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Bloggers are constantly discovering new ways to express
their ideas through new markup.
There are bloggers who are using the latest
state-of-the-art “visual” web design programs, but few
others consider using HTML code is not a bad idea
altogether.

The XHTML family can accommodate extensions through XHTML
modules and techniques to develop new XHTML-conforming
modules. These modules permit the combination of existing
and new feature sets when developing content and when
designing new user agents.

With so many different ways to access the Internet, the
XHTML family is designed keeping in mind the general user
agent interoperability. Through document profiling
mechanism, servers, proxies, and user agents are able to
create best effort content transformation. This language is
both RSS and XML conforming. The content can be readily
viewed, edited, and validated with standard XML tools.
XHTML documents can utilize applications (e.g. scripts and
applets) that rely upon either the HTML Document Object
Model or the XML Document Object Model.

Bloggers may also use Movable Type for the weblog. Movable
Type is a powerful, customizable publishing system, which
installs on web servers to enable bloggers to manage and
update weblogs. This enables a blogger to hand edit the
other parts and pages, including the Daily Links, in
TextPad. Bloggers may use a date format string for the
individual entries, and for monthlies.

Movable Type Installation is followed by Plugins. There are
many to choose from. MT Plugin Directory and the Movable
Type Support Forums are two resources that can be referred
to. Most of the plugins make users typographically correct
and enables them to properly use curly-quotes, ellipses,
em-dashes, and en-dashes. A feature of pluggins combines
trackbacks (comments on other articles from other blogs)
and comments into one page. Another use is to create author
comments and addendums in the comments engine. Few plugins
may allow bloggers to add additional fields, example: using
keywords field to create additional fields. Few others
create a collection of links at the bottom of each
individual entry page. Title attributes can be used with
all the links. Movable Type includes a default RSS Feed.
Bloggers may set up individual feeds for each thread and
comments feed by following the naming convention of
individual archives - changing it to an .xml ending.
Bloggers may even add a Subscription Field.

Also, bloggers may consider using a WebDrive in place of a
FTP client. This tool is used to map FTP and WebDAV servers
to a network drive letter in Windows using remote files
like local ones in any application. Blogger may also
consider using validated HTML 4.01 Transitional code with a
validated stylesheet.

Blogs demand more than graphic design and HTML proficiency.
They demand extensive interaction with visitors. So,
installing a Discussion Forum is a must, as it allows
communities to exchange ideas and opinions. Tools that
could be considered are database programming, CGI/Perl
scripting, Flash animation etc.

In addition to this, bloggers may consider having an
Accessory Sideblog - another blog that stores ancillary
information and tools for the existing blog.

Accessory Sideblog allows:

· Easy updation

· Changes in entries/ information from within
Movable Type interface

· Availability of comments and trackbacks

Bloggers may consider buying opensource weblogging
softwares. These easily installable softwares offer
features like: fully-integrated comments, searching, file
uploading and image handling, completely customizable
output through dozens of templates and variables, multiple
author support, etc. For example: few blogs allow bloggers
to provide a template of their page that indicates where
they want your posts to appear. Clicking the “Publish”
button automatically sends their new page to the website
where they want their blogs to appear. Similarly, there are
sites that enable bloggers to place the RSS feed of their
blog onto any html page. For example: bloggers can copy the
completed JavaScript and paste it on any web page they
would like to distribute.

Bloggers can host their blog on their own as well with any
good web-hosting company. They can choose a good web host,
buy space on their server and host their blogs with them.

If you’ve been hearing all the buzz about blogging and want to know what it is and how to get started, this article is for you. Here we will discuss what blogging is, what blog software you’ll need, and what you can do with it. What’s a blog?

A weblog - blog for short - is a type of website. Blogs are unique from other static website in that they are usually updated often. The main page of the site usually contains the most recent post or posts of the author or authors of the website. Also, blogs often also allow readers to post their comments directly to the site.

All of the factors work together to make blogs a very popular form of website creation, and online community building. If you’d like to try your hand at blogging, here’s how to get started.

First, decided on the topic of your blog. Maybe you want to keep a diary of your daily life for your friends and family. If there’s a topic that you are interested in, say, politics for example, blogs are a great way to discuss and share your interests and comments on current topics related to your interests.

Once you’ve decided on the topic of your blog, you’ll want to choose a blog software program. The great thing is, some of the best programs and blog services are free!

Many blogging services are based online, such as blogger.com. Just visit these sites and register with them - many will give you free webspace and allow you to start blogging immediately.

If you want to register your own domain name and run your blog on your own server, you will need to install server side blog software. Not to fear, many webhosts come with an automatic installer called fantastico that will make getting your site up and running quick and easy.

Some of the more popular free blogging software programs are Wordpress and B2Evolution. Doing a search for any of these will get you the free downloads if they are not available through your webhost.

Blogs can be useful for building many types of websites. Examples include, corporate sights for keeping employees and customers up-to-date, travel diaries, niche websites on specific topics, interactive community websites, and more. The ease of posting and editing your blog website online makes blog software useful for many purposes.
About the Author

Angie Noack is a business strategist with a sharp edge for technology. With her unique ability to combine these two skills, she’s able to help businesses save time and increase profits. You can find her online at http://www.liquidblogging.com/blogs.php.

Blogging is merely keeping of a log at a website. It is a combination of the words “Web” and “log”. Blogging is carried out through a blogging software that maintains the daily posts on the site. It doesn’t take long to set up blogs and once installed you can update it easily with lots of content daily.

To keep a blog is simply to maintain a page on your site where there can be daily posting of new content by the website owner or the visitors to the site. Blogging has one particular striking feature - the information there is always kept fresh as there are daily entries.

Our interest in blogs is in its search engine placement significance. Blogs can fetch you a lot of web traffic without any effort at all.

Search engines tend to rank sites with content favorably. Since a blog posts fresh content to the site on daily basis, the information at such a place is kept fresh and current making it a preferred destination for visitors. The web is about information - current and meaningful ones so as the information in the blog gets updated constantly with rich information so does the ranking on the search engines increase.

Some blogging tools worth looking into include:

Blogger.com - http://www.blogger.com
Blosxom - http://www.blosxom.com/
Drupal - http://www.drupal.org
Geeklog - http://www.geeklog.net/
LittleHJ - http://www.littlehj.com/
ModBlog - http://www.modblog.com/
Movable Type - http://www.movabletype.org/
PHPNuke - http://www.phpnuke.org/
pMachine - http://www.pmachine.com/
Radio UserLand - http://radio.userland.com/
WordPress - http://wordpress.org/

Like in traditional sea, your blogging should be around a central theme or keyword. Too many themes may dilute the consistency of your content and score you down the lane of SEO. Sticking to a central theme will help you to enrich the content of your pages and get favoring scoring in the search engine ranking algorithms.

The most popular blogging tool on the market today is WordPress which can be downloaded from their website at http://wordpress.org/download. Installation is simple and does not require extensive knowledge of programming languages.

Blogging is being used by many sites as a way to passively draw targeted traffic and search engine rankings. Installing one can help you draw web traffic and get noticed quickly by the engines.

Good luck with your website,
Reginald

About the Author: Copyright 2005 LookForLinks.com - the ultimate relevant reciprocal links exchange manager. Feel free to redistribute this article as long as this copyright notice and a clickable hyperlink to LookForLinks.com remains in place. http://www.lookforlinks.com

So where did all these blogs come from? How did they get from an underground geek toy to a mainstream tool that has revolutionized politics, journalism, marketing and the media?

I always find that when I learn about a new technology or way of doing something online, the geeks have already been there (and I say the word ‘geek’ with complete affection - I’m one too!). Before business became inseparable from the computer, email or the internet, the academics and tinkerers were there first, kicking the tires and playing with the technology. Blogging was no exception.

Many of the earliest internet geeks wrote online journals detailing interesting links and points of view. As this was before programs like FrontPage and Dreamweaver, everything was done by hand - and that was a huge hassle. Each time you updated the site, you ran the risk of breaking links inside the website and leaving your readers stranded with the dreaded ‘page not found’ error. Eventually, the computer programmers and web designers became fed up with all of this manual work and created their own software to automate the process of updating their journal websites. Thus the weblog was born.

In 1999, a website called Blogger (http://www.blogger.com/) launched, offering free blogs to anybody and everybody that wanted them. Blogger provided the blog tool for free as well as the hosting space to host a blog. Millions of people from all over the world logged on and start creating their own weblogs.

The largest conversation in the world had begun. Blogs have changed the way academics do research, journalists write, families connect and politicians fundraise. It was only a matter of time before businesses woke up and realized the power of blogging for marketing online.

Blogging provides a way for companies and customers to meet on common ground to talk about what excites them and makes them tick. It also allows them to closely track where and under what circumstances their products are being talked about online.

Today, blogging continues to grow at a swift pace with more than 400,000 posts added per day and 12,000 new blogs being created every day. Millions of people look to blogs for a good laugh, a great idea, a fantastic tip or an instant analysis. The blogosphere doubles in size
every 5 months, allowing anyone, anywhere, in any language, to make their mark in the world to share their ideas, passion and products.

‘Blog’ was the word of the year for 2004 according to Merriam-Webster, the famous dictionary publisher. The year 2004 marked a turning point for blogs as a sought after media format. Now it was seen as a venue for gathering large audiences of devoted readers who used blogs to supplement, compliment and fact-check their nightly news.

My favorite milestone for blogging was when ‘Blogs’ appeared as a category on the Jeopardy game show. I’ll take blogging for one thousand, Alex!

Copyright © 2005 Andy Wibbels

About Andy: Andy Wibbels is a blogging evangelist and creator of the Easy Bake Weblogs seminar that has helped hundreds of small businesses all over the world leverage blogs and RSS news feeds to increase profits and save time. You can download his free special report on business and blogs at http://easybakeweblogs.com/.

Are you contributing to one of the estimated 36.1 million (and growing) blogs online? Or are you thinking of entering the fray and starting to publish a blog for your small or home business? Make sure you are publishing the right type of blog for your kind of business, or all that writing time will have been for naught.

The Blog Blood TestJust as there are different types of blood, there are many different types of blogs, and each serves its own purpose. Giving your blog a blood test will help you determine which type of blog is best for your business and what may be wrong with the one you’ve got now.

Blog Blood Type 1: Customer Relations - Blogging is one of the best ways to put a face and personality on your business, especially if you operate entirely in cyberspace. Those that best employ their blog in strengthening relationships with their customers spend a lot of time interacting with customers, answering questions, providing useful tips, and keeping them informed of business happenings. These blogs focus less on the company’s products and more on the company’s culture and outlook. The goal of this type of blog is to engender customer loyalty and establish a consistent flow of interested website visitors.

Blog Blood Type 2: Sales - As you can imagine, most businesses that blog do so because of the perceived benefit to their bottom line. While very little quantitative research has been done with regards to the actual monetary impact of blogging on overall sales, the ubiquity of sales-oriented blogs indicates some kind of return-on-investment. Sales blogs focus on product developments and benefits to the customer. There is less online interaction with customers via the blog as the goal is to move readers off of the blog and onto the product pages. The goal of a sales blog is to encourage visitors to purchase a product, service, or information that the company is offering.

Blog Blood Type 3: Personal Web Journals - These blogs make up the bulk of the 36.1 million web logs online. The majority are personal accounts written without regard to size of readership or monetary value. Many have heralded free blogs as the Internet’s greatest achievement, allowing virtually anyone with an internet connection to publish literally whatever they want, and all in a matter of a few minutes. There are as many purposes for personal blogs as there are bloggers. Perhaps the most common theme is the chance to be heard.

I’ve Taken the Blog Blood Test…Now What?Which category did your blog best fit in? Did you find that you’re writing one type of blog but desiring the benefits of another? If you haven’t already started your blog, which type do you believe would best match your writing abilities and desired outcome? Simply put, if you’re not writing the best type of blog for the benefits you want, you’ll never get them - and you’ll waste a lot of time in the process.

If your current blog is doing exactly what you want it to, leave it alone. If you find that some changes are necessary, consider the following questions:

• Do I think I can drive actual sales from the blog?
• Would I rather spend my writing time interacting with customers (both positive and negative) or writing about my product? (Remember the blood test)
• Am I the best person to author my blog, or is there someone else who could do a better job?
• Do I want to stage the blog as a company-sponsored communication tool or would I rather it appear as a kind of third-party, objective review?
• How much time am I willing to spend writing?
• How free do I want to be with regards to frequency of posting and responding to customer comments?

Millions of others are already blogging, but don’t let that stop you from starting. Give your business the blog blood test and see which type works best for you.

About the author:
Nick Smith is an internet marketer with an internet positioning strategy. For information about a DNA blood test and other DNA products, visit Genetree.com.