Want to read blogs packed with inspiration or information? How about seeing what other women like you are doing? Is it your turn to open a blog and start world-communication from your point-of-view? It doesn’t matter if you’re a mom fighting frustration, a grandmother doting, a teacher looking to spark creativity or a pipe fitter working on a ship. If you’re a woman, the blogosphere, that cyber world conglomerate of social media, has treasures for you to unearth.

Mr. Franklin…One of America’s first bloggers?
Here’s a six-pack quick list to get you into blogging as a reader or a writer. And the world needs more of each.

1. Subscribe to feeds. Scroll to the bottom of this page, look right, see the links and click one to subscribe to Women Day by Day. Those are Real Simple Syndication (RSS) type subscription services, offering databases of blogs by topic or title. Like a phone book. Visit a page like this RSS how to for a complete introduction. Then visit Google or Yahoo for a list of possibilities. The feeds come to you via a reader or you can put them on your Yahoo or Google home page.
2. Visit Blogher, a directory of blogs written on every topic under the sun, by women. Read, subscibe, or post comments. Blogher is a bit tricky to navigate - they would do well to refine their database and search functions, but it’s a fantrastic site for women. You’ll connect with writers (and readers). See the Ageless Project for blogs by baby boomers - great stuff! Or jump to Google’s directory.
3. Take a preliminary look at Web-based blogging software to start your own social media project. Try Wordpress.org, of course, if you want to control every aspect of your site. Beginners may not like that, unless you have lots of Web savvy. Others - Blogger.com, Blog.com and so forth. Again a search will get you tons of options. The self-contained, or packaged-type blog hosts make it as easy as click, click, click and you’re up and running. No Web hosting companies required, no software needed. A friend of mine who had never blogged a word, got off the phone with me, went to Blogger and had her blog up and running in an hour.
4. Hook up with a social bookmarking site like Delicious, which is spelled del.icio.us, but pronounced like a great dessert. At these sites (technorati is another) you register, collect bookmarks into your account, and share them with the world. This is cool. It starts out feeling weird, but you become part of a search engine put together by people who care about topics, rather than an engine that cares about making money. Your Searches results, in theory, float to the top because readers, surfers, users, like what they see on a site.
5. Set aside 20 minutes a day to read a blog, write a blog entry, or one of each. The world will share and absorb information in the future via what is created right here, right now in the blogosphere. Once a place where bored people wailed on about love-lornity and why they hate their mother, blogs are growing more valuable every day. Surf a bit - search on topics you really sparkle about and add the word “blog” to your search. You’ll be amazed. There’s quality out there from people like you and me. There’s truth in them blogs.
6. Brainstorm ideas for your blog topic or for those you’d like to find. Write like you care, if you write a blog, and share it with others. Join communities of bloggers, get yourself on directories like these (disclaimer - I have nothing to do with this list - it’s fairly accurate, but go carefully, as always). If you read blogs, let others know about the good ones (and the not-good!) by using social bookmarks. Comment to writers who resonate with you - tell them, kindly what you enjoyed or didn’t. Talk about blogs. Encourage others to explore them.

It doesn’t take long to become part of this community of blogging. In a few weeks, you’ll be thinking and talking like a blogger. You’ll find yourself in a world-wide compendium of women who want to make a difference or connect with others or just create a record of the fact that they walked upon this earth. Another friend of mine found her salvation and sanity in blogging when she was suffering from caregiver burn out. It’s all good. Welcome.