Your Writing and Blogs

A Blog (or Weblog) is a bit like a newspaper column that can be written by anyone, anywhere, with nothing more than an internet connection and something to say.

It can include photographs, video clips, audio or just plain text but more often than not there will be at least one or more links in every post.

The other thing a blog has, and is fairly important is a comment box, the chance for other bloggers or just interested people to comment on what you have to say.

Blogging has grown from haunt of the geek to almost mainstream in the last few years with most major newspapers, tv channels, radio stations and politicians launching their own blogs fairly recently.

A blog doesn’t have to be a long term, on going project; it can be about an event or occasion, something that only runs for a day, a week, a month or even a year.

An extreme example of a short term blog would be our Election Night blogs that were literally just there for election night or, for a slightly longer period - another example would be the Island Games Blog written by Matthew Price.

So do you blog?

If you’ve made it this far you probably want to find out more, are a glutton for punishment or already have your own blog and want a bit of promotion.

The bbc.co.uk/jersey website is on the hunt for Jersey Bloggers, whether you’re already a blogger looking for promotion or someone with an opinion looking for help.

We want to launch a new regular feature, the Jersey Weblog Watch where we will look around posts by Jersey Bloggers and report on their thoughts, feelings and ideas on the major stories of the week.

So if you are a blogger or want help setting up your own blog use the form below.

Setting up a blog

There are many different ways of setting up a blog - a blog is nothing more than text on a page with a date attached.

However - to make things easier there are a number of blogging platforms and services that make it easy for you to get started.

A popular one among local bloggers is Google's Blogspot - you fill out a couple of forms and then it's down to you to get writing.

You could also use Wordpress - this services gives you two options 1) a download that you can install on your own website or 2) a hosted version that works in the same way as Blogspot.

The best way to get started is to type the word you want to register for your blog (for example: iloveflowersalot) followed by wordpress.com or blogspot.com into your web browser - if that name is available it will invite you to register it.

If the name isn't available you'll need to try a different word. Just follow the instructions on screen and that will be you blogging.

There are hundreds of different blogging platforms to choose from and even more designs and themes to suit your own tastes and needs.

But at its heart - blogging is little more than typing words on a page about things you are interested in. If you regularly comment on here - why not blog your thoughts as well.