As we rely more and more on the internet to gather information, we are also increasingly expressing ourselves online. Whether we micro-blog on twitter or maintain our own independent website, most of us participate in some form of blogging.

The phenomenon began with an American college student creating an online diary in 1994.  As access to and popularity of the internet rapidly grew, so too did blogging. Since 2002, blog search engine Technorati has indexed 133 million blogs in 81 different languages. According to Technorati, the average blog is three years old and bloggers around the world collectively publish 900,000 posts every 24 hours.

Knowing this, I embarked on a treacherous journey through the thick jungle that is the blogosphere. I began my blog, Music Meets Girl,  in an attempt to hone my writing skills. Despite enjoying my journalism degree, I wanted to write about something I was passionate about that I wouldn’t normally get the opportunity to pursue at university. I chose to write about music.

Since buying albums, attending gigs and discovering new artists is something I do all the time anyway, thinking of material wasn’t difficult. What was difficult about starting a blog was figuring out what widgets, pings and CSS are. Like an intimidating new language though, enough time spent speaking it meant that it began to feel less foreign. The next challenge was trying to write new and interesting things about music in a way that would appeal to every discerning music fan.

In order to achieve this, I try to include research about artists and their work, a process that I find endlessly intriguing. I have also tried to develop a writing style that is engaging and honest. Although I know it still needs a lot of work I hope that by regularly writing posts I will improve. However, the most difficult aspect of maintaining a blog is finding people to read it and making sure my confidence doesn’t plummet if no one does. I’m working on that.

I’m not sure if I’ve succeeded in creating a blog that will stand out amongst the millions of others but my consolation is many enjoyable hours spent writing about something I love.

Kelly Theobald is a final-year jouralism student at La Trobe University. Her blog is called Music Meets Girl.

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