If you can write an e-mail, you can write a blog. Everyone is blogging about various issues: Food, politics, news, fashion, photography, design, travel, etc… Unlike websites, blogs are interactive. The following presentation prepared by Think Media Labs will help you get in the loop of blogging and of how to start and improve a successful blog.

1. Blogs and
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blogging

2. What is a blog?
• A blog is a website with descriptive
entries, commentary, pictures, and video.
• Topics: display of your creative
work, events you participated
in, something you saw, exploring a
passion, documenting your life, sharing
information, news,...
• Prerequisites: If you can write an e-
mail, you can write a blog. No software
necessary.

3. Anatomy
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of a blog

4. What is a blog?
• A blog = a web + a log
• A blog is a website that is frequently
updated, with the most recent entry on top
• Blogging is now the most popular online
personal publishing platform
• Blog authors, known as bloggers, can write
about anything
• According to Wikipedia, as of 16 February
2011, there were over 156m public blogs

5. • Blogs are interactive to distinguish them
from websites
• Visitors can leave comments
• Blogs appear in different forms and are
based on a template
• Basic templates are free. More refined
ones are bought for an annual fee
• The most popular blog hosts are
WordPress and Blogger

6. • Layout can be as simple or
sophisticated as the author chooses
• Typical design: title banner at the top, a
side bar and the content taking up the
remainder of the space
• Sidebar includes an “About me,” an
archive of past posts in date order, and
anything the author wants to add
• Blogs can display text, images, audio
and video

8. Types of blogs:
• News
• Personal diary
• Specialized subject
• Aggregator
• Fashion
• Food
• Sports
• Photography…
Blogs can be linked to each other and to Web
pages

9. Website
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vs.
Blog

10. A website and a blog are not the same:
Blog
• Content is regularly updated
• Not formal
• Interactive
• Informative and educational
• Interactivity about industry/customer
issues
• Some people have a blog

11. Website
• Content is static
• Formal/professional
• Interactivity does not exist. There is only
one-way communication
• Transactional
• Communication about products and/or
services
• Almost everyone has a website. In fact, it
is almost a requirement in business today

12. The diversity
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of blogs

13. • The impact of blogs has been growing
• It is affecting the mainstream media
and is widely acknowledged by
governments
• Newspapers, magazines and television
-- labeled “old media” -- have been
suffering as a result of the growing
number of blogs
• Bloggers sharing and connecting
information in real time and are quicker

14. Political blogs
• Since 2002, and with the invasion and
war on Iraq in 2003, blogs gained in
political momentum as a way of
covering the news in a non-
conventional way
• One of the first political blogs in the
region to address a wide international
audience and make a big impact was
“Where is Raed” by Iraqi Salam Pax

16. Aggregator blogs

17. Blogs that lead to books

18. Photography blog

19. Technology blog

20. Food blog

21. Activist blog

22. • A four-hour training will never be enough
to go through 156 million + blogs
• The idea, however, is to look at the
development and impact blogs are having
on traditional media, marketing and PR
• There is a blog for practically every
subject, from personal, corporate, genre…
• The community of all blogs is the
blogosphere

23. Blogging and advertising
• Blogs can be monetized (?)
• Some feature advertisements for
financial gain or to promote a cause
• Some companies create a fake blog
to promote a product

24. Blogging for a cause

25. Blogging code of conduct
• Take responsibility for what you write
• Don’t say something online that you
wouldn’t offline
• Do not use abusive language
• Eliminate anonymous comments

26. v