Blogging

Blogging is a form of online diary, news, or other regularly updated matter. Blogging utilizes blogging software, which started being widely available in 1999. Blogging software is a suite of files installed on a website that enables the automatic posting and organization of single posts, or articles, without having to know HTML or web design and without having to upload a new file each time.

Blogs are fun. Most of the social networking sites I just mentioned include blogging capabilities. Blog posts can simply contain text—a quick note about a trip you recently took—or can offer an embedded video or an MP3 download of the music you used in the video.

If you don't want to blog on MySpace or Facebook, numerous dedicated blogging services exist, including the following:

WordPress is the most popular blogging software, especially with YouTubers. WordPress lets you embed your blog on your own web server space. (Your own server space will cost you a little extra money, but it's worth it; we'll talk about that in the next section.) WordPress will also host your blog for you for free, but it sticks pop-up ads on your site, and it doesn't share that revenue with you. I recommend hosting on your own server. This gives you more control and eliminates the possibility that you'll lose all your work and the web address you've worked so hard to build, should the hosting company go out of business or start charging a lot more for the same services.

Most YouTubers' blogs consist of embedding their YouTube videos in addition to writing text entries and uploading photos about the making of a particular video, a travel journal while attending YouTube gatherings (see Chapter 12), or other special events. You could also include downloadable versions of your videos, pictures, music, or anything else you create inside or outside of YouTube.

Blog posts are also much easier for search engines to index than videos are. Search engines love to read but can't view videos. The words you use in your videos' descriptions and tags help, sure, but blog posts will typically rank higher in search results than videos on the same topic. That said, embedding your YouTube video, and including a short text post with it about the video, is a great way to promote the video via search engines while offering readers a little behind-the-scenes treat in your text post.

Most blogs automatically ping search engines, sending out a little bit of data telling them to read a new post as soon as you hit the Publish button. A post on a WordPress blog can show up in a Google search within minutes, whereas it can take weeks for Google (and other search engines) to find a new post on a nonblog website simply by following links.

Michael wrote a great article on blogging software and video blogging. It's called "Put Your Videos on OTHER People's iPods." The article was originally a sidebar in this book but had to be cut for length. You can find it on the O'Reilly Digital Media site:

http://tinyurl.com/6pfuls (URL 10.9)