Ann Handley  Like many of my school friends I used to spend hours every day writing a diary. But while they kept them hidden under their beds, I needed an audience, interaction and feedback. One day, my teacher encouraged me to join a pen friend organisation and I used to write pages of fascinating detail about my teacher, my friends, my dog ... I even invented a few personalities, the details of which were far more interesting than my own life. So when one of my colleagues explained to me what blogging was all about - the frequent postings, the feedback, the trackbacks - I felt confident that I already knew all about it. I am now a marketing specialist and my blog is a business tool. But at the same time I am reliving the joy of communicating and the thrill of the conversation.

Dave Armano  A year ago I was a professional minding my own business. When I started reading blogs, I would say to myself: There's so much information out there - so many smart people.' I decided to start my own blog, but I had no idea what I was doing. I was basically a nobody and I was trying to get people to listen to me. What was I thinking? But then I created a visual for my blog and before I knew it, I had all these other blogs linking to me - doing weird stuff like trackbacks. I had no idea what a trackback was, but I went from forty hits a day to close to a hundred overnight. It was amazing! That's when I stopped to think: if I wanted traffic, I needed to get some good content there, and that's what really worked for me.

Carol Krishner   It's great to have my personal blog because I feel free and if I make mistakes I learn from the experience. I'm a lecturer, and it's refreshing to be able to step outside my academic interests and into a different world. But it's interesting that when you choose topics to write about you give others hints about yourself, and people do get to know you. So it's not the thing to do if you want to remain anonymous. One of the first lessons I learnt is that the blogosphere is a genuine community. After asking a question in a blog comment about what qualities are needed in a good blog, I soon got spot-on advice from a blogger I didn't even know. Then I had an invitation to a local face-to-face blogger meet-up, which was an amazing experience.

Debbie Weil   I started my first blog exactly three years ago for a very practical reason. It was clear to me that blogs were going to become a useful tool in my future job as a journalist. I needed to know how to use this new tool, and I figured blogging myself was the quickest way to get up to speed. I learnt quickly and since then I've helped others launch their own personal blogs. The simplicity of blogging software enables me to write short entries without any problems or delays. Writing a 750-word article is a daunting task, but a quick blog entry takes less than a minute. And yet the effect is so significant - I get calls from companies saying they've read my blog and would I be available to give a presentation, for a large fee.

Tristan Hussey   Writing has been a struggle for me for most of my academic life. In my first high school year I had serious spelling problems all the time. At college, thanks to a spell checker and some practice, I did fine. In 2004, I was in an administrative job and feeling that I was only using a small portion of my skills. I had heard about this blogging thing and decided I should give it a go. I wrote one blog but deleted it after a couple of days. Then I realised that if I wanted a better job, I'd need to get good at this. So I started reading blogs, writing blogs - it was a daily ritual of reading and writing. And guess what, my writing was getting better, and, incredibly, I got noticed by employers. Today I work for a blog software company.

Which person ...

16 ____ ...started writing the blog as a way of improving career prospects?

17 ____ ...says they use the personal blog in professional activities?

18 ____ ...warns prospective bloggers about a loss of privacy?

19 ____ ...mentions having certain difficulties as a teenager?

20 ____ ...made a decision to improve the quality of the blog?

21 ____ ...is not concerned about making errors in the blog?

22 ____ ...felt no need to learn anything new before starting to write blogs?

23 ____ ...believes that blogging has improved their language skills?

24 ____ ...initially lacked confidence in their ability to attract readers to the blog?

25 ____and 26 ____ ...was surprised by the response to the blog?

27 ____ ...compares the ease of writing blogs to other types of writing?

28 ____ ...values the fact that the blog provides a break from work?

29 ____ ...remembers other people being less open about what they had written?

30 ____ ...has offered other new bloggers help in starting their blogs?