What is a blog?

How funny this was one of my original blogs written back in Oct 2009. Before I had my first client. Now ten years later, in 2019, I am in the middle of blog month – with lots new blogs posts and tips on social media all about blogging, to get me motivated to posting again, so I thought I might try updating this one too. Anything updated will be in Red and anything no longer relevant will be struck through.

A blog is a common term for a web-log or an online journal, documenting events, thoughts, theories or news. Blogs are usually written by one person about one thing, although this is not always the case. There are so many different blogs each with their own layouts, style of writing and features. Although most will have some key features in common.

Archive; The front page of the blog will hold the latest few entries and older ones are listed in the archives. Usually in date order.

Comments box; after an entry on a blog, there is usually a comments box. It allows the people who read your blog to comment on what you have just written so that the blog can become interactive and not just a one way to preach.

A for people to be updated when new blogs are posted: RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary. The feed for this site is here.

In essence, they are text files that tell specific websites or RSS reader software that a website or blog has updated it’s content, without the need to visit the site. Helpful if you want to keep on top of competition business blogs or industry leaders. This RSS feed can also be used in scheduling software, like Hootsuite, to auto-publish posts onto social media. This file can be picked up by various software, Google.com offers users Google reader or even the ability to add boxes of different blog updates on your home page iGoogle. This is no longer available.

RSS Feed Readers

Browsers often have add-ons which can be used as a feed reader. The aim of a blog will depend on if it’s a personal one, or if it’s a corporate one. A blog for a company could help encourage readers to become customers. Discussing your products or services on the blog is another form of advertising. As well as Pippas web blog were you can find out more about the tax refund that would cost you money, I also try and update a more personal blog, looking at Spiritual Magic.

What is Microblogging?

Microblogging is essentially a small blog. It is part of the social networking culture currently leading the way on the web. Sites like facebook, Instagram and twitter ask their users to write shorter statements about what they’re doing, thinking about, or reading. In effect, a short blog shared with friends or followers. Facebook gives you an almost unlimited space to type, but Twitter the status is was limited to 140 characters. In my personal experience, facebook is more for finding people you already know and leaving messages for them, twitter is more about finding people who you may or may not know in the real world but that you share an interest with. For example, people who write about the type of work you do, or other Mums.
Since writing this post I rarely use my Twitter these days – although still very much on Facebook and recently added Instagram to my collection, to follow me on Instagram.

So this was one of my very early posts about what is a blog? -I’ve updated some old/broken links, tweaked the images, added the featured image and re-published it.
Do you ever go back and re-edit your posts? Add your new knowledge to your past understanding? talk about new ways of doing the same job?
Adding internal links to newer posts is good for Google to understand your site.

So leave me a comment with a link to one of your old posts that links to a new one.