04.02.2010 Basics about Blogs
| 04.02.2010 Basics about Blogs |
Online web blogging first appeared in the mid 1990s. Initially, the term "web log" was used to describe server's log file. Soon after, the word "blog" was adopted to refer specifically to personal journaling. Nowadays, a blog is an online publication where its owner puts their personal views and opinion on any subject of interest.
The content of blogs ranges from cooking recipes, video/audio clips, opinions, ideas, poetry, consultations and so on. In comparison to websites that are often updated irregularly, the advantage of blogs is the instantaneous introduction of new content via instant publishing tools. Readers of blogs can leave feedback, opinion or even start a debate. Blog is an excellent marketing tool that is cheap, easy to manage and fast to spread the news online thus reaching out to wider audience. Millions of people with no technical knowledge whatsoever post to their blogs on a daily basis.
Components of a typical Blog
1. Adverts - advertising banners can often be found in blogs, specifically open-source blogs. This allows the company providing the blog software generate some money
2. Title
3. Date - the date/time of the latest post. Older posts are moved down on the page while newer posts appear on top
4. Post Title
5. Text - main content of the blog
6. Posting Information - information about the author of the particular post and the date/time it was posted
7. Comments - this area allows readers of the blog to leave their comments and opinion. Note that this section needs to be enabled by the owner
8. Previous Posts
9. Archives - a link to the archive section of the blog where one can find historical entries
A blog software consists of a specialised form of CMS (Content Management Systems) designed for creating and maintaining blogs. There are a number of blog communities online which allow you to get a blog free of charge (open-source software) with your own customised design templates and no usage limitations. There is also a number of blogging software that needs to be licensed for a fee. WordPress, Typepad, Aquarespace, LiveJournal, Blogger, BlogHarbor, Xanga etc are well-known and respected in the market of which WordPress, with more than 300,000 bloggers, is most commonly used. You will find step-by-step video tutorials on WordPress here.
Blogs can be grouped in three types: personal/journal, organisational and business. The purpose of organisational blogs is to create communications between their internal and external audiences. Business blogs tend to market products/services. Apart from promoting products, business blogs increase awareness and confidence of their consumers by establishing themselves as the authority through publications that demonstrates their knowledge and awareness of the market. For example, Yahoo's corporate blog is called Yodel Anectodal; the Financial Times uses WordPress to publish their Alphaville blog; Dow Jones runs their Wall Street Journal blogs and Allthingsd.com using WordPress. Blogs can also focus on genre (art, music), on a particular subject (politics, photography) and even on spamming (this is not a legitimate type of blog though!).
Warnings
Try to avoid being rude while blogging as you will either attract rude bloggers or will become unpopular. It is not necessary to add your blog link everywhere as you might appear too desperate for visitors. Do not forget that it is pretty easy to locate you through the net (or alternatively those you talk about in your blog). Thus, in order to protect yourself and others, be careful with posting your personal details/or personal details of others to your blog.
In January 2005, Fortune magazine listed the names of eight bloggers that business people "could not ignore". These are: Peter Rojas, Xeni Jardin, Ben Trott, Mena Trott, Jonathan Schwartz, Jason Goldman, Robert Scoble and Jason Calacanis. Israel`s government was one of the first to set up an official blog. Is there an aspect in your life that you would like to share? Then go no further rand start your own online diary/blog!
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