What goes on in a blog? Just about anything you want. If you can think of a subject, someone somewhere is blogging about it. There are blogs that are a series of links to other sites discussing a topic or a variety of topics. In politics, you can find blogs expressing opinions on every side of an issue. You like sports? Type in the name of your favorite team and you’ll find a blog talking about them. Movies? Sure. Someone is blogging about the latest movie. Fly-fishing? You bet. No matter how obscure or perverted someone is blogging about it.

Before you blog, I suggest that you visit a few blogs. Chances are, if you are thinking about it, you’ve already visited a few and have an idea of what goes on in a blog. You’ll have the advantage of seeing what’s out there and what can be written about.

I started my blog three years ago. It was to be a general blog where I just vented, ranted and raved about life in general. Well, the 2004 elections were coming up and I got involved in writing about my political views. Last December, I devoted my blog to Christmas - some traditional, some secular, and some religious content. Since then, my blog has been just about whatever I felt like writing about.

I get a lot of email that has pictures, poems, stories and the like. For the last few months, I’ve been posting emails I've received. For the most part, this won’t be a problem if you post content that is not original to you. However, if someone’s name is attached as the author of the work, whether you get it in email or not, you must give credit to the author. I can’t stress strongly enough that you cannot take credit for someone else’s work. It’s called plagiarism and it’s unethical at the least and you can be sued for it. Changing a few words here and there isn’t enough to get you out from under the plagiarism umbrella. It’s not borrowing, it’s stealing. It’s wrong and there’s just no two ways about it.

I once received an email I liked. I posted it and gave proper credit to the author. Her email was attached and, out of respect for her privacy, I removed it. Well, the author found out and emailed me taking me to task (nicely, but her intent was very clear) for removing her email address. She was satisfied when I agreed to add her email to the post. She could have asked me to remove the post altogether and I would have done so. That’s something else you must consider. If you do publish something someone else wrote and you gave appropriate credit, if they ask for it to be removed, it might be best to remove it from your blog. It’s not worth the worry that you’ll get a letter from a lawyer demanding you remove the post and threatening you with a lawsuit. But since it’s your blog, it’s your call. I suggest removing it.

I don’t always follow my own advice. Later you’ll see that I recommend using pseudonyms for real people. Well, I do sometimes refer to some people by their real first names. I do think about what I’m writing and what light it puts those people in and the relationship I have with them. My husband says he never visits my blog, but I still don’t write anything negative about him – most of the time.

Blogging can be great fun, but it’s also a responsibility. I suggest you not print anything that you know to be untrue. If you don’t know whom the author of a piece is, attach “author unknown” or something to that effect, but don’t ever take credit for it if you are not the original author.

Deciding whether to blog or not

It’s not really a matter of do you have anything to say, it’s really whether you want what you have to say out there on the net.

If you’re anything like me (and you probably are since you are reading this ebook), you have lots to say. You may be a little shy about saying it, or maybe you have so much to say you don’t know where to start.

One very good thing about blogging is that you have a place to vent. Whether you’re mad at your parents, spouse, significant other, teachers, child, sibling, boss, coworkers, or the neighbor’s dog, you can write about it. You might also want to discuss your love of origami, or your fascination with your neighbor’s wife’s toe nail polish (I suggest you change the wife’s name and don’t publish your name or location for your own safety).

Feel free to write about your child’s potty issues if you choose, or your intense dislike of the young man your daughter is so crazy about. If you want to vent about the Spawn of Satan you work for, go for it. I would suggest that you refer to him as Spawn of Satan or SoS or another pseudonym. It might not bode well for your career if Mr. Smith stumbles on your blog and reads your referring to him as a drunken sot who can’t find his, uh, posterior with both hands and is fooling around in his office with his secretary while you are doing his work, your work and the secretary’s work, and doing it magnificently. This all might be true, but you do have a career to think of

I strongly suggest that your change the names of the innocent as well as those of the guilty. You might even want to give yourself a pseudonym. If you publish the actual name of the person you are writing about, no matter how true what you’re writing is, you run the risk of alienating that person. You might end up sleeping on the couch for some time if you write about your wife’s extra weight gain, your husband’s unfortunate…uh…”failure to launch” last night, or your mother-in-law’s interference. These people can make your life miserable if you refer to them with their right names.

Now, if you choose, you have the option of not publishing. In this case, you can write anything you choose and no one else will see it. My personal opinion is to still use pseudonyms for everyone even if you do choose to write and use pseudonyms. Even the best of intentions can wind up on the Internet.

Of course, there is always the option of writing and not telling anyone about your blog. Even so, I encourage the use of pseudonyms. Your boss, wife, significant other, in-law, or neighbor can accidentally stumble upon your blog. If your reader recognizes themselves, you might be heading for a long relationship with the sofa, unemployment line or at least a miserable time at work, or maybe a sock in the nose. If you have to write that your boss has an unusual relationship with a young lady he calls his “niece” (wink wink), at least use a pseudonym. It’s the better way to go in the long run.

You can do anything on your blog: talk about your family, job, friends, sports teams, or sell products. You can offer your wisdom on any subject you feel qualified to opine on. Some people offer their opinions even when they haven’t the first clue what they are talking about. And you thought only your boss or father-in-law did that, didn’t you?