This document defines blogs and discusses their origins, popularity, types, platforms, and considerations for starting a blog. Some key points: - Blogs are websites composed of posts by single or multiple authors that may contain text, images, videos and other media. They can be personal, academic or professional. - Modern blogs evolved from online diaries. Justin Hall was an early blogger who started in 1994. Blog popularity increased with the introduction of blog tools that allowed reader comments. - Popular blog types include personal blogs, corporate blogs, microblogs like Twitter, collaborative blogs, and genre blogs on topics like politics, travel or beauty. Popular platforms include WordPress, Blogger, and Medium. - Fact

1. Blogs
CA420 Social Media & Mobile Phone Communication
2018
Zuleika Winfrey

2. Definition
• Weblog was coined by John Barger in
1997.
• Blog was coined by Peter Merholz in
1999.
• The term blog is a contraction of web
log.
• Blog: noun = a web log
• Blog: verb = posting content on a blog
site

3. Description
• Blogs are sites on the world wide web
that comprise posts published by single
or multiple authors.
• These posts may contain information in
the form of text, images, videos,
photographs, audio files and links to
other web pages.
• Blogs may be created for personal,
academic or professional purposes.

4. For example
• The cake blog as the name suggests, is
all about cakes. The author of this blog
is very passionate about cakes. This
blog has delicious cake recipes, cake
ideas, cake photos, plus cake tips and
tricks!

5. Origins
• Modern day blogs evolved from online
diaries where personal life entries were
documented.
• Online diary authors referred to
themselves as diarists and journalists
etc..
• Justin Hall is one of the early bloggers
who started blogging in 1994 as a
student at Swarthmore College.

6. Popularity
• Blog popularity intensified following
the innovation of blog tools.
• Open Diary, launched in 1998 by Bruce
Ableson, was the first platform to add
reader comments to author’s blog
entries.
• Blogging can be a very powerful
communication tool.

7. • In 2002, the importance of blogs was
recognized after content on blogs
created a political crisis that forced US
Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott to
step down.
• Blogging is considered a filter-free way
of communicating directly with the
public. (think:Martyn Namorong)
• Many professional journalists maintain
their own personal blogs (e.g. Scott
Waide).

8. Controversial Case
• Sometimes personal blogging may
affect your professional life.
• Example – Queen of sky: diary of a flight
attendant
(refer to URL resource on Moodle page)

9. Types
• Personal blogs
• Corporate blogs
• Microblogs (e.g. Twitter)
• Collaborative blogs (many authors)
• Media blogs (vlogs, linklogs, photoblogs,
sketchblogs etc)
• Genre blogs (politics, journalism, health,
travel, fashion, beauty, education,
psychology etc.)

10. Platforms
• WordPress
• Joomla!
• A quick primer
• Squarespace
• Posthaven
• Ghost
• Kirby
• Blogger
• Tumblr
• Silvrback
• Svbtle
• Medium
• Jekyll
• Anchor
• Contentful
• Tinypress
• Postach.io

11. Examples
• My Land My Country, Scott Waide
• Tinkering thoughts, Picky Airi
• Keith Jackson and friends: PNG Attitude, Keith
Jackson
• Nineteen years and counting in PNG, Nancy
Sullivan
• Flipped classroom tutorials, Sethi De Clercq
• Zuleika Winfrey’s teacher tales, Zuleika Winfrey

12. More examples
Food
• Sprouted
Kitchen
• Cakey Boi
• Love and
Lemons
• Coffee and
Vanilla
• George Eats
Beverage
• Vinography
• Drink Hacker
• Taste Tequila
• Notey
Milkshakes
Photography
• Fstoppers
• No film school
• SLR Lounge
• Ken Kaminesky
• Eric Kim
Beauty
• Rouge 18
• Honestly Jamie

13. What to Consider
• Type of blog (personal, corporate etc.)
• Purpose of blog
• Blog features (social sharing, commenting system, photo
galleries, author’s contact, widgets etc.)
• Personal genre blogs are often created to document what the
author is passionate about (remember The Cake Blog example)
• Target audiences (who are you blogging for?)
• Title of blog (catchy, reflective of blog)
• Site address (domain name should somewhat correspond to
blog title)
• Blog platform or content management system
• Website hosting (free plan or paid plan)
• How often can you publish content?
• Site licensing (copyright or creative commons)

14. Questions
Do you have any questions?
Ask here!