Posts Tagged ‘e-mail’

When the Web was young, publishing your thoughts online required some work. You needed access to a web server. You needed to understand the ins and outs of HTML, the markup language that tells a browser what to make bold, italic, or a link. People who had something to say could get that server access, learn HTML, and publish their thoughts for anyone to read.

Then came programs like Dreamweaver, making creation of an HTML document as easy as typing a paper in Word; and sites like GeoCities, which offered free website hosting for the masses. this was a step in the right direction, but Dreamweaver and its contemporaries priced some would-be publishers out of the business and still had a bit of a learning curve that could be intimidating to some.

Then blogs started showing up. To publish a blog (short for weblog), an individual needed only to set up an account with a provider like Blogger, LiveJournal, WordPress, or TypePad. Now you could just type your thoughts into a box, press publish, and presto–you officially became a member of the blogosphere. As you added more posts they would index by date and subject; visitors could even leave comments and keyword search your blog with no extra work on your end. Things just worked.

Easy enough, right? Well, last week it got even easier.

Posterous is a new, free blogging service that makes blogging as simple as sending an e-mail. Seriously. Type a message to post@posterous.com. Attach files, even. Don’t forget a subject line–that will be the title of your first post. In a moment you’ll have a blog of your own, ready for the world to see. From here you can do a few optional things to customize your blog, but for all intents and purposes you’re officially a blogger. Congratulations!

So now that you have no technical reason to not blog, let’s talk about content. Most people say, “Nobody cares what I have to say.” Write for yourself, then. Blogs are great tools for self-reflection. Did you see a documentary that really made you think? Write about it in your blog. Maybe you had a big revelation at work today? Blog it! You might be surprised that there are others out there interested in what you think, and who want to talk about the same things you do.

Here are some ideas to get your blog rolling:

• Going to the SIM Conference in a few weeks? At the end of each day (or more often if you’re so inclined) write what you took away from each session you attended.
• Reading a good book? Each time you set the book down, take a few minutes to jot your thoughts about it in your blog. (If you’re a student, this is an easy way to create indexed, keyword searchable notes on your reading!)
• Did something thought-provoking or just plain cool happen at school or work today? Share it in your blog, then spend some time later looking back at the event and thinking about its relevance.
• Type meeting notes into a blog, and share the post with others in attendance.

There you go–visit Posterous now to set up your blog, and start sharing! Share links to your blogs, whether they’re through Posterous or another service, in the comments below.

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