What are the best sites for setting up blogs? I'm sort of thinking about one as a way of avoiding any proper writing. I've got a MYSPACE, but I don't know how to costomise it yet or if the blogs on that site are much use. Anyone know much about these things?

Colin M

http://staggsbrook.blogspot.com/

I use Blogger.com for mine. It's very easy to set up and I can insert videos via Blip tv (thanks WWers!) but I'm not entirely happy with the layout options (paragraphing, positioning of photos etc). Then again, that might just be me being dim.

It was tremendously easy to set up, though, and free.

I use beta.blogger.com for mine, and I also copy it to my Myspace blog and to Crimespace too - I get more readers that way - and it also helps sell books.

A
xxx

<Added>

PS That's:

http://annebrooke.blogspot.com

or

http://blog.myspace.com/annebrooke


A
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What about allowing people to subscribe - is that available on those sites?

As an experiment, I subscribed to the Miss Snark blog - always mean to read that, always forget.

You can subscribe to any MySpace blog, Colin - but I'm not sure about the blogger people. For any blogs from there that I want to read regularly, I simply add them to my favourites online.

A
xxx

You can subscribe to Blogger.com blogs, yes.

I thought it was a way of getting email updates, like here on WW when you get a reply to a thread. Still trying to work it out.

I've always though you need some kind of theme for a blog, something to hold it together, rather than just a diary, so I've decided to give up alcohol for a month and see how far I get, keeping track of things like weight, cravings and work turnover (at the moment I'm doing very little - average 500 words a day, which is shit when I have the time to do 2-3000).

It's going to be a toughy - I have a drink most nights. In fact, I can't remember the last night I didn't have something, even if it was just a glass of wine.

Colin M

Done one!!!

http://colinmulhern1.blogspot.com/

Well done!

Aaaah. It looks a bit lonely all on its own.. all empty.

Give it something to eat, fast!

Vanessa

I took it down while my book is being pitched around - agent advice.

I've taken mine down, too.

It was hardly anonymous, up there with all those photos.

And besides that, I was only writing it cos it's more fun than the book.

Plus I can now be Googled. And although I'm happy for WWers to see me in all my glory, I'm not so sure about the rest of the world. It's that silent masses trouble again. You just never know who's listening in. And I just don't feel comfortable with that.

Yes, I think that's how I feel about blogs, as I do about diaries. What's the point of doing it if you're not being honest, but if you're being honest, you don't want any old Googler to see it...

Emma

Ah hell, Sarah, that was the best pic! My own view on blogs is that they have to have some kind of focus if you're not a known celeb. Good journalists can keep an interesting blog, much like their weekly newspaper columns, and celebs can talk about any old thing, but for Joe Nobody to talk about how he met up with a friend to go to a film then a restaurant, isn't really going to turn the heads of the masses.

I think author blogs could be interesting if they keep them under control to be a log of their writing, but on the other hand, it might be unwise to give too much away of your working methods, particularly if three months down the line you say, "oh fuck it" and chuck that particular script in the bin. Your publisher might get wary of such things, despite the fact that they are probably the norm.

Colin M