By Kinnon Phillips Lagniappe staff If reading the interesting, strange or funny details of strangers’ lives is your bag, you’re alive at the right time. The serious voyeur in most of us can, with a few clicks of the mouse, now enjoy such weighty insight as someone’s "thing for Jelly Bellies. Only the fruity ones, not the weird kind like Buttered Popcorn." Or if that’s not your thing, perhaps the thoughts of a man who is "a liberal Democrat, enjoys a few beers on Friday night and an occasional shot of 1800 tequila." Of course I’m talking about the growing popularity of blogging. Emerging like windows into another’s soul, or fonts of information and commentary, blogs have exploded from their humble beginnings. These days, blogging is big time, although there’s still plenty of stream-of-consciousness stuff out there. Those of you over the age of about 34, you may not yet have ventured into this relatively new universe of two-way communication. Blogs originated as tools to share information between techies. The intent was, and has been successful, in being "a model of the way the Web was created – as a two-way free-flow of information," says Steve Rockwell, associate professor of Communications at the University of South Alabama. Blogs came into the mainstream as the tools to create them became easier to use and understand. Blogs can either be hosted by service providers or run by blog software such as LiveJournal or WordPress. They evolved from the online diary, as open pages on Web rings. The "watershed moment" that brought blogs to prominence, according to Wikipedia (a multilingual, web-based free-content encyclopedia project written collaboratively by users all over the world), was when bloggers were the first to report remarks made by Sen. Trent Lott praising Sen. Strom Thurmond in 2002 that was widely seen as endorsing Thurmond’s segregationist past. Bloggers beat the mainstream media to the punch and have been doing so with regularity ever since. Rockwell says blogs have taken two diverse paths. First there are news blogs, where items on a particular subject (say politics) are gathered in one place with the author placing his commentary and soliciting comments from others. The other type is the online journal. What entices one to blog? Rockwell believes we all have a need to reach out and feel part of a community, to see if our own thoughts are in line with others. They are "conversations with friends, reaching out to people like you, but in a larger amount who are not geographically available, who share their own ideals and beliefs," Rockwell explained. Speaking with some of those involved in blogging, Rockwell’s theory seems apt. "Anne Glamore" runs www.mytinykingdom.com, an enormously popular and funny effort chronicling her life raising three sons. Not a "mommy" blog, Anne writes what amounts to poignant and real life stories about her adventures in marriage and motherhood. She has always written, and once she had children she began to share stories with a longtime friend in Los Angeles who writes for Chris Rock. "We live two different lives and he encouraged me to write for potential publication. I was hesitant because I did not know where to begin," says Anne. Her friend sent her an article on blogging that addressed the need for good writers. She saw this as a good way to discipline herself and write every day, potentially having an audience that would create responsibility. In 15 minutes she wrote her first post (on replacing a goldfish and having to match one exactly), edited and put it on the Web. For Dave Robson, who has www.ontheroadwithdave.com, and is a self-described "struggling, wannabe comedian," this was not the initial reason he began. He simply wanted to get in on the cusp of the blogging revolution. He had been a frequent commenter on several blogs and message boards and one of them issued a friendly challenge that he start his own. Originally his audience consisted of friends and people involved in marketing, but he used it over time to help revive his comedy career. His content varies from marketing, to Mardi Gras and also has "Sunday Thoughts". Marion Elledge was at the beach with friends, when a discussion took place about the lack of a resource for news in the Mobile gay and lesbian community. He knew about blogs, yet had no idea how to begin. His content at http://bluedogmobile.livejournal.com is both a news and commentary site. He culls news relevant to the gay and lesbian community from across the country of interest, posts information on all of the activities in Mobile along with reporting on happenings locally such as Mardi Gras and the Chili Cook Off. "There was a void of information within the community that I believe in a small way I provide," Elledge explained. Each has seen a different measure of success, although all describe their success as personally important. Success in blogging is really unique to each blogger. For instance, Anne has been allowed to work on her writing and after a month she had seen 300 hits. She had been reading and commenting on other blogs, which is a sure way to get the notice of not only other bloggers but other readers as well. Then, in May of that year ivillage.com contacted her and asked that she be one of their original five bloggers. Anne agrees with Rockwell about why blogs are popular on both ends. Many of her readers do not even have children, and she now has over 250 pieces that can be converted into short stories or even a book. She is currently trying to sell this to publishers. She uses a counter and a service that provides her with demographic information on her readers. For Elledge, his site is not developed enough to have a counter, so he only knows of his success from the comments received both on the site and when he runs into readers. Robson tracks his site visitors and his rankings on Google and Alexa and his readership has grown tremendously. Both also see the growth in readership due to the need we have to connect, made stronger by the increasingly impersonal world of today. Advice they give to those wanting to begin blogging ranges from being careful with what you write to the hurdles in beginning and growing. Anne found it easy, and encourages investment in tools such as counters and demographic tracking. She also cautions that bloggers stay true to themselves, determine their audience and be careful not to write to one segment, but write from their own perspective. Elledge found it easy to begin, but says his learning curve has been slow. He wishes for more information and resources on designing a better look and getting a better hosting services. Robson encourages would-be bloggers to start small, and not subscribe to a premium service to host your blog until you know for sure you are committed. Maybe the best advice of all comes from Rockwell. "I caution people to be careful, that you have no idea how large the audiences are, that your comments and posts can be archived, you do not know who may be reading it and your words can come back to haunt you," he said. After all, the blogger couldn’t exist without someone out there to read.