What is Blogging and How Does it Work?

It's 1770. You have a printing press. You write a broadside, full of insightful political commentary, some pithy sayings and admonishments for good behavior. Slap it up on the common walls in town - especially outside taverns - and let people read it. Then do that every week, until people are waiting to read what you have to say. They start making a detour past that wall to read that broadside...and they start talking about it in the town square or in the tavern.

That's what blogging is.

Your broadside is printed electronically and you need to make sure you post it outside your locals with links.

Now, once you have an audience for that broadside, you maybe suggest a thing or two - hey, the town gate needs shoring up, or we could use a new bridge. Then people talk about that - and maybe someone proposes to actually build that bridge in town hall. Everyone knows about the broadside, it's been talked about for a while. So, a resolution is passed that a new bridge will be built.

That's a suggestion to action.

Now, let's say war is building and the town hasn't shored up that gate. You write a smart, witty and passionate plea for a new gate NOW and all people to take up arms and...people do it. They get that gate repaired and start making ammo, because the enemy is not far away.

That's action language.

When your town wins against the enemy, other towns ask how they did it, someone says, "We have this writer...he got us focused" and the next town over asks for copies of the broadside too.

That's advocacy.

That's how blogging works.