To Join a Blogging Site or Not to Join
Joining an established
blogging site like live journal or
blogger has plenty of advantages,
especially for the blog
novice. Sites that host a lot of
different blogs often have
very useful tutorials about
building and updating your
blog, and you are likely to
encounter a very user-
friendly software interface at an
established blogging
site. In addition, these sites
provide a kind of instant
community of fellow bloggers who
can provide advice,
insight, and feedback. These
established sites often
keep directories of their members,
which can be great
news for your traffic logs because
it means that other
bloggers on the site will find out
about your pages.
However, there are also some
downsides to linking up
with a large blogging site. By
posting within the
established templates of a site
like blogger, you run the
risk of having your blog look and
feel like everybody
else's. The blogging movement is
very much about the
creation of distinctive sites and
the development of
individual voices, so it makes
plenty of sense that many
bloggers would shy away from the
cookie-cutter look
and feel that these blogging sites
often promote. Many
bloggers feel that the content of
a blog is what makes it
distinctive, not the look of the
blog, but many members
of the blogging community feel
that the visual impact
of a blog should match the
originality of the writing.
