This document discusses blogging, including what a blog is, where to find blogs, how to create a blog, and how to write for the web. It defines a blog as a website usually maintained by an individual that displays posts in reverse-chronological order. It provides examples of places to find blogs, such as search engines, communities, platforms, and social networks. It also gives tips for creating a successful blog and discusses how writing for the web differs from traditional media by using a multi-dimensional structure rather than an inverted pyramid structure.

1. Blogging: Why and How§
Zakaria RMIDI
Casablanca Bloggers Program 2012

2. OUTLINE
 What is a blog?
 Where to find blogs?
 Blogs’ Search Engines.
 Blogs’ Communities.
 Web-based Blogging Platforms.
 Social networks.
 Create a blog
 Blogging platforms
 Writing for the web
 The Inverted Pyramid

3. What is a blog?

4. What is a blog?
 Blog a contraction of the term "web
log".
 Blogger is the person producing the blog.
 Blogging is when you create the blog by
posting an entry.

5. What is a blog?
 A blog tends to be a website.
 Usually maintained by an individual but
sometimes by a group of people.
 Posts are usually displayed in reverse-
chronological order.
 Entries includes text, images, videos and
audio material.

6. Where to find blogs?
 You can find blogs you want in:
1. Blogs’ Search Engines.
2. Blogs’ Communities.
3. Web-based Blogging Platforms.
4. Social networks.

7. Blogs’ search ingines
Technorati http://www.technorati.com/
Google Blog Search http://blogsearch.google.com/
BlogScope http://www.blogscope.net/
IceRocket http://www.icerocket.com/

8. Blogs Communities
 Blogs’ communities are usually web-based
platforms where thousands of blogs exist.
 These blogs are classified in term of
categories: culture, politics, media, life style,
literature, tourism, religion …etc.
 These categories connect blogs and bloggers
who share the same interest together.

9. Blogs Communities
 Blog Catalog http://www.blogcatalog.com/
 Blog Top Sites http://www.blogtopsites.com/
 Bloggapedia http://www.bloggapedia.com/
 Blogged http://www.blogged.com/
 Bloggernity http://www.bloggernity.com/

10. Web-based Blogging
Platforms
 Dozens of Blogs’ platforms are available online, for
free, where you can:
 Find blogs you like.
 Interact with blog authors.
 Share articles, pictures, videos…etc.
 Create your own blog.
- Blogger http://www.blogger.com/
- Bloglines http://www.bloglines.com/
- LiveJournal http://www.livejournal.com/
- WordPress http://wordpress.com/
- Over-Blog http://www.over-blog.com/
- Xanga http://www.xanga.com/

11. Social Networks
 You can also find blogs on social networks site
such as:
 Facebook
 Twitter
 MySpace
 StumbleUpon
 Digg

12. Create a blog
 To have a successful blog, think about:
1. The type of the content you want to deal with,
the way it is exposed, references and sources.
2. One main theme and focus on it.
3. The type of blog whether it is individual or
collective.
4. An appropriate platform.
5. An appropriate name for the blog.
6. An appropriate design for the blog.
7. A target audience to address.

13.  http://www.problogger.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/picture-
7.png

14.  Blogger and Wordpress are the most popular web-based
blogging platforms
 BLOGGER  WORDPRESS
 A blogging platform  Wordpress is an open-
provided by Google. It is source web-based and
easy to use and highly blogging platform
linked to a number of  It creates a back-up of
google services. your data and in case
 Because it is owned by you lose control of your
blog you can get it back.
a corporation like
google, it doesn’t make  With Wordpress you
own your blog and
you fully independent to nobody has the right to
own your blog. delete it even in the
case of a government
interference.

15. Writing for the
web

16. The Structure of Story-telling
 Traditional Media:
 The traditional journalistic writing is based on a
linear story-telling. It is often called “The
Inverted Pyramid”.
 This structure of story-telling gives to the
reader a summary lead and details in
descending order of importance.

17. The Inverted Pyramid
1- The lead paragraph. It
1- Main 5 points answers the questions: what?
of the article (WH When? Where? Why? How?
questions)
2- Further
2- More important information
essential about the topic.
information.
3- Less
essential 3- Additional relevant
details. information to the topic.

18. • What is the story? What happened?
What? • An event (an accident, a festival, a murder, a concert, a conference…)
• Where did the story take place?
Where? • The street, a stadium, a university, a hotel, an administration…
• When did the story happened?
When? • Yesterday, last week, last year, this morning, in the evening…
• Why did it happen? The causes and the reasons behind the story.
Why?
• How did it happen? The way the story took place.
How?

19. The Structure of Story-telling
 Online Media:
 The story-telling adopts a multi-dimensional
structure (Hypertext) in online newspapers and
blogs.
 It deconstructs the linear story-telling process to
reconstruct it again into series of independent
elements, but still related.
 It helps building contextual links among ideas.
 It allows the reader to pick his/her own path
through the story.
 It allows the writer to express his thoughts without
being devoted to a specific order.

20. The Structure of Story-telling
 Paragraphs on blogs should be relatevily short
and include no more than 2 or 3 sentences.
 Each paragraph should contain a single idea.
 The idea should be presented at the beginning
of the block of text.

22. THANK
YOU