Before you start writing your blog, check out blogs that are on the internet and see how other writers are doing it. Find blogs on your topic and see what others authors are doing. Where do you find other blogs? Fortunately, there are blog directories and search engines galore on the Internet to help you with this problem. They can help you find exactly the blog you are looking for. I have sampled ten of them for you below:

1. www.blogcatalog.com Simple to use, thousands of blogs are listed here and can be accessed by topic or simply searched by keyword. This site also has numerous discussions about a variety of topics. And, as you might expect, you can also submit your blog here to be listed.

2. www.bloggernity.com Billing itself as a a blog search engine directory, this site divides blogs up into some thirty categories. It also offers blog hosting services.

3. www.bloghub.com Bloghub says it is an online directory and community where members from around the world gather here and exchange ideas. An unusual feature of this site is that it is categorized by hundreds of countries.

4. www.blogarama.com This site simply advertises that it has over 65,000 blogs to search through. It is very straightforward with no frills.

5. www.blogsearchengine.com An interesting feature of this site is that it partners with Google. Therefore, your searches will result not only in blogs but in other websites that may be of interest to you.

6. www.portal.eatonweb.com This site not only categorizes blogs, but it also attempts to rank them by such things as strength, momentum, rising stars and sinking fast.

7. www.globeofblogs.com This is a very straightforward listing of thousands of logs in a variety of countries around the world.

8. www.blogtagstic.com This site offers search capability by blog tags and also boasts quite a number of partner companies.

9. www.blogexplosion.com/directory - With a number of different ways to search for blogs, this site also has a podcast directory as well as a cache of blog tools.

10. www.bloglisting.net This site boasts that it is the fastest growing blog directory on the Internet. With so many ways to choose and find a blog, what should you consider in a blog as you look at these sites?

The way the sites themselves are organized gives us a clue:

A. Subject This is the most logical place to start. What is the subject you are interested in? Is it a general category, or would you be more interested in a discussion involving a more detailed subset of the category?

B. Country/locale Some people want to be talking with people from their own location, first and foremost. You may also start here, and look for a subject within the particular country you have chosen. Often, if you are looking at the United States, you may even be able to get down to the state level.

C. Popularity You may feel adventurous and simply want to look at blogs that everyone else is looking at! In that case, look for blogs that are ranked highly and are drawing crowds.

D. Audience Many of the blog directories list personal blogs, some categorized by age, lifestyle, etc.