#BLOGGING
101
Over the couple of few days, I have met many people
who have been to my blog and now want to start their own blogs. I have had the privilege
of giving a lecture on blogging and so allow me to say, it is flattering and I would
like to thank all those who stop by the blog to get annoyed, entertained,
informed, or just wonder and ponder the criteria I use to highlight stories.
Whatever your reasons, you are paying for my butter
and for that I am grateful. Many ask how I began and perhaps it would be
prudent to mention that no columnist would be foolish to write about his whole
life for the masses to gorge on. You get my point right?
It is just that nobody’s life is that interesting-
and so this column is not about me at all! As you venture into this journey of
being a blogger; you will need sources of ideas. If you tend to listen more and
talk less, you will be surprised at what you will hear.
People love to talk; especially about themselves. In
fact, if someone starts a story by telling me, “by the way don’t write about
this,” chances are I will write about it because deep down they want me
to.
So bars, office, campus, social media, restaurants,
dreams, news, elevators, pharmacies, bank queues…there is always someone saying
something worth writing about or at least worth mulling over.
Today, allow me to orient you, if you are thinking
of joining the club, on top five blogging platforms to help you start:
1. Blogger
Owned by Google, Blogger is easy to use and you can
instantly set it up in just 15 minutes. Blogger supports drag-and –drop,
template editing, dynamic updating, geo-tagging for location-based blogging,
and easy publication from editing tools.
2. Tumblr
It is a fusion between a
full-fledged blog and a Twitter feed. Known as short-form or micro-blogging,
its style of blogging focuses on short and frequent posts that are normally
longer that twitter updates but not as formal as a regular blog post. The ease
of set-up coupled with its informality is Tumblr’s winning combination for
non-committed bloggers.
3.
Wordpress
You have the option of
setting up a blog on your own server or creating a word-press-hosted blog.com. Wordpress
has themes, plug-ins and gadgets of all stripes.
4.
Squarespace
This is a commercial
blogging platform. It’s pricing is based almost entirely on volume and not on
the idea that the lower tier member don’t deserve all the cool toys the premium
members get.
5.
Open Diary
Started in 1988, the
blog has hundreds of thousands of diaries. It allows people tip sot comments on
others’ diary entries.
So, join the club that
has over the years helped to spark knowledge and ideas than any other publishing
innovation since the printing press was invented.
So, take a stop by my
blog sometime: Nairobi’z Blogazine
(nairobizblogazine.blogspot.com) and let us engage.
By Embukane Vincent Libosso.
