The new trend of online entertainment in 2006, I can say it is Weblog. So sorry that I have not found the statistic to backup my conclusion but what are happening around me these days can prove the truth. One of my friends spend at least 15 minutes per day to find beautiful and impressive pictures and themes to decorate her personal blog and another feels totally disappointed when his new entry has no comment and even worse no visitor . You may say those are some of my friends only and it is just a particular phenomenon. That’s fine! But please visit some sites such as Myspace, Yahoo360o, Blogspot, etc. and compare the number of members today with that last week or even yesterday, you can see the difference. Prove it yourself!



Oops, maybe there are some people who feel this is a quite new so I will talk a little bit about the definition, alright? Weblog, or usually shortened to blog, is considered as a place providing commentary or news on a particular subject, such as entertainment, politics, local news and some function as more personal online diary. Let put it in a simple way, just imagine we have a notebook used as a diary and each page of the book is for each person and remember we now have an online book so the number of pages is unlimited. Some famous brand names of Weblog can be listed are: Livejournal, Blogspot, Yahoo 360o, MySpace, Mindsay, etc. A typical blog usually combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic. Most blogs are primarily textual but with high creativeness, many web bloggers can make their blogs much impressive with photograph (photoblog), video (vlog) and audio (podcasting).

What are the advantages of a blog if we do not want to say it is a waste of time and even money (for Internet and electricity)? Hmm, please careful! Here is what a blogger said: “A certificate which says you are a citizen of the 21st century". You may say it is an exaggeration but it is now a trend, you can tell! If we have more patience, let’s have a deeper look to see more from blogs and bloggers.

Make A Distinguished Blog, Just For Fun, And More

Generally, a blog is an e-diary. Why don’t people just buy a notebook and a pen and why do they publicize their personal life and open for even strangers? I can say that is the need of a friend network, free conversation and somehow a way to show “Me, myself and I". Look at my friends, she has been trying to make her blog look beautiful and he has been putting effort into his writings, all for getting as many visitors as possible.

I can see the personal blogs with detailed profile, creative decoration, daily update and specific subjects such as music, movie, poem, etc. have more views. Text cannot be replaced in personal blog but now people, especially teenagers, have more ways to make their blogs more attractive. Podcasting video clips/audio clips is an example. Many young people can share music and short movie by this way. Some record their own real life with a camera and then show up. Another way is posting voice instead of typing. With a voice recorder, one person can speak to a microphone, upload audio file and then link to his/her personal blog. With the creativeness and the need to be not monotonous everyday, a very impressive blogger uploads his audio-stories with different voices to describe his different mood and emotion. Getting to know him through his personal blog with loads of audio files, I found that he has been using a Voice Changer Software which changes his real voice to many different voices and sounds (male, female and even animals). The software also changes the singer’s voice in some music files he uploaded. Sound so interesting!

Monetize A Personal Blog

I had a very interesting talk with Helen Le, Sales and Marketing manager of a software company named Audio4fun.com last week. She shared that an incredible huge number of downloads of a funny sound available on her website just happened in one day and came from a personal blog on Myspace (she added this had never happened before and even the number of download from Google could not compare). My curiosity pushed me to view that blog and a lot of new interesting things popped up in my mind. More than 1 million of visitors are in her site is a wonderful number. Should people monetize their blog?

Maybe you criticize how people can always place commerce everywhere, even in a personal room. But that is a matter of life! With the above case, if Audio4fun.com can utilize that personal blog to build traffic and get more downloads to its site, it is a simple and not costly way.

I want to end up my writing here with an interesting idea about making money with personal blog from Steve Pavlina: “If you do decide to generate income from your blog, then don’t be shy about it. If you’re going to put up ads, then really put up ads. Don’t just stick a puny little ad square in a remote corner somewhere. If you’re going to request donations, then really request donations. Don’t put up a barely visible “Donate" link and pray for the best. If you’re going to sell products, then really sell them. Create or acquire the best quality products you can, and give your visitors compelling reasons to buy. If you’re going to do this, then fully commit to it. Don’t take a half-assed approach. Either be full-assed or no-assed."

Author:

Chris Martin – Copy Writer

huutrong@audio4fun.com