1. Decoding the Blogosphere
Seemingly today, everyone has their own Blog. Blogging sites are no longer the stereotypical
simple diary of events, or "Web Logs" that they used to be, they have evolved into full
content management systems, you may have heard this abbreviated to CMS before.
A CMS is basically a repository of information, database driven and as user friendly as it
gets! But before we get too much into the specifics of Blog sites today, let’s go over a little
Blog history and defuse that old stereotype that Blogs are just for geeks!
The Evolution of Blog Sites
Blog sites are a relatively new phenomenon; in fact the term “Blog” was not a recognized
term at all until the late 90s. Let’s travel back a little further to 1983 (did the Internet even
exist back then?!?). The first idea of a Blog we can find was a site created by Brian E.
Redman, and was literally a simple diary of posts relating to other interesting things going on
around the Internet. That Blog (mod.ber) is long gone, but the ideas and concepts provided
by this resource helped to frame the infrastructure of Blog sites today.
Let’s fast forward now to the mid 1990s. This “diary of posts” had certainly gained popularity.
They were better known as online journals, and in 1997 – “Weblogs” – a simple log of events
recorded on the Web. So how did we get from Weblogs to Blogs? We have a gentleman by
the name of Peter Merholz to thank for that, in December of 1999. He jokingly broke Weblog
into two words – “We Blog” and thus the term Blog was born!
The late 90s were when Blogging really started to become more mainstream. A couple of
huge Blog sites you may have heard of before were both established in 1999, Live Journal
and Blogger (purchased by Google in 2003). By 2004-2005 Blogging had blossomed into a
global phenomenon; it seemed that everyone wanted to Blog. And not just the stereotypical
“Geek” crowd either. Major political figures, news stations, celebrities, even government
agencies began to embrace blog sites.
By Oct 2011, there were a staggering 173,000,000 Blog sites as tracked by NM Incite (and
probably a heck of a lot more that weren’t tracked!!)
Why did Blogging Become so Popular?
There used to be a time when in order to get your own website, you had to have a degree in
HTML and own expensive Web Design software like Dreamweaver or FrontPage, or pay
someone with this experience and tools thousands of dollars to create one for you.
With Blogs however, you need neither. In fact, throughout this Blog we will be taking a look at
quite a few 3rd party Blog sites, such as WordPress and Squidoo, which cost absolutely

2. nothing to create your very own Blog, and are extremely simple to setup. So there are 2
governing factors here, price and expertise.
Another important note I wanted to stress. Blogs ARE Websites, and that’s a notion some
people still struggle with. Blogs of old really used to be just a diary of daily events or some
kind of journal. Today they host hundreds of categories, a full commenting system, spam
protection, integration with social media sites like Facebook and Twitter alongside being
capable of supporting a complete eCommerce business – shopping carts and automated
checkouts included!
So, if you’re still put off by what Blogs were, don’t be. Today Blog sites can do far more than
your traditional HTML website could ever do at a tiny fraction of the cost. What’s more, they
do so with relatively no experience or knowledge required!