Why are Blogs So Popular?

My friend, Thomas Choo, wrote a article about the rising popularity of blogs. I'd like to present it here for you.

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Websites and Weblogs: What's the Difference?
By Thomas Choo
www.OfficialHomeBusiness.biz
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More and more, people don't have traditional websites: static things where pages can be added, updated or taken away. Instead, they write new material for their website when they feel like it, and then put it up on one page, with the most recent writing first. These people are running weblogs.

Why are Blogs So Popular?

In recent years, the blog format has very much taken over from the 'personal home page'. People seem to find it much easier to just put a kind of public diary online, instead of putting up a little biography of themselves and a collection of articles. It's more personal, more fun, and more interactive day-to-day.

In my opinion, the biggest reason for blogs' popularity is that they make publishing to the web very easy. You don't really have to know anything about what's happening behind the scenes: blogs finally make publishing your thoughts for everyone to see as easy as posting to a forum or sending an email. In a way, blogs fulfil the original promise of the web.

Weblog Software.

Today, there's a lot of blog software out there - if you want a blog, you're spoiled for choice. What you get will depend on how comfortable you are with technical stuff, and whether you want it to be part of your main website or not.

Movable Type
This is a software that you install on your web server. You simply log in and type your post, and it creates your pages for you. Movable Type can be a little complex to set up.

Blogger
You don't install Blogger on your server - instead, you give it your FTP password and let it upload files to your web server for you. If you don't have any hosting, you can also host blogs for free at Blogger's Blogspot.

WordPress
WordPress is a free alternative to blogging software. It works in basically the same way as Movable Type, but without the restrictive licensing and with nicer-looking default templates. Many people have switched to WordPress out of frustration with Movable Type and not looked back. You have to host it on your own server, but it's very simple to set up - don't be scared!

LiveJournal

LiveJournal is a completely online service, meaning that it has nothing to do with your website, except that you can link to your LiveJournal if you want.

In the end, it's all about power versus convenience: the more work you put in to get your blog working, the more likely that it's going to be what you really wanted it to be. If you're creating a website anyway, why not put a blog on it?

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Till then, to your success!

Yours truly,

Thomas Choo

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Thanks, Tom, for the insight.

I have to agree: There certainly a lot of blogging software out there. Each has its own merits and service to its user. As you can see my preference is www.Blogger.com/

PS: I might add that AOL, MSN, and Yahoo, also offer blogs. See them, respectively, at:

Journals.AOL.com/

Spaces.MSN.com/

360.yahoo.com/