Can you remember a time before blogging?
Although it seems that the weblog has become as much as part of our lives as newspapers, they’ve only been around since 1994.
Before blogging became popular, digital communities took many forms, including Usenet, commercial online services such as GEnie, BiX and the early CompuServe, e-mail lists and Bulletin Board Systems (BBS).
In the 1990s, Internet forum software transformed the net by creating running conversations with ’threads’.
The first blog…
The modern blog evolved from the online diary, where people would keep a running account of their personal lives. This was practiced initially by journalists and diarists. Justin Hall, who began personal blogging in 1994 while a student at Swarthmore College, is generally recognised as one of the earliest bloggers.
Dave Winer’s Scripting News is also credited with being one of the oldest and longest running weblogs. Another early blog was Wearable Wireless Webcam, an online shared diary of a person’s personal life combining text, video, and pictures transmitted live from a wearable computer and EyeTap device to a web site in 1994.
Early blogs were simply manually updated components of common Web sites. However, the evolution of tools to facilitate the production and maintenance of Web articles posted in reverse chronological order made the publishing process feasible to a much larger, less technical, population.
After a slow start, blogging rapidly gained in popularity.
Blog usage spread during 1999 and the years following, being further popularised by the near-simultaneous arrival of the first hosted blog tools including Open Diary, LiveJournal and Blogger (launched in 1999 and purchased by Google in February 2003).*
Recipes for success
Nowadays, most successful businesses have a blog, and there is as wide a variety of subjects covered as there are humans and hobbies. The most popular blogs seem to focus on celebrity news, politics and technical reviews, primarily because these sites capture specific demographics of readers, and cater to their tastes.
Opening blogging up to all
The confessional blog came along and demonstrated that anyone, anywhere, can create a successful blog. Housewives and husbands, hobbyists and enthusiasts have all made an impact with their writing, even when ostensibly it would appear there would be little to say. Some of the funniest and most engaging blogs focus on everyday life, cataloguing the highlights and disasters of regular people doing regular things. While these journals will never hit the top spots for viewing popularity, they still generate a wide enough readership to create a great income.
Creating a niche
In a world where we are bombarded by blogs, how are we supposed to make an impact? The truth is, it is hard to build up a following and become successful through your blog.
However, it is still possible.
By writing interesting, engaging copy and paying attention to your customer requirements, you can still use the blog to both earn an income, and promote your services.
* Statistics and information for this entry has been unashamedly stolen from Wikipedia!
When did you start blogging? Please share your views in the comments below. Thanks.
____________________________________________________________________________
Andrew is highly knowledgeable about blogs and very customer service focused. I knew nothing about blogs and Andrew was very kind, patient, pleasant to work with, receptive and responsive. Work was delivered in timely manner and if I need anything done for blog again I would use Andrew. If you are looking for quality work, excellent customer service and someone that really gets YOU and your needs, I recommend Andrew!.
I happened to stumble upon Andrew's website (WeBuildYourBlog.com) while searching for blogging services that would help me start my very own blog. I was a total newbie when it came to the blogging world. Fast forward 3 months and not only do I have my own awesome blog, but friends and family are actually asking me how to start their own blog and I am able to set their blogs up for them! In only 3 months under Andrew's guidance I went from total newbie to being sought after. Thanks Andrew!
I
was impressed with the excellent service. 
I have been online since 1996 and in that time I have been involved in the development of almost 400 web sites for my clients. I have worked with a wide variety of vendors and I have to tell you that Andrew @ We Build Your Blog has far exceeded my expectations. In addition to his vast knowledge and expertise, he is a genuinely great guy, who always goes the extra mile. I highly recommend him, in fact I only recommend him now for web development.
Andrew
at WeBuildYourBlog.com is the most responsive and flexible person
I've worked with.
The best blog builder, and the best blog maintenance, I've ever met is Andrew Rondeau. This fellow is an authentic professional in every sense of the word. He's lightning fast, knowledgeable, competent, a skilled listener. He goes the extra mile. He's able to share his passion for his work and products without being pushy. He as other great internet skills, too, but his most impressive attribute is mastery of website building.
I was introduced to Andrew by a dear friend Corinne Edwards and Andrew as transformed by blog in ways that have reaped results. My membership has gone up and my blog always looks clean and easy to read. Whenever I send Andrew a request to check out - it's ALWAYS prompt and easy to understand. In my humble opinion he is the BEST when it comes to knowledge of the blogging world.
Having worked with Andrew on and off over the last year, I have found him to be very patient, helpful and easy to work with. He is also very knowledgeable, supportive and a true expert.
Andrew is an asset to our ongoing website and social media needs. He responds quickly, accurately, and cost effectively. Andrew plays a consultative role in many aspects to our online needs.
I
am very happy to provide a testimonial for Andrew Rondeau. All the parts of
the process of working with Andrew were a pleasure. He clarified what I was
wanting and he delivered it without fuss. He was courteous and prompt in all
his dealings with me. I have no hesitation in recommending Andrew to anyone
who wants work done on their blog.
I
approached Andrew in February 2010, because I needed to enhance the way I communicated
my business. 
I've spent insane amounts of money in the past with former webmasters until I discovered Andrew Rondeau.
I wanted a stylish website that presented my original abstract art in a visually attractive way. Andrew came highly recommended to me as a "no nonsense" practitioner. He does exactly what he says he will do: I give him the parameters to work within and he provides a quick and precise service. You will receive nothing but the best from Andrew!
Without Andrew, I wouldn't even have a blog -- I would still just be sitting here, staring at my computer, feeling confused and helpless. With Andrew, I no longer fear confusion and it's impossible to feel helpless. He exerts any and all necessary efforts to resolve any problem or perplexity -- quickly, kindly, intelligently, up to and including IM exchanges in real time via skype. I would urge anyone at any level of expertise (or not) to make the most of his extraordinary talent.
The
end result is a fantastic site that is attracting a lot more attention
and visitors than my old one.
Andrew
has extensive knowledge about internet marketing, SEO and building web
sites/blogs. His course explained everything in an easy to understand
way and I now have a web site that is generating me new clients and
producing income from internet product sales.
Andrew
is highly knowledgeable about blogs, and you can get your blog up and running
successfully and fast. Andrew has helped me immeasurably with
my blog and he is patient and good natured and a wonderful teacher. 
Andrew is the real deal and he knows his stuff! His customer service is superb and he gets your work done FAST! You won't need to wait around for endless weeks to see results. Most importantly he works on the site as if it's his own, thus you are assured that you will get the best quality service. I now give Andrew all of my new and old sites to work on. Trust me; you cannot go wrong with this gentleman!
Thank you Andrew for your patience in getting my website and on-line courses on-line and selling. You were fantastic in learning the delivery platform software that I had chosen and you were across the complexities quickly. Your detailed approach in setting guidelines and deliverables bought my focus back to where it should be and got the job done. Thank you for all your efforts it was a pleasure.
Andrew Rondeau is the genius behind http://www.webuildyourblog.com.
Andrew was kind enough to offer up his own time as part of an initiative to make the world a better place, and I was one of the beneficiaries of that effort. He spent an hour with me working on improving my bounce rate; he suggested several helpful strategies. Most importantly, he helped me with some key processes to help speed up my site, which had bogged down considerably with overuse of graphics. Andrew helped me get set up with Rackspace, which helped so much. From a load time of almost 30 seconds, the site sped up to about a 6 second load. Thanks so much, Andrew!
Hi, Andrew Rondeau here and this blog, my blog, will not lie to you. I will give it to you straight.This blog is about blogging, the Internet and sharing my experiences and advice on
I’ve been blogging for less than than six months so I’ll trust your version of blogging history. I’ll do a followup to this post in another decade or so
Jean Sarauer recently posted..How to Get Off the Meltdown City Express
Twitter: andrewrondeau
Jean,
Would be interested to see if blogging is still around in 10 years and…I wonder want you’d write if it is!
Andrew
Andrew recently posted..Link Building Campaign- Why Is It Important
Hi Andrew -
Just started my 4th year of blogging. What a ride!
Got into it by accident. I had a business client who was a blogger and I had no real idea what a blog was.
Fortunately, she had an interview coming up on a radio station and she sent me the questions she had submitted to them.
It was to explain about blogging.
Nobody would have known what she was talking about. So I suggested
“Let me do the questions for you.”
I started with -
What is a blog?
What is the difference between a blog and a web page?
Why would anyone want to have a blog?
Etc etc etc
After I heard her interview I thought -
Geez. I can do that.
It wasn’t as easy as I thought at first. A Techie I am not.
But I am still hanging in.
Loving it.
Corinne Edwards recently posted..YARO AND PERSONAL GROWTH – Welcome to Woo-Woo
Twitter: andrewrondeau
When you blog about your passion…it’s easy and I am the same aas you…I love it.
Andrew
Andrew recently posted..Link Building Campaign- Why Is It Important
Oh my, I could easily make this blog scroll about 15 pages, but I won’t.
I swore up/down/sideways/cross-ways/ and back again in the mid-late 90′s I would never blog. It was in my opinion nothing but an ego trip for those that liked to hear themselves talk, so to speak.
I was right of course, lol, at least at that time.
Then the very first marketer/friend I ever met (on a forum or in a yahoo chat room, I don’t recall which first) started blogging, on blogger I think. She laughed and agreed with me, but thought it was kinda cool to play around and see what happened.
She taught me a lot, but I still wasn’t gonna do it. I started an account, wrote a few words, and said pfft.
In early 2000, I met my first “real” mentor; I say real for her because the first woman was more of a friend first who then taught me stuff.
My mentor helped me set up my first e-commerce site, then said I was to start blogging to “back it up” traffic wise.
I told her my feelings, she laughed also, then basically said…..blog.
Here I am.
Dennis Edell recently posted..Welcome To The All New DennisEdellcom!
Twitter: andrewrondeau
That’s a great insight, Dennis.
My first IM Mentor told me to blog and I started off with Blogger.
Only after a few weeks, someone said I should move to WordPress. I ignored them.
Four years later…here I am.
Andrew
Andrew recently posted..Link Building Campaign- Why Is It Important
Oh btw, just to give a time-line, my first blog was on WP 2.0.4. Yikes.
Dennis Edell recently posted..Welcome To The All New DennisEdellcom!
I started blogging at blogger.com. Then i used the free web hosting with WordPress and now i’m using the paid version of WP.