What is A Blog ?
Well simply put - it's a website - but it's a specific kind of website.
A normal website can range from one simple single page through to the complex multi page multi linked encyclopedia site like wikipedia or an immense product database like amazon books or a collection of members pages such as MySpace. Some where in the middle is a site that one person wrote and connected and uploaded and worked hard to get readers to and that might be anything from a genealogy site for one sirname or clan to a local business site.
A definition of a blog is when an everyday online writer logs their activities post by post into an online journal or diary . The blog software then archives the posts by month so that in the sidebar menu they can still be accessed by the months name. That's one blog simple definition.
Another definition may explain that it is a piece of website software that is a prewritten template. Using this template, takes the code out of the equation and leaves the everday online writer with simply a space to write what they choose without stressing about html or any other kind of programming knowledge.
Rich Niche Bloggings definition of a blog is a combination of the above with a twist. We define a blog as an easy way to have an online presence, make money with profitable niche marketing and start a career as a freelance writer.
A true blog definition is somewhere in between because the archiving date based structure can be easily manipulated to become categories and people who want more than the simple template can easily use plugins to extend the functions of a blog so that it can appear very similar to a website. This is easier than writing a website from scratch but it still requires a person to learn a little about code.
Some related definitions for blogs
Short for “web log,” a blog is an online journal or a website of a specific type where the added content can be archived by date. In it's simplest form, this type of website can be used by anyone simply by typing in a post and publishing it. With the addition of themes and functions, this website can look and function like any other fully featured website while still being easy to use for it's owner.
A “Blogger” is the author of the articles in a blog or the owner of a blog. “Blogging” is writing an article and adding it as a post to a blog.
Your blog can consist of articles, or a combination of articles with images, videos, audio or other types of files. Visitors can read your blog and post comments if you allow it. Visitors can subscribe to your blog or add your blog feed url to a feed service so they can read your posts with a newsreader.
Blogging is still quite a new platform!
Blogs and blogging is still relatively new. Only ten years ago the few people who used blog software were programmers and they used them to provide a web log or record of what they were coding. Since the introduction of free blog sites such as Blogger this use has been transformed so that normal writers can also use this platform to record their own activities and it can be expanded to include the facility to easily embed videos, pictures and audio to the posts.
With further development of technology Google created a way to analyse information on blog and web pages and set up it's Adsense program. Google provided people with some code they can add to a webpage so that advertisements would appear on pages and could adapt to the content thereon. This became a new way for people to start making money with blogs.
A new way for people to make money
Wherever there is money to be made there are people to exploit it. A big industry has grown up around the basic need of an advertiser to advertise and a blog owner to make money so now niche sites, optimized with specific keywords, publish good quality free to read articles and content, pick up the feed of google adsense advertising (or other pay per click search engine advertising programs) and these niche blogs or sites have therefore become a form of investment for niche affiliate marketers.
Often called Blogging Realty or VRE (for Virtual Real Estate) when descibing such websites, these niche blogs are all grouped around one topic but focused on a 'niche' or subtopic where there is a high demand for products or services connected to this topic. Making money with blogs generally concentrates on matching advertising or a product to a niche topic and promoting it using a keyword optimized sales page.
Optimized with keywords means that the article will use specific key phrases in their text that people might use to search for information. When articles are specially formatted to include a specific phrase, it is called search engine optimization.
Blogs which use search engine optimized articles to connect with readers, which display Adsense or other contextual advertising and relevant products that the blog owner may earn a commission on via affiliate marketing - this is the main definition of a blogging business - as used in the rich niche blogging course. Again it's not a simple definition of a blog.
So what do people use a blog for?
A blog means different things to different people. For some people its a way to show off their travel shots while they are still far from home and such blogs may only be viewed by family members. Family pictures, memoirs, articles - all these small scale works can be easily added to a blog for a small scale audience and give all family members who may be spread out all over the world the ability to see the images and letters.
Poetry writers, musicians and artists often use blogs to publish their work. This is in some ways changing the face of publishing and the music world. Commercial cost restrictions have made it impossible for a slim volume by an unknown poet to be published by a publishing company. It costs absolutely nothing for a poet to publish their work on a free wordpress blog. There they can share it and promote it and let it be there for posterity for as long as wordpress allows it to be there. Musicians can do the same, add their work in mp3 and let people download it and listen to it. If they host their own blog they can also ask for payment for it.
Businesses use blogs to easily update their news throughout a network. Political commentators use blogs to update people about political developments. Writers use blogs to collaborate on writing projects or as a sample of their work, or a place to share essays, or as a promtional tool when they have a new book coming out.
The ways that blogs can be used are as multiple and varied as the people who use them.
A different kind of news broadcast
A simple personal blog is one kind but the platform of a blog lends itself especially well for news. The last definition of a blog is as a means of delivering news. This is done as a "feed" using something called RSS which sometimes stands for really simple syndication and sometimes for something else (that I can't remember but doesn't seem to be of major importance.) Making the content of your blog into a feed is an easy thing to do because blogs are designed to do just this.
Once this is optimally set up, people can visit feed directories and then usethe blog content on their own sites. If your content has advertising in it, this means free exposure for you. Likewise if you want content for your own blog without writing it, you can subscribe to a feed and have it display in your own blog posts.
As this content automatically updates when the original feed updates, then your blog too is updated and search engines like nothing more than to scurry over to see whats new and index the new content. There are a huge number of different feeds available including video blogs and all types of niche content. You can subscribe to several different feeds and get a mix of content. Instant Blog for you with very little work. Likewise, if someone uses your feed, instant exposure and more readers as generally only a first paragrapph will be used so people will click to read more.
What is a blog? The last blog definition is really about you. A blog could be a way for you to explore a different more comfortable way of earning money. It can be your online resume, your diary to share with employees for project management, your contact means for extended family members or business associates, a promotion vehicle for your products or affiliate products and a portfolio of your best work. It can be a business in its own right or an additional marketing tool for your business.
The definition of a blog is - anything you want it to be!
Read more about blogs and blogging
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