What's so great about a blog?

A blog is a channel for you to connect with the world. A connection - a means of communication - where you can speak your mind on various issues that concern you. This is especially great for aspiring writers to sharpen their skills, and develop a bond and possibly an audience for future works.

As you might have realized, a weblog is also a fairly decent way of earning a little extra on the internet. However, it's not particularly easy - in fact, although 48% of bloggers are in it for the money, I'm pretty sure most of them don't receive a dime (due to time constraints and pageranks, and other factors that affect blogs). Hopefully, you will be the minority in this case and make enough money to get by (at least to support your blog's domain and hosting, if not more).

Blogs are also a great way to become an expert on something. I realize that I've discovered much more about technology as well as paid much more attention to certain things in music that I had never noticed before (I have two blogs, one for each of the niches).

If you despise writing, then I'd seriously reconsider getting a blog. If you're not a great writer, it's alright - in fact, I'm still not too great a writer, but I'm working towards it. If you've got inspiration, try not to rush headfirst into things.

And just one last piece of advice: as my cousin told me, "Blog and have fun first and everything else (for example, money, fame, etc) will come right along. Don't lose track of those priorities." Um, if you're blogging for business though, that might not apply to you.

What is a blog?

First and foremost, if you're going to start a weblog, you're certainly going to need to know what it is.

A blog (a portmanteau of web log) is a website where entries are written in chronological order and commonly displayed in reverse chronological order. "Blog" can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog

And that would pretty much cover a rough definition of the term "weblog" or "blog". Of course, that's not all there is to it. The substantial difference (as far as I can see) between a weblog and a website is the content: usually, weblogs contain much more commentary (opinions) as opposed to a website carrying much more information (facts).

A common misconception is that blogs are just online diaries and journals - and I agree, a majority of blogs are such. However, there are also a good chunk of blogs dedicated to political, technological, and entertainment commentary and such.

If you're in it for the money, I suggest you avoid the personal blog niche. Sure, it might work wonders for your mind and serve as great therapy, but no one really wants to read about complete stranger's lives (usually).

If you want to learn more about blogs, just do a simple Google search; they are growing exponentially much more popular both as a means to get your voice heard as well as a reliable way to earn money. If you want a little more substance right now, I suggest you take a look at ProBlogger.net, a site which I've found very informative.

Weblog Lounge - where you need to be.

Blogging is still a relatively new concept introduced into the internet (let alone the world), and the fact that blogging can be a career is yet even sparser. Weblog Lounge is dedicated to help you bloggers out with many of the simple questions, such as:

• What's a blog?
• What's so great about a blog?
  
• How do I start a blog?
• How much do I need to start a blog?
• How do I write a post?
• How can I get more visitors to my blog?
• How do I start earning money for my blog (I know, I've got your attention now)?

I'll be focusing particularly on the last topic, partly because I'm relatively new to blogging myself and I lack an important aspect - experience.

So buckle up - you're in for a wild ride. Check back constantly for new updates and such!