By the time you finish reading this, another 367 blogs will have been created, including, in all probability, one by a close relative of yours.
I arrive at that number the way people tend to do in the so-called “blogosphere”: by making up something that sounds plausible and assuming it won’t be challenged.
The point here is that everybody, their cousin and, quite possibly, your mother now blogs. With more than 25 million of these online journals by one count, it’s the hottest DIY trend since dipping a sponge in paint and making your walls look like they’ve got a rash.
It’s also proven more powerful, lasting and important than early naysayers–myself included–thought. People, it turns out, have been just aching to publish, and a whole lot of them are willing to do it regularly for little or no compensation. In the process, they’re influencing products, policing the press and attempting, at least, to shake up this country’s ossified political traditions.
But I’m getting ahead of myself here. Starting a blog is a snap.
Step 1: Find a host.
You can go through a pay service like TypePad (www.typepad.com), which hosts my (bancodeprofissionais.com/johnson) and other Tribune blogs. That’ll cost you a minimum of about $50 a year. Pay services tend to include more features, such as design flexibility and extra storage space.
Or you can go through a free service like Blogger (www.blogger.com), owned by Google, and achieve much the same ends. Each, and many others, provides a choice of designs and easy formatting for headlines, blog items, comments and more.
Step 2: Name your blog.
For the purposes of this story, I just started a new blog on Blogger called Infinite Monkey Theorem, after my longtime fascination with (skepticism about) the idea that a million monkeys and a million typewriters will eventually produce a Shakespearean play.
Step 2a: Check your blog’s name.
After I created the title, I found that someone else on Blogger had one called “The Infinite Monkey Theorem.” Too close for comfort, so I switched mine to “1000 Monkeys” (www.1000monkeys.blogspot.com).
Step 3: Blog.
In about four minutes, I had my first posting up, literate but definitely not Shakespeare. By answering the questions the Blogger site asked me, I even had an ad account set up that will allow me to share with Google the revenue from all the ad clicks my new blog generates.
This won’t be much, of course, unless you get a whole lot of visitors. The easiest way to do that is to write about celebrities or post pictures of them naked. If you’re going to try the latter, you’d best be a lawyer or a lawyer’s spouse.
Step 4: Do not let your blog take over your life.
Say what you have to say, publish it, and hope for response. Do not get discouraged when the world doesn’t beat a path to your URL. There are many well-established bloggers who did it for years before they were discovered. Use the time to hone your craft. To generate interest, send your postings around to those you think might be interested. And be sure to include me in your blogroll, please.
Chicago blogger meetup
What: Blogging–an activity often pursued in one’s home in one’s underwear–doesn’t have to be anti-social. Chicago Bloggers, a group of, well, bloggers, gets together monthly to learn about new online publishing tools and chat about the blogosphere.
When: The next meeting is scheduled for 6:15 p.m. Feb. 21.
Where: Columbia College Chicago, 33 E. Congress, 2nd floor, Room 219
For more info: 312-344-8909 or blog.meetup.com/351. And to stay up-to-date on all regional blogging goings-on, visit www.chicagobloggers.com.
———-
sajohnson@tribune.com
