Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Blogging Basics: Let’s Start with the ABCs

What is a blog?  
The word "Blog" is coined from the words Web and Log.  Simply put, a blog is an online journal.

What can you with your blog?
As the author, you have the power to write posts about anything you like, whenever you like.  On your blog, you can give your personal opinion, write about your dreams, share your experiences, skill or knowledge, talk about your passion, or record daily happenings just like a diary. You have the option to share your blog with the public or with a selected group of people.   You may choose to publish a post daily, weekly, even sporadically (if you don’t have the time). 

What kinds of blogs are out there?

There are different kinds of blogs.  Some blogs are devoted to a specific genre.  These blogs reach out to a particular niche or audience.  The most popular ones are dedicated to fashion, weddings, gadget and techno, design, DIY, photography, food and pets. 

Usually, you can guess what a blog is all about based on its name and sometimes you can never tell. There are also general blogs where you can read posts on various topics.   A bog post may contain purely text; or a mix of texts, images, and videos.  Some bloggers post only photos with captions on their Photo blogs.

Why blog?
Initially, people created personal blogs in order to have their own space on the web - where they can share their thoughts and ideas.  Some bloggers use their blog as a platform to voice out their opinions and reactions on controversial topics.  Others use it to compile the favorite finds from the internet. 

You can also blog to showcase your skills, knowledge and expertise.  Blogging is a great way to be noticed and build a following of audience, especially if you've got something valuable to share. 

These days, many people blog for business, which means, they blog to promote their products and services online, build a good reputation in the market, and strengthen customer relationships.

Blogging can also be a means to make extra money.  It is an undeniable fact that online advertising is a growing trend.  More and more companies are willing to pay to promote their brand online.  A lot of bloggers are paid to write reviews, place ads on their blogs, or include the advertiser's website link on their blog post.

Google AdSense is another way to earn revenue from your blog or website.  When you join the program, ads which are relevant to your content will be displayed on your blog, enabling you to earn extra bucks depending on the number of clicks each ad gets and the number of visits your blog receives per day.

Indeed, you can blog for one, two or all of the above reasons. What's nice about running a blog is that you don't need to be an expert right away or be an internet geek or an online techie. Creating a blog is really easy and all the tools you need to get started - from designing a blog to publishing a post - are readily available for you to use.  All you have to do is choose and click. Do you use Facebook or Twitter?  Yes?  Then, you should find blogging not complicated at all.

Which blog hosting site should I use?
The two most popular blog hosting sites are Blogger (by Google) and Wordpress. This blog for example has been created in Blogger.  Both platforms are reliable but of course, each one has different features and services.  If you are a beginner, using Blogger is recommended as it offers the basic blogging tools with fewer, simpler options.  However, Blogger & Wordpress are not the only blogging platforms online. Other popular blog hosting sites are Tumblr, Typepad, LiveJournal, Weebly, SquareSpace, Xanga, etc.

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