Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 515, Starting a Blog.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 515.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
You can become an ESL podcast member on our website.
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This episode is called Starting a Blog.
It's a story that uses a lot of common vocabulary that we use when talking about weblogs or, as they're commonly called, blogs.
Let's get started.
I've been thinking about starting a blog for a long time now.
And after talking to my friend Traver, a popular blogger, I decided to take the leap.
Traver got me started with a basic template, but I wanted to customize the blog to give it my own flavor before launching it.
I already have my first few posts ready to go and I plan to update it a few times a week.
Trevor told me that it may take a little time for my blog to catch on and become known in the blogosphere.
He suggested I do some basic self-promotion.
He told me to register my website with the major search engines and to swap links with other bloggers writing on similar topics.
He gave me some other advice to increase hits, and I'm taking it all to heart.
I can't wait to get my first comments and to start talking to other people about our common interest, our love of cats.
Our story begins with me saying that I'm thinking about starting a blog, a special kind of website that has information that you can easily update, you can easily put on the website.
Blogs usually have content that is added at least a couple times a week, or once a week, sometimes several times a day.
So I'm thinking about starting a blog, and I talk to my friend, Trevor, a popular blogger.
A blogger is someone who has a blog.
It's the person who has the blog.
I say that I've decided to take the leap.
The expression to take the leap L-E-A-P means to begin to do something that's new and perhaps unfamiliar to you.
You don't have a lot of experience, but you're just going to start and do it anyway.
You're going to take the leap.
A leap is normally a jump from one point to another, where you physically go up into the air and, But here it just means to get started.
Trevor got me started with a basic template.
A template.
T-E-M-P-L-A-T-E is a model for creating, in this case, other documents or other web pages.
A template in general is sort of like a model that you use to start something.
So for example, you might have... a fax machine and you find on the web a fax template.
It's a form that has all of the information that you can then add.
To add your own personal information to.
That would be a template.
Websites, especially blog sites, often give you some templates, so you don't have to create the site all by yourself.
I say that I wanted to customize my blog.
To customize something is to change something so that it's different from everyone else's.
So you may use a blog template, but you want to use your own pictures or you want to change the way that the writing appears.
The font.
That would be to customize it, to make it your own.
I say I want to customize the blog to give it my own flavor.
Here, flavor means my own style, my own characteristic, my own taste.
Normally, we use the word flavor to talk about food, but here I just mean my own particular style.
I want to give the blog my own flavor before launching it.
For some reason we use the verb to launch when we are talking about putting up a new website.
We also use it in business to talk about starting a new project.
We're going to launch a new kind of business.
Deodorant.
Deodorant is what you put underneath your arms so that you don't smell so bad.
Taking a shower also helps.
Anyway, to launch a new product or new service means to start something.
So here I'm talking about starting my blog by launching it.
I already have my first few posts ready to go.
A post, when we're talking about a blog, is what we might also call an entry, E-N-T-R-Y.
It's a small section of text that you add.
It's the new piece of information.
So I may type up a couple of paragraphs and then put it on my blog. with today's date.
That would be one post.
And then tomorrow, I may add a couple of paragraphs about a different topic.
That would be another post.
So a post is each section of your blog.
It's each entry of your blog.
Post actually has a couple of different meanings, so take a look at that learning guide for some more explanations.
I say that I plan to update my blog a few times a week.
To update means to make it more current, bring it up to date, give information that is new.
Trevor told me that it may take a little time for my blog to catch on.
To catch on is a two-word phrasal verb meaning to become popular, something that is used by or done by many different people.
We often talk about products, things that are sold that may catch on.
For example, cell phones.
Fifteen years ago, very few people had mobile phones or cellular phones.
But when the price became lower and lower, when it became cheaper and cheaper to buy a cell phone and the phones became smaller, then cell phones in many countries caught on.
They became popular.
Slang expressions is another example of something that would catch on, that would become popular.
Trevor said that it may take a little time for my blog to catch on and become known in the blogosphere.
The term blogosphere refers to all of the blogs on the Internet.
It is sort of related to another word atmosphere, which refers to everything around our planet, the air around the planet.
Blogosphere refers to all the blogs throughout the world.
Trevor suggested that I do some basic self-promotion.
To promote means to publicize, to let other people know about your product or service.
To self-promote means to promote yourself, to let other people know about you.
Self-promotion then, is letting other people know about something that you are doing, in this case your blog.
Trevor told me to register my website, to send in my website information to the major or most important search engines.
A search engine is something like Google, Yahoo, AltaVista.
They're websites that help you find other information on the Internet.
He also suggested I swap websites.
S-W-A-P, links.
A link on the website is something that you click on that takes you to another website or takes you to another file that is on the website.
To swap means to exchange.
I give you something and you give me something back.
This is a popular way of letting other people know about your website is to swap links.
I'll put your website's link on my website.
You put mine on yours.
Trevor also gave me other advice.
To increase hits on a website is when someone comes to your website, when something is visited on your website.
That's not the complete technical definition, but it's close enough for our purposes.
Hit has several different meanings in English that are not related to a website.
Take a look at the learning guide for some more explanations of those.
I say that I'm taking all of this advice to heart.
I'm taking it all to heart.
The expression to take something to heart means to listen carefully to what someone is saying, to think about it seriously, to consider it seriously.
Finally, I say that I can't wait to get my first comments back and to start talking to other people.
Your comments are messages that other people put on your website.
So they come to your website and, if the blog allows it, they put their own ideas and then they post them.
They put them on your website and They can comment on what you are saying.
It's a way of starting a conversation, perhaps, with people who are reading your blog.
And what is my blog going to be about?
It's going to be about my love of cats.
So you know that this story is definitely fiction.
Now let's listen to the story this time at a normal speed.
I've been thinking about starting a blog for a long time now and after talking to my friend Trevor, a popular blogger, I've decided to take the leap.
Trevor got me started with a basic template, but I wanted to customize the blog to give it my own flavor before launching it.
I already have my first few posts ready to go, and I plan to update it a few times a week.
He told me to register my website with the major search engines and to swap links with other bloggers writing on similar topics.
He gave me some other advice to increase hits, and I'm taking it all to heart.
I can't wait to get my first comments and to start talking to other people about our common interest, our love of cats.
The script for this episode was written by the popular blogger, Dr. Lucy Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us next time on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2009 by the Center for Educational Development.
