By Brooke Brown
On a typical day, Stephanie Nielson spends the majority of her time in the kitchen making vegetarian food for her family of six. She also takes her oldest daughter to school, reads books to her younger children, cleans the house, spends time with her husband, does yoga and finally, when the children are asleep, she works on her blog.
In a digital age where Myspace produces hit recording artists and YouTube creates instant celebrities, another form of social media, web logs or “blogs,” is skyrocketing in popularity, enhancing careers and hobbies – and even becoming a career in themselves.
Blogging has become a daily ritual for more than 12 million Americans. As of September 2007, 106 million blogs exist worldwide, according to Technorati.com.
Bloggers commonly use their web space to share recipes, give decorating tips, music references, fashion advice or simply as a place to document daily occurrences. These ideas are brought to the web through blog “posts,” which site visitors can read and comment on.
Nielson, an LDS Provo native who now lives in Mesa, Ariz., began blogging more than two years ago as a way to cure loneliness and keep in touch with her family after moving to New Jersey with her husband and children.
“I needed to update family on my life and began posting photos, then got creative and made it into my own little magazine so to say, with bright colors, fun layouts and creative photos,” Nielson said. “It was a really wonderful way to feel like I was being artistic and doing my family newsletter at the same time.”
Nielson’s blog, , nieniedialogues.blogspot.com has been featured in numerous national magazines, newspapers and online editorials over the past two years.
Publicity of this type has allowed Nielson to make advertising deals with other bloggers and artists, develop relationships with other bloggers, sell her artwork and share the message of the gospel.
“It’s very humbling when I get e-mails about how I have touched someone’s life or ideas about motherhood, relationships and family,” Nielson said. “My favorite part is being able to have a creative outlet that I enjoy sharing with other people … [and doing] missionary work [by] highlighting my life as a happy woman who enjoys serving family and God.”
Utah House of Representatives member Steve Urquhart has used his blog for a different purpose; he stays in touch with the community during his time in the state legislature.
“This is the people’s government and I want to make sure they know what’s going on and have the opportunity to provide input,” Urquhart said in an interview with beltwayblogroll.nationaljournal.com. “It invites people into the discussion. … This is a way to tap into a lot of knowledge, a lot of expertise, at very little cost.”
Starting a blog is generally free of charge with sites like blogger.com and blog.com. Besides starting an account at no cost, owners can actually make money off of their blogs with programs like Google Analytics.
“An understanding of Web site statistics can greatly improve blogging, and therefore, boost moneymaking potential,” said Oliver Robillio, an I.T. consultant in the Philippines who gives blogging tips on his blog, Robilioblog.com.
Gabrielle Blair, a 1997 BYU alumna from St. George who graduated with a bachelor’s in graphic design, also uses Google Analytics on her blog, DesignMom.com. Google Analytics helped Blair understand what caused an increase in readership of her blog.
“It increased by dedicated, daily, hard work and word of mouth,” Blair said. “High quality and frequent posts are the number one driver of readership, more than giveaways [and] more than cross promotions with other blogs.”
With more than 3,500 new daily visitors, Blair started a Web site with other women she met through blogging, taught at “Craft Camp” at Martha Stewart studios, went to Fashion Week in New York City and has received other complementary tickets.
Bloggers can also gain revenue through AdSense, a program run by Google that allows Web site owners to place advertisements on their sites and earn money each time site visitors click on the ads.
Still, for some, blogging is simply a fun hobby to have – whether their page receives high traffic or not.
“My roommate and I started a blog kind of as a joke,” said Eric Cottrell, a BYU junior majoring in advertising. “We used the blog just to post our random thoughts to each other. But then I found out that way more people read my blog than I realized. It’s crazy – the other day one of my posts had a comment from a girl in Singapore.”
From a typical college student to state legislators, Stephanie Nielson said perhaps the ultimate reason blogging has become such a popular pastime is because people like to see what other people are doing with their lives.
“I get e-mails a lot and they say, ‘I don’t want you to think I am stalking you, but …’ and I think it is so funny because they want to know where I got my coat, where I go grocery shopping and what dog food I feed my dog,” Nielson said. “It really is an amazing wide basis to finding almost anything, as well as to meet new, wonderful friends.”
