This is the first of a series of posts discussing online resources such as social media.
To start it seems appropriate to look at this blog, which was started as a way of capturing media releases but there are a number of other benefits including search engine optimisation.
The term blog originated as a contraction of 'web log' and are often a kind of website devoted to recording interests and sharing information. In essence a blog is basically a personal website, usually with a format to reflect the time when items have been posted.
Starting a blog is a great way to start a website for free and start engaging with the online world.
Once your work is online it can be found by others, which can be both good and bad depending on your view of sharing. On one hand your work can find a new audience, on the other hand it's easy for work to be used without attribution -- as this comic on Twitter shows.
Search engines collect information published online. so a blog can help with promotion -- provided the language you use reflects the language entered into a site like Google by people searching. It's worth researching relevant terms and 'keywords' if you want to reach a specific audience.
There are blogs for all sorts of subjects and some bloggers have become published authors as a result of online publishing.
If you want to reach a wider audience, blogging might be a good start and a way to start actively using the internet.