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Breakin into blogging
Speak your mind
by JEMIMA SHERPA
| FROM ISSUE # 131 (November 2006) | IN THIS ISSUE | |||
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1.2 The joy of blogging... Weblogging—blogging—which started about a decade ago as an alternative to mainstream media, is a huge phenomenon. There are more sophisticated blogs, too, which include podcasts (audio blogs), photoblogs and video blogs or vlogs. People blog about anything that interests them, from their day-to-day life to politics, the news, celebrities, their hobbies or food. You can even make your blogging pay through Google Adsense. Amazon.com offers about forty books with ideas on everything from what to put in your blog to attract readers, to tips to make them a viable source of income. There are even awards like the Bloggies. 1.1 ...for Nepal A search for "Nepali blogs" turns up a fair number of results, but most are politics or development-oriented. Many sprang up during last year's censorship crackdowns, so some prominent Nepali bloggers are also mainstream journalists, such as Dinesh Wagle (United We Blog!), who use the medium to push for democracy and change. As the highly popular mysansar.com's masthead explains, "It's not a news site, it's a blog." Others like blogdai are anonymous. It's a disappointing that more young Nepalis don't blog—it's an ideal medium to express yourself, especially if you're having trouble communicating your thoughts to a wider audience. You can blog about anything—getting through SLC, daily life in Dharan, studying or working abroad, the ups and downs of your love life. You can do it anonymously, just for the thrill of writing out to the world, or give friends and family the link so they can keep up with your life. It's fun, free, and fast. And someone out there wants to hear your voice. Our picks
Click on the 'random blog' feature on blogger.com. A 16-year-old Canadian is writing about the new posthumous Tupac Shakur album. A blog with hilarious reviews of Bollywood films is followed by one in French about cheese, another on the stock exchange, and then a 25-year-old Malaysian blogging about her job and relationships.
A blog is essentially a journal-style website, with regular entries or posts displayed in reverse chronological order. The content is determined by the site's author and generally has a mix of text, pictures and links to other websites.
Blogs have exploded in popularity because they're easy to maintain and access. The net offers loads of free blogging software options, including blogger.com, myspace, and LiveJournal, or blog options on online communities like Hi5, Bebo and Facebook.
(In their personal time, some WAVE staffers maintain their own blogs, including roninwords.blogspot.com and beautifuleveryday.blogspot.com.)
www.blog.com.np
www.blogdai.com
www.defectiveyeti.com
www.dooce.com
www.gofugyourself.com
www.halkhabar.blogspot.com
www.mindfartoro.blogspot.com
www.mysansar.com
www.nepali.blog.com
www.ohnotheydidnt.livejournal.com
www.parewa.com
www.postsecret.blogspot.com
www.ramblinround.blogspot.com
www.roninwords.blogspot.com
www.samudaya.org