Writing online

I am a novice writer. I have always wanted to share my thoughts, ideas and views about what goes on around me. I ventured to explore what forums were available to me. What I was looking for was a medium that would be taken seriously and yet informal. I could not picture me armed with abstracts and manuscripts chasing down agents and publishers. Besides, where I come from the publishing industry is not much developed, and the majority of available publishing houses largely concentrate in churning out primary, secondary and tertiary school syllabus textbooks and related manuals. An absence of a reading culture does not help any aspiring or established writer’s lot. My kith and kin cannot be described as avid readers and those who actually do read, have a preference for anything but local material. When someone mentioned that I could have my content published on the internet, my interest in online publishing was thus piqued. I turned to the time tested and resourceful search engine Google to solicit for ways to go about getting me published and hopefully read.

My search revealed what was hitherto unknown to me, there were several websites that not only offered to have me published but there was also promise of payment. As I scoured the different sites, I was fuddled by the immense opportunities on offer. Most of the sites however required subscription or payment ranging from a couple of dollars to one hundred. The doubting bone in me cautioned of internet scams. I decided to stay clear off the websites that required initial payment before allowing access to their promised menu. With my goals defined, my foray into the array of websites on offer was now more focused. I stumbled upon a couple of websites that boasted credible content and no requisite advance payment and proceeded to join them. I started by writing a couple of abstracts in different topics of interest. It was exhilarating to see what I had penned published. It was even much more when a reader rated my published article and commented on the content. My dream and passion for writing was finally being realised.

Being new to online publishing and with the excitement of seeing my abstracts published, I sought to broaden my horizons. I had been to online forums with discussion boards but I had no idea what a blog was. This is a web log or online diary hosted on a specific sites. A blog can be used to maintain all the information one wishes to share with the world. You can post personal insights, news, reviews and even products. A blog allows you to post whatever information you have . Your information first goes to a blogger website and then it is automatically inserted into a template tailored for you. I discovered this outstanding site. It offered me the platform I was yearning for. The site is free, user friendly and their step by step guide to creating your blog is not at all stupefying. I highly rate it and recommend it to all beginners like me. It offers method in the madness that is the world wide web!