog can be very basic or very complex, depending on what your skill level and what you want. There are free templates or you can have a custom design. You can put advertisements on your blogs and make some money from it.

She’s going to teach a 4-week course in blogging. She’ll start a blog about the class so everyone can get the lessons and links. You’ll be able to leave your questions as comments.

Here is a blog of my friend Jim, who I met through my blog. I call him my internet tour guide because he shows me web sites I’ve never seen (and I’ve been surfing the web for over ten years!) He started a “daddy blog” about his life as a dad. He now blogs for other people and businesses full-time. He started out small but it has grown into his profession.

How to find and track blogs
The best way to find out about blogs is to read and become familiar with them. There are blogs about all sorts of subjects. Some are very personal and some are entertaining. Technorati is a popular site that helps people find blogs. You can search for your interests and see what people are writing about.

Bloglines is a site that lets you track a lot of blogs in one place. Each time a blog that you follow is updated you can instantly tell (it bolds the blog title) and read what they just wrote).  I’ll show you how to find,  join, and build communities with blogging.

How can blogging help my business?
Blogging can help people find your business on the internet for almost no cost. It can help you connect with your customers. You can tell your success stories. Blogging has led to book deals for people.

Who are you and where is your blog?
Janet Meiners is an internet marketer who specializes in blogging. Blogging is an easy way to start a web page. Most blogs are web journals where you can make regular entries that will show up in chronological order. It is a record of your thoughts, impressions, stories, etc. Blogging is also a way to get attention and build community. Companies blog to reach out to their customers. Some people blog so people will be able to find their web sites. The more pages of information you have on a web site the more chances are for people to find your web site on the internet.

Janet writes for six blogs and her main blog is Newspapergrl. She “reports” on Utah business, internet marketing, and blogging.