how to blog course: DISCUSSION: How to find (important) blogs

Friday, November 16, 2007

DISCUSSION: How to find (important) blogs

AIM: Understand the importance of other writers (bloggers or the "blogosphere"), find interesting blogs to read and comment and link to. No linking at this stage.

DISCUSSION:
An intrisic part of blogging is joining in with other people who blog. You can learn a lot from them - their writing style, what sort of pictures and movies they include in their blog articles and how wide or narrow their range of topics are.

If you are determined to become the industry leader blogger or subject matter expert, it's well worthwhile finding out who else blogs on similar subjects.

Blogsearch: One way is to use blogsearch.google.com - put in some keywords, pick a timeline (blog articles posted in the last hour or day or week) and you will see blog articles on your favourite topic.

Top 100 lists: In Australia, Meg Tsiamis of Blogpond keeps a list of Top 100 Australian Bloggers. You may find some leading blogs there that you like. The Top 50 Australian Female Bloggers is on AllForWomen.

Blogroll: A blogroll is a list on either the left or right hand side of a blog. The blogger puts the name and link to other bloggers that he or she thinks is important and relevant to the topic. In the case of this blog, I keep a list of bloggers who teach blogging, and a separate list of links to student's new blogs. Love fashion? Go to The Bargain Queen's blog, and see the Websites We Love list on the right hand side. If you love fashion, you can click through the list and find other great fashion websites!

What are other ways of finding blogs for your sector/interest?

Please note: This course takes place on Google's Blogger. Blogger is the software, Blogspot is the web site (you create the blog on Blogger, but read it on Blogspot). Other well known blog software include WordPress, Movable Type or TypePad from Six Apart or LiveJournal,