Why Should I Read Blogs?

Well, you don’t have to if you don’t want to but in my opinion you will miss out on a lot of useful information if you aren’t reading blogs in areas that are of interest to you.

First off let’s talk about what is a blog. A simple definition comes from Wikipedia

A blog (a contraction of the term weblog) is a website, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order.

image People write blogs for different reasons. Some are personal, like a daily diary. Others are topic specific covering just about any topic you can think of. There are even blogs about how to blog. Take for example that you are into digital photography. There are lots of blogs covering that topic though I think the best is Digital Photography School. There is tons of information, tutorials and opinions on this blog and it’s all free!

That’s right, blog content is free information that gives you the latest news and opinions on different topics. Once I get Simple Tech Today going I will be adding articles about the newest technology, gadgets, web applications and more.

Another great thing about blogs is once you are up-to-date on the content you can subscribe to the blog either through a feed reader, like Google Reader, or by getting an email whenever there is new content on the blog.

Usually you will see an icon like this image which helps you subscribe to the blog so you don’t have to keep going back to it to see if there is new content. You may also see “Subscribe to RSS” which is the same thing. RSS stands for really simple syndication. My next post will deal with the orange icon and how to subscribe to multiple blogs using a feed reader.

One way to find blogs that will be of interest to you is to perform a search on Google and type in the name of your interest followed by the word blog. You can also go to Technorati and search or browse the blogs cataloged on their site.

To end this post I thought I would share with you some blogs that I read daily.

  • Lifehacker – Tips & downloads for getting things done.
  • ReadWriteWeb – Web apps, web technology trends, social networking & social media.
  • Make Use Of - Cool websites, software & internet tips.
  • Coolest Gadgets – reporting on the latest cool gadgets.
  • Dealnews – Find the best deals on computers, laptops, HDTV, ipods & mp3 players.
  • The Bargainist – Deals, sales & coupons.
  • ProBlogger – Blog tips to help you make money blogging.

I read a lot more than this but I wanted to give you a sample of blogs that you may want to check out. If you are already a blog reader what blogs do you subscribe to?

Article by Ellen


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