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As technologies change, communications change. For a while, blogs were considered the hottest new form of communication. What about blogs is innovative? Does blogging work? Are blogs really going to be the mode of communication for the next hundred years, or are blogs simply a flash in the pan?

To give you an idea of where blogs fit in the scope of communication, Ive sketched out roughly how communication had developed over the years.

One to Few

--Before the printing press, communication was essentially one-to-one. Though books would circulate, there was a small literate audience, and books were not mass-produced.

One to Many

--The advent of the printing press made books a form of one-to-many communication: an author could reach an audience of thousands in one print run. This was considered the normal form of communication with other technologies, including tv, newspapers, radio, and film. One person (or a select group) would create a message, which would then be transmitted to a wide audience.

Many to Many

--New technologies encourage many-to-many communication. Blogging is a forum where anyone can author. Wikis encourage vast participation. This could be considered a democratization of knowledge production, because many people can now produce, but there is also a backlash because some people are worried about the validity of the sources that they read.

Blogs

--Some blogs are of interest to a large segment of the population. Other blogs, my CEO blog at www.jimestill.com, have a more specialized audience. But even smaller blogs are out there where people write only for their friends (these are not linked to, and many blog writers do not expect anyone else to read their blogs except for friends). Though the Globe and Mail says that blogs are being abandoned at a staggering rate, Perseus claims that the majority of blogs are written by teenage girls and update twice a month to keep in touch with friends and family. This is not to say that many blogs are not being abandoned regularly, this is often the case, but I just wanted to put things in perspective.

You must take it with a grain of salt that over a million blogs have been created, and after the initial post, there is no more updating. This can hardly be considered an abandoned blog, because its not even quite a blog in the first place. These blogsone-entry wonders and teenage lifetoolsare quite different than the blogs I read each day and the blogosphere that I interact with. It seems to me that if these are being abandoned, we have to assume that it is simply growing pains, and not a sign that blogs will no longer be viable communication tools in the future.

Blogs, it seems, have staying power as a mode of communication, as long as the writers have staying power as a mode of writing. Though individual blogs may come and go, blogs in general will continue to influence popular news sources.

Jim Estill is the CEO of SYNNEX Canada. He is an active blogger at http://www.jimestill.com His blog has been acclaimed by Forbes, The Globe and Mail, and Canadian Computer Reseller Weekly among other accolades.

This is one of the more creative parts of a blog Selecting a suitable blog name can be fun and imaginative. Not everyone has a domain name from a website, but if you do include this in the thoughts for your blog name. Remembering even just a little thing like naming your blog this is how your readers find you.

I associate my blog with the learning process of making money on the Internet, creating an income. Blogging plays a major roll in this part for me.

Naming your blog should portray your tone and your content. Let me show you an example, lets say Julie wanted to name her blog and really she did not use much imagination and chose a simple name like "Julie's Blog". Now maybe this is a true and accurate name, but does it give you any indication what the blog is about? Now Julie really wanted to talk about her dogs. Julie has the cutest dogs and loves them so much that she wants to share her photos etc with the world. A more accurate Blog Name would be "Julie's Cute Dog Images Blog", or to shorten "Julie's K-9 Images" or "Cute K-9 Blog". You could really let your imagination have fun with this one. This then becomes shorter more memorable, brief, easy to spell and describes the subject matter. Then add a few good tags at the end like dog photos, cute dogs, cute dog photos etc. Readers looking for cute dog photos etc will have their day lifted with these beautiful photos of Julie's dogs.

Whatever you choose for your Blog Name, remember it is permanent. Changing the name of your blog later on can be confusing for your readers, it wreaks havoc on any of your links and your credibility does not follow the new name.

Make sure your blog name is not already in use, so do some searches, as this also can be confusing for your readers. Please do not choose a name that can be an alter-ego "Julie Queen of Cute Dog photos" or alienating your readers by having a weird names like "Harry's Big Hairy Toe" not the best way to find Harry's Blog who likes writing about his collection of Roses. Harry's hairy toe can be funny for some, but it in many cases would be a site that would not make many readers want to read past the Title.

On your first Blog you may not have it all exactly the way you want everything, and you find that after writing your first blog you had an epiphany and the most fantastic name for your blog pops into your head. By all means start a new blog with the new title and re-write your blog to the new name, but once you start attracting an audience changes are not recommended. So if you have to change your blog name, do it early before your readers are established.

Please choose your Blog Name carefully and thoughtfully. Plan for your Blog Name to be along-term commitment. So use your imagination and have fun Blogging!

Pauline Young - Business

http://makeyourmoney4tune.com