Blogging: Understanding Blogs

Dear friend,

Blog is actually a shortened version of the word "weblog." The word is used as a noun
referring to the actual weblog and also as a verb meaning "to edit or post to one's
weblog."

A very simplified definition of a blog as used today would be as follows:
Blog: a journal displayed over the internet that is updated often and is meant for display
to the public; this journal is most often displayed in reverse chronological order.

There are a number of different types of blogs. Each is slightly different in how it is
written or in the way in which it is delivered to the audience.

Media - includes Vlogs (video blogs), linklogs (link blogs), and photologs (blogs of
photographs).

Device - Some blogs are categorized by the type of program used to compose the blog.
Some are done strictly on computer programs while others are moblogs, or those written
on mobile devices such as phones or PDAs.

Genre - A final descriptive element of the blog is the genre or topic area in which the blog falls. For example, blogs typically fall into one subject area such as politics, travel,
consumer products, and/or others.

Most blogs have the same general structure, although some will vary slightly. Below is a
typical blog structure:

Title: This is the 'headline' for the post.
Body: This is the main content of the post.
Permalink: This is a url that will direct readers to a full length article, if available. This
option is not always used, especially in personal blogs.
Post Date: This tells the date and time of publication.
Comments: These are remarks that are left by readers regarding the post.
Categories (Tags): This is usually a listing of previous articles that are related to the
current article.
Trackbacks (pingback): These are links to other sites that are relevant to the particular
blog entry.

Now that you know what a blog is and how one is set up, how can you create one of your
own? Most blogs that are online today are fairly easy to maintain and do not require the
use of a web developer. They are pretty easy to navigate by any normal computer user.
Web applications can help you to easily create or make changes to your blog and to
promote your site to potential readers.

So what is a web application? It is something that can be used by regular internet users
via a network such as the World Wide Web. They are easy to use and require little
installation and memory space to run. With these applications, bloggers can make
updates from just about anywhere in the world as long as there is internet access. This
allows bloggers to easily maintain their blog without having to host their own server.
Many systems suc as Ecto, Elicit, and Blogger let maintain without even being online at
the time. Users can compose or edit without internet connection and simply connect to
publish the blog. Other applications allow a combination of blog and wiki, called bliki.

See yaa at the bank,
Lookman


Lookman Ajisegiri a Journalist, online entrepreneur, blogger and a teacher. Love teaching How To Make Money online the Easy and Smart way. See my teachings at:
http://easycash-online.blogspot.com