Chapter 1. An Introduction to Weblogs

Welcome to the world of blogging with Apache Roller! In this first chapter of the book, you will learn some useful facts about blogs, and how you can use them to become a part of the blogosphere—a term used in the blogging world to describe all the blogs on the Internet as one giant community. We'll also see several examples about promoting your business or professional activities, how you can get in touch with customers (or potential customers) for your business, express your ideas, hobbies, feelings, and share your experiences with other bloggers. This chapter is designed to illustrate the world of blogs to absolute newcomers. It is intended to foster thoughts and ideas as to how you might use and gain advantage from blogs. Of course, it may be that you are well aware of the blogosphere, and are itching to get your feet wet with Apache Roller straightaway. If so, please feel free to skip ahead to the next chapter which shows you how to install Roller. If, however, you want to learn more about blogs, we shall:

• Learn about the basic concepts of a blog, and what you can do with it

• See a comparison between blogs and Content Management Systems (CMS)

• Learn how newsfeeds can help to promote your blog

Are you ready? Let's begin.