If you’re new to this, let me point out a couple of things. Blogs are organized in reverse chronological order — newest first, oldest last. You will see things that refer to older matters you may not have seen yet. In a sense, you could start your first visit to a blog at the bottom of the page and read up. Some blogs start over at the first of the month, so you should look for references to “archives.” Most blogs also have categories, so if you have a specific area of interest, look for those.

Links are what make the Web the Web, but they pose an interesting challenge. If you follow each link as you encounter it, you’ll never get to the bottom of the blog. Indeed, you might never get back to that blog. You might read through once for content and then pass through again to follow links. Or, what I do is open those links in separate windows as I encounter them, staying with the blog. When I’m done, all those links are open and waiting. In case you’re not familiar with this, if you use Microsoft Internet Explorer, you can hold the shift key down as you click on a link. Other browsers may use the Control key instead. All of them let you click the right mouse button (Mac: cmd + click) for a menu that includes Open in new window or tab.

Studies indicate people skim Web pages in ways they don’t skim other print. So, you’re not even going to see these words, are you? Find a few blogs to visit a few times over a week — get a sense of how much work it is to keep up with the blog and how much it is worth it. The best blogs are worth your time.

Finally, bloggers want to hear from you. We do this to open discussions; we want to know our efforts are worthwhile. mjh