You have a dream
business or an inspired idea to share with the world. You’ve chosen the blog as
the best medium to do so. But before you take the plunge, wouldn’t it be good
to know a few things about a blog?
Some
definitions
A blog: a website or a Web journal where people regularly post data (text, opinions, information,
stories, articles,
pictures) and rich
media (audio, video and embeddable objects on any subject) to share with the world.
To blog: to write
a blog post or to maintain or add content to a blog.
Blogging: keeping, writing, authoring,
maintaining, updating, or adding a post to a blog.
Blogger: someone who writes content for, keeps, posts
entries in, or participates in the activities of maintaining a blog.
Blogosphere: the online community of blogs and bloggers.
Blog posts, or posts
or entries: individual
articles on a blog.
To post: to put individual articles on a blog.
These posts are
displayed in reverse chronological order (the most recent post appears first).
Posting: putting individual articles on a blog.
Theme: the particular topic of a blog.
Are blogs like other websites?
No. What differentiates blogs from
other websites are:
▪ content on
a blog is published in a reverse chronological order
▪ the content is updated regularly (hourly,
daily, or several times a week)
▪ readers can
comment on the posts, thus ensuring interactivity
▪ readers can create links to the blog
▪ readers can interact with the blogger by e-mail
▪ other
bloggers can interact via trackbacks and pingbacks
▪ content is
syndicated via RSS feeds.
How did blogs originate?
The word blog came from “weblog” or “web
log.” Blogs started as a daily diary or family journal
enabling separated relatives to interact with each other. As people love to read about personal
experiences, they followed these writings and blogging blossomed.
Until
2009 blogs were mainly maintained by individuals and sometimes by small groups
and they often centered on a single subject. On the contrary, the recent “multi-author
blogs” (MABs) are handled by several authors, each writing their own posts.
Why
did blogs become so popular?
As the personal
experiences and other blog posts started attracting a large audience, many more
people and companies created blogs to satisfy the thirst, widen the demand and gain
money on the internet. The content on a blog being updated regularly made people to revisit it. And
as the blog allowed readers to comment on the posts, their popularity soared.
Some
uses of blogs
Blogs
are used in many ways. Some of them are as:
▪ online diaries where people share
their opinions, ramblings and personal events
▪ an extra company website where corporations interact mainly
with their customers
▪ an
additional newspaper website created for their writers
▪ a medium where individuals share
their expertise on specific topics with the world. .
The Blog Content
The content on a blog are typically composed
in a web-based interface built into the blogging system. However some systems offer
stand-alone “weblog client” software which enable authors to write articles
offline and upload them later. The content may be:
▪ a catalog of products posted by a
retail site to win money on the internet
▪ information
about campuses, curriculum, and faculty of a university
▪ the latest
news stories added by a news site
▪ observations
or reviews on a personal blog.
So what is in a blog?
Blogging now is the ideal
tool for:
▪ individuals to share
what they feel strongly about
▪ advertising enabling people and companies to make money on the internet
▪ politicians to sell
their ideologies and reach out to their electorate
▪ typing short articles for online businesses
▪ using special links to win money on the internet that only a few people dream about.
What
does it require to create and maintain a blog?
Fortunately technical knowledge
(computer engineering, graphic or web designing skills such as knowledge of
HTML and FTP) is no longer necessary to create blogs and post to them. In the late 1990s web publishing
software with inbuilt
templates and fonts surfaced.
This enables the
blogger to follow simple instructions to create their blogs hassle free and
with zero down. Moreover one does not need to be a professional (writer, film
maker, photographer) to publish rich content on their blogs.
So, what is required? Enthusiasm, commitment and access to a computer and the
internet.
Some useful blog features
you must know
It may also serve you to know the following blog features:
▪ Comments: The comments and links features allow
visitors to a blog to enter their details (name, email and/or a link to their
own blog) and comment on a post
▪ Archives: When a blogger writes a post it goes to the
top of the front page. As they continue to post, the old ones sink down the
page until they disappear from view. These become the ‘Archives’ which can be accessed
through links to them
▪ Contents
and links: Blogs may also have other areas of content and links to text,
hypertext, images, and to other web pages, video, files and audio
▪ Post: this
feature enables one to write a post, upload it to a website via FTP, and then
publish
▪ Content
Management System (CMS): A blog can also be managed by the CMS (Content
Management System) where a lot of the features are automatically created and
populated
▪ Formats:
A blog can be read in a number of formats such as the homepage, single post
page, categories, tags, and also via RSS and other such syndication
technologies
▪ Subscribe:
This enables readers and visitors to have the content in a variety of
means, tools, devices, and applications
▪ Blogroll: This is a list of links to other related sites
▪ Feeds: Some of them are the RSS, Atom or RDF files
▪ Pingbacks or
trackbacks: They enable authors of other blogs to leave
comments
on a blog without even visiting it.
What
are the advantages of blogging?
▪ Worldwide reach: A blog enables one to
share content with the whole world
▪ Friendship and
socializing: Blogs makes it
possible for the blogger to make new friends and socialize with people from all
walks of life
▪ Make money online: A blog can also make the blogger to earn money on the internet.
Types of blogs
Blogs can be categorized according
to subject matter such as:
▪ web design
▪ home staging
▪ sports
▪ mobile technology
▪ links to other sites (eclectic
blog)
▪ a personal online diary
▪ art (art blogs)
▪ photographs (photoblogs)
▪ videos (video logs or vlogs)
▪ music (MP3 blogs)
▪ audio (podcasts)
▪ very short posts (microblogging
like Twitter)
▪ educational (edublogs)
▪ a link for political debate (e.g. Washington, D.C.’s
political goings-on)
▪ an online brand advertising of an individual, a
product or a company
▪ a forum
▪ an exchange link
▪ a source of scoops used by some professional or amateur journalists.
How many blogs are out
there?
While there were over 156 million public blogs
worldwide as of 16 February 2011, on October 13, 2012, the figures were around
77 million Tumblr and 56.6 million WordPress blogs.
Who Blogs?
Bloggers are ordinary people just
like you and me who had the desire to share their ideas with people online.
Does blogging have a
future?
Absolutely.
As long as the internet exists, blogs
will too.
It’s your turn to
create your blog
So grab the great
web tools to create your
own blog now. Soon you will be sharing your inspired thoughts with avid readers,
promoting yourself, your business or your cause and even earn a full time income
by gaining money online.
Some blogging tips
If creating a blog isn’t difficult,
running it could be. Lack of visitors and comments could kill a blogger’s
enthusiasm and force them to give up. This is the sad fate of the majority of
blogs. But if you want to be part of the glorious minority, do:
▪ post regularly, on matters your readers love to read about
▪ stick with only a few specific genres
▪ use a clean and simple theme as much as possible
▪ write articles like this one for publishing on
article sites
▪ visit other blogs,
comment on them and link to some
▪ resort to advertisements (free and/or paid if need be).
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