Monday, September 17, 2007

2. Create your own blog and write something in it

Play MP3 Play audio introduction for this task

Welcome to the second week of 23 Things (17-21 September). Your first task for this week is to create your own blog and write something in it.

'blog' is short for 'web log'. It evolved from a 'web journal', like an online diary. Blogs serve different purposes. They are promotional tools, communication tools, social tools, or tools for sharing or commenting on news.

Why blog?

People blog because they want to share with others. They may share their opinions, rants on particular topics, or news from a holiday. They may even have a professional blog where they share views on their industry, or they may have a blog all about their cat.

When you're blogging, you can adopt any persona you like. One blogger adopted a persona they called Fake Steve Jobs and tried to write from the perspective of the co-founder of Apple.

Many companies have an 'official' blog, where they release news about the company and views about the industry. Some blogs are highly successful due to the personality of the blog's author. Some blogs have multiple authors.

Your task

You'll need to create your own blog. Have a look at Blogger.com and WordPress.com. You can get a free blog at either of these websites. Click the "Sign Up" or "Create a free blog" link to get started, and follow the directions.

I would also like you to write your very first post on your blog. You may want to introduce yourself, or your persona, and talk a bit about the 23 Things. Just go to your blog and click 'New Post'.

Over the course of 23 Things, you'll need to write a blog post about each 'thing' you complete. That will let the 23 Things committee know what you're up to.

Will you want to continue blogging after you've completed all 23 Things? Maybe you have ideas for other blogs.

Have a look at the links below for ideas on what to blog about, and why people blog.

Important: Bookmark your blog!

Save your blog to your bookmarks or favourites folder so you can return to it quickly later. You'll need to add an entry to it for each 23 Things task you complete.

Want to be anonymous?

If you prefer, you can create a blog under a pseudonym - you don't have to give your real name. The only people that will know whose blog it really is will be the 23 Things committee.

Have a blog already?

If you have a blog already, you're welcome to re-use it for 23 Things. However, part of 23 Things will involve blogging about the tasks you do throughout the 23 Things program. Therefore, if you're not comfortable adding entries about 23 Things to your existing blog, you may want to create a new blog at a free site.

Resources

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The world of anonymous blogging lost a little of its charm when Fake Steve Jobs was outed ...

TRR said...

Have a blogger.com account but can't seem to get in to it anymore?

A few people have had similar problems.

It could be that the username you are trying is wrong rather than the password. Your blogger.com username will usually be your entire email address, such as 'jsmith@swin.edu.au', not just 'jsmith'.