Blog Things

What Are Blog Things?

Blog things refer to any number of items blog users can post in their online journals, although they are most often quizzes and memes. The phrase also comes from a site dedicated to such quizzes called Blogthings.

Why Add Them To Your Blog?

When you have a blog, your readers constantly expect new content, but sometimes you just don't feel like much is happening in your life worth reporting, you don't have any books or movies to recommend and you're fresh out of political topics to debate. What's a blogger to do? Blog things let you make a post with a minimal amount of effort.

Blog Quizzes

What Are Blog Quizzes?

A blog quiz is an online form asking you anywhere from five to a hundred questions to find the answers to pressing questions like, "How Pure Are You?" or "What Country Would You Be?" Since practically anyone can make a blog quiz, they range from fan efforts devoted to favorite television shows or movies to seemingly serious personality profiles. The quality of different blog quizzes also varies greatly, with typo-riddled quizzes with no images and basic answers appearing next to lavishly illustrated quizzes with detailed results.

Where Can You Find Quizzes?

There are a few sites devoted to providing nothing but blog quizzes:

• Blog Quiz
• Blogthings
• Quizilla

If you read other blogs and keep an eye out for quiz results, you're sure to find even more options.

How Do You Use Quizzes?

Even though these sites use HTML code to produce your quiz results, the only computer skill you need to add them to your blog is the ability to copy and paste. After you finish any quiz, you are taken to a final page to reveal your results. Below the results will typically be a box with HTML code you can add to any blog post.

Memes

What Are Memes?

Memes typically consist of a set of questions bloggers fill out to tell their readers more about themselves. They can be centered around a theme, like high school memories, or they can be an assortment of unrelated question. They can also be filled with mundane details like the last type of soda you drank or be highly personal, asking for a veritable sexual history.

Memes can also be interactive. One popular meme asks bloggers to load their music player on random and post a line from the first 10 or 20 songs to play. Readers then must try to identify the song. "Tagging" adds an element of interactivity as well. Many memes instruct you to "tag" a certain number of friends who are asked to complete the same meme.

Where Can You Find Memes?

Memes are most often found by reading others' blogs. It is the nature of these questionnaires to be of uncertain origin and to travel widely across the Internet. The Memes List makes an effort to compile a comprehensive list of available memes.

How Do You Use Memes?

This is another task where copy and paste is your friend. Create a new blog post, and transfer the questions, then answer them as honestly as possible. Make sure you delete all of the previous person's answers, so you don't end up with any wrong or downright embarrassing answers. MySpace users tend to post memes as bulletins instead of blog entries, but it's really up to you.

Decorative Touches

Icons and User Pics

Icons and user pics are similar; they are small square or rectangular images used as blog identifiers. They are your ID badge in the world of blogs. The word icon is typically used in reference to LiveJournals, while user pics is a common MySpace term. You can find these pictures by searching online, or visiting websites devoted to creating user pics. You can even make your own icon, or ask an artistic friend to create a custom image for you.

Animation

Some people like to add shiny, glittery, animated blog things to their blogs. They may also leave them as comments in their friends' blogs. Blink You, MySpace Decorations and MySpace Photos are popular sites offering everything from humorous comments on love to sparkling declarations like "Best Friends Forever." While garish to some eyes, they seem to have caught on especially among teen and young adult women.

Pictures

Who says you need to rely on everyone else to spice up your blog? Most blogs offer picture uploading as an option. Instead of writing a long blog post on your birthday party, share the night's best pictures.