PART TWO -
Websites and Blogs

By Christie L. Smith

The second article in this three-part series is about websites and blogging. Websites have become such a part of everyday life that people now ask, “What’s your web address?” instead of, “do you have a website?” As a judge your court probably has a website, but what about you? Do you have a website? Or a blog? Or maybe you’re wondering, “blog…website….what’s the difference?”

Actually there’s a pretty big difference between blogs and websites, although at first glance you may not notice. The difference mainly occurs in functionality, customization, and freshness of material.

You can think of a website as being somewhat similar to a brochure. Brochures tend to remain static, perhaps being freshened or redesigned every couple of years or whenever it’s time for a new printing. A standard website is much the same way. Typically a website may have a few things updated regularly (like a calendar of events for instance), but the site probably won’t change substantially from day to day.

A blog, on the other hand, is designed to change on a regular, often daily, basis. The term “blog” is a made-up word derived from the words “web log”, meaning an online diary. No knowledge of website coding is required. In the early years, blogs were used chiefly as personal diaries. Over time blogs have evolved into more accessible friendly versions of a website with a highly conversational tone, although still with a dated, diary format. Blogs are now sometimes used as marketing tools for companies who are looking to put a personal face to their products.

Blogs can be used for news updates. Both the Supreme Court of Texas and the Court of Criminal Appeals have blogs – albeit not written by anyone who sits on either of these courts. The attorneys who write these blogs post about the latest cases of each these courts. This differs from simple news reporting, however, because it is assumed that a blog will have some sort of ‘slant’ or personal opinion on everything that appears on it.

There are dozens of providers offering free blog sites. Posting is fairly intuitive on each site, and the learning curve on the majority of blog sites is short. You can spend a lot of time learning about blogs, but you don’t have to. You can post as often as you like and be done with it.

Some blogger providers allow you to customize your domain name (usually for a fee). Here’s a quick run-down of the most popular:

WordPress Theme Screenshot

Blogger – Blogger has been around for a while and was purchased a few years ago by Google. If you know absolutely nothing about web design and have no interest in customizing your blog, this is the way to go. You can actually get a blog live in less than 10 minutes. You have the option of purchasing a custom domain name or choosing a domain name from ones available through Blogger. These domains will have ‘blogspot’ in their URL name (example.blogspot.com). Blogger is free unless you choose to purchase a custom domain name.

Wordpress – There are actually two Wordpress entities. The .com version is a free service, very similar to Blogger. The .org version is a free, open source blogging software download. If you use the .org version, you’ll have to have a little more knowledge about how websites work and how to upload files, because the software must be installed on your own hosted web account in order to work. Once it’s installed, posting is easy. This option is great to use if you have an existing website, and want to add a blog page.

Typepad – Typepad does not offer any free services. Various plans are available, starting at $4.95 per month. Typepad has a reputation for very good customer support, which can be helpful to a neophyte blogger.

LiveJournal – LiveJournal is sort of a throw-back to the heyday of blogs, when they were only used as personal journals. One advantage that users enjoy is its integration of social networking. Users can form communities based on areas of interest. LiveJournal is free with advanced features available for a fee.

Besides typical postings on a blog, you can add “widgets” or “plug-ins”. These are simple programs that add more functionality to your blog, such as being able to notify a mailing list when you’ve posted a new entry or tracking where visitors to your blog come from.