If you have been reading these segments about how I have been journeying through the various Social Media networks over the years since I became a writer you might have a recollection of me stressing how at the end of the day that your own thing was in some sense a better idea. In my case, I was already running a website for the purposes of professional and objective review of music releases, video, and concert performances but not everyone needs their own full on website and might be better served at showcasing their interests via a very focused and constantly updated blog. After starting my own PiercingMetal domain I also decided to venture into a side blog which I felt would let me explore in a little more personal detail, all of the stuff I was learning and observing as a music media person. I started this by using one of the free options provided by Google which was called “Blogger” or sometimes referred to as “Blogspot”. I decided to call it “PiercingMetal Musings” and yes, you are right now in this same blog, but it has since been imported in full into a WordPress installation under my own domain. I will explain why we did that in a moment. Click the logo below to be taken to what a no frills version of a Blogger account looks like. I used my personal side blog as the link for good measure. It features some posts that I did but it was unmodified in terms of its overall design.

Another popular medium for Blogging is WordPress and I morphed over to this format a few years ago for both the PiercingMetal Musings and PiercingKen blogs. It was more important for me to do this with the websites blog because if you remember on an earlier post, I stressed how it was better to keep all traffic as your own as opposed to sending it away from your domain name. The tools offered by hosting service allowed me to install WordPress under my domain and I have been a happy camper ever since. To check out how a WordPress Blog looks and feels outside of the one you are already in, just click the logo below. That will take you to the updated version and slightly visually modified personal blog that used to also live on Blogger.

Don’t get me wrong here because Blogger is the best to some users while WordPress is the only option for others. This is purely a personal preference and quite honestly if you have some great ideas and images and want to showcase them, doing so in a blog is the very best bet. From here you make your own voice a louder one above the crowd and the chance to be viewed a little more professionally is done with a little more ease. The rise in popularity of Blogs has become so great that even if you have a very content loaded and popular website, you are almost expected to have a Blog as well somewhere for people to enjoy. I admit that I was initially hesitant about Blogs and felt that they should by no means be given preference over a historically archived website like many I supported as well as my own but in time I grew to appreciate the stand out ones based on how solidly they were set up.  The goal of the PiercingMetal Musings Blog is more wide spread today than it was when I first pulled the trigger and started blogging.  It began as a “side views” of life as a music journalist and eventually became a little bit of everything in terms of how we entertain you over on the main site.  At this point in time I am embracing the medium for my own writing and while it adds considerably to the workload, there are times when it can be a lot more fun to do than the focused and objective viewpoints that I offer up as music reviewer on the core site. Setting up a blog is also FREE and we all love that. You just need to create an account on one of the providers mentioned and you are good to go in the beginning of setting up your own blog. Historically viewing the PiercingMetal Musings blog, this was originally a free Blogger one, but now is what is referred to as a “self-hosted blog” which is in WordPress. I neglected to mention that before and I apologize. The reason for self-hosting was to capture all of ones traffic numbers but this need is not applicable to everyone. At the end of the day, it does not hurt to give it a whirl as its much better than putting your hard work all up on the social networking sites and risk losing control over it.

As the readers are already in our sites blog, we ask that they subscribe to our RSS and if they want to see the side blog which is more personal photography and touristy NYC life, then they can click the WordPress logo above to be taken to my PiercingKen.com site. For those who want to learn a little more about blogging on the whole, just click the Wikipedia entry right HERE.

PS: For those who think this might be something to do as well they need to realize and understand that its a very different geography from when I started my own (especially when its music related).  One needs to constantly offer up content to remain viewed as “relevant” and doing three or four product discussions will not get you backstage to the Rush or Iron Maiden concert.  You need to keep at it and not give up easily.  A recent Technorati study cited that there were over 50 million blogs online today and that means that practically every topic has scores of people writing about it.  This is especially true in the realm of music review and commentary.  It’s how loud you make your voice that gets you noticed, well, that and a quality bit of copy.

One final thought on the blogging.  It’s very important to leave comments on blog posts if you have the means to do so and can bring something of interest to the readers of the post.  Don’t soapbox or lambaste the writer without a valid point of view as that will only get you reported or banned.  It’s also useful to leave said comments with your own domain listed where you post your name.  That can act as a traffic sign to your own work and potentially move you into a larger reader base.