Do you 'get' blogging?

I had lunch with a good friend of mine today. My studies had ensured we hadn't spoken for a while and it was nice to be able to catch up on all the news from the world of real estate. As often happens these days the conversation turned to the Internet and he made the comment that he just wasn't excited about blogging. It's a comment I completely understand.

Around the middle of this year, I hadn't blogged a word. I knew about blogs at an intellectual level but that's as far as it went. My first post questioned how a small business could make use of a blog. I was openly skeptical.

The funny thing is that just a few months later I'm blogging like crazy and am excited about it. There's so many ways a blog can be used at both a personal and business level. If you want an some ideas visit Andy Wibbels.

What I've discovered about blogging is that it's an experiential learning process. Simply reading this post or Andy's blog will never explain blogging properly - or well. Blogging can only be understood by doing and being.

I hope my mate (and a bunch of other friends too) take up blogging. There's two reasons I have for this wish. Firstly. he'd make a damned fine blogger. As a thinker he's first class and his blog would be useful for his team, his customers, and his colleagues. Secondly, there are very few bloggers in the WA real estate market. By starting now he could steal a march on the competitors and be a real leader in the industry.

Now the test will be to see whether anyone has read my blogging tips on commenting.

Be an avid commenter

One of the best ways to get a feel for blogging is to be an active commenter on other people's blogs. Many people read blogs without commenting, and this is often called "lurking". Not a bad thing but it doesn't teach you much.

Blogs are all about conversation. A blog post is a conversation starter and a great post stimulates lots of comments. Often people who comment are in fact commenting on other people's comments; and that's one of the cool parts about blogging.

Some sites allow anonymous comments, others require you to enter your name (there's no need to use your real name), your email address (this helps authenticate you as a person), and sometimes a web address (this is where you put your blog address - it helps drive traffic back to your blog). Some sites are a bit more painful, requiring you to register as a user first. If it's a beaut blog it's worthwhile doing.

So there's the tip for today. Be an avid commenter.

You know what to do next.

Blogging for beginners

One of the first questions apprentice bloggers ask is, what do I do first? It's the first I asked and took me months to answer. There's a faster way. The trick is to start reading blogs - lots of them. If you want to read a blog about blogging then read ProBlogger. Darren is the guru of blogging. If you're interested in a soap opera style personal blog, read Penelope Trunk's Brazen Careerist. Finally, if you want something really trivial, read Perez Hilton. All have their own style and reading them will give you a sense of the style that will work best for you.

So there it is, my first blogging tip.

Read lots of blogs.