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What is blogging and who writes a blog?

What is blogging and who writes a blog?

The emergence of the internet has bought about blogging as a literary form.  The word Blog consists of two words, ‘web and log’. Blogs are a collection of thoughts published in cyberspace with the potential to reach a global audience. Blogs provide a plethora of freely available literature in a vast array of genres to those who access the internet using desktop computers, laptops, tablets or smartphones and smart TVs.

Who can Blog?

Anyone who can read, write, and use a keyboard can learn to blog. There are many great websites with tips on how to get started with blogging.

WordPress , Weebly and Wix are some of the many sites offering free do-it-yourself blog websites with a customisable browser-based user interface allowing the user to design the website to suit their own tastes. No web design or coding experience is necessary to build a blog site, enabling just about anyone to build their own website.  Many of these also offer free web hosting. Some may even come with free domain name registration. That’s where you register a web address with your business or personal brand name on it. E.g. www.yourdomainname.com.au.

Why Do People Write Blog Posts?

Blogs allow people to document and express their best thoughts, share ideas and innermost feelings with others. Blogging brings attention to a cause and is also used for educating the public or for addressing topics that would interest a like-minded audience. While some people might find pleasure in exercise of writing alone as a hobby or for entertainment, many up and coming authors and journalists undertake blogging to grow their skills as writers, gain recognition and grow a fan base while networking with other bloggers and their readers.   Most bloggers like to receive critique from their professional peers.

Blogging has become an exercise in personal, business, spiritual and mental growth adopted by thousands if not millions globally. Since reading and writing has become the foundation of all modern-day education assisted by the internet, educating ourselves has never been easier or cheaper! However, it’s important to remember that everything you read online isn’t necessarily true or accurate.

Business Blogging

Blogging for business makes perfect marketing sense. Here are some good reasons why business leaders should blog regularly.

  1. grow a captive audience
  2. raise awareness of products and services
  3. share ideas
  4. create leads
  5. build a relationship with your readers
  6. draw traffic to the business websites to improve search engine ranking
  7. share the organisations vision
  8. network with people
  9. build trust
  10. gather feedback
  11. brand yourself as a thought leader
  12. mentor the next generation of leaders

Therapeutic Reasons – Bibliotherapy

Bibliotherapy has been described as a form of psychological treatment that encourages reading as a form of therapy. As people write blogs they are also reading, analysing and concentrating on thought-provoking ideas. This deep thinking often opens up the person to self-analysis.

In an article published in October 2005 in the Washington Post titled, ‘Blogs as Therapy”, John Suler makes it clear that people have been writing for a long time therapeutically. He states that “Psychologists and other mental health professionals have noted the value of ‘bibliotherapy’ in which people specifically use writing exercises to address and resolve problems in their lives, or to simply enhance personal growth.”

Whether the reason behind why we blog is to keep a diary or to journal events and travel, writing has been a form of therapy for many people over the years. Some would say, since ancient times.

Studies have shown that reading good literature makes us smarter and nicer people according to Time Magazine. Since ancient times, reading has been keeping people’s minds active by promoting understanding for individuals as a thought-provoking activity.

Sources:

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bibliotherapy

Time Magazine: http://ideas.time.com/2013/06/03/why-we-should-read-literature/

Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/21/bibliotherapy_n_1817968.html?ir=Australia

Psyche Central: http://psychcentral.com/lib/the-health-benefits-of-journaling/

Image courtesy of: www.freedigitalphotos.net/stockimage

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