What is blogging?

What is blogging?

The Internet plays a huge role in the lives of people on the entire planet; it is the fastest means to communicate with friends on the other side of the world and the richest source of information when you have to research for something. The latest trend and probably the most successful way of expressing oneself via the Internet is the blog. What does blogging actually mean? The whole concept revolves around the personal need to express feelings or thoughts, share opinions, spread news or simply have fun. A blog is actually a small individual web page more like a diary that you keep online; it receives regular updates and allows the use of links, photos, videos and extended documents.

Many people were attracted by the “blogging” phenomenon thanks to the great opportunity of making themselves heard by a specific targeted audience. Blogs are not complex web pages, it entirely depends on what the creator wants to share with the world. When you've got great pieces of news, funny links or a hobby to talk about, a blog may be just the right way to open up to an international “community”. Most often, blogs attract more attention than large and well-designed web pages? How is it possible for blogging to have reached such a status?

First of all, blogs generally tackle with one issue of interest for the user; there is fresh and rich informational content, and extended friendly links to other sites or blogs in the domain. It has become common knowledge by now that blogs often receive more traffic than other web pages. Why? The answer lies within the very essence of a search engine structure: what a search engine likes most is fresh and high quality content. This is the main preeminence blogs and the blogging phenomenon has managed to achieve ahead of normal web pages.

If blogging started as the perfect diary online, it has now come to acquire different dimensions, of which the commercial one is the most well-developed. I'll give you an illustrative example here: let's say you like gardening, and you've also started your own home business of growing plants. A blog on flowers, plants and their peculiarities would meet the requirements of other people who share your hobby, but it would also function as a great promotion tool for the development of your business. Therefore, web marketing and the need to communicate happily meet within the very concept of “blogging”.

The best blogging tools

The best blogging tools

Due to the extended dimensions that the blogging phenomenon has achieved, one can hardly image the richness of tools that bloggers may use to improve the performance of their pages in the web circuit. What tools should one look for? First of all you need to select a specific platform to set up for the blog, then other tools complete the picture in case you want to include photos or videos. Last but not least, you definitely need some special software to allow you to easily moderate the comments and fight unwanted mails, labeled as spam.

Let's take a look at the way some tools can help you post entries on the blog with the help of the platforms. Due to the wide variety of available software, format may vary, nevertheless the working principle is the same: type the title and the text you want to accompany it in the platform. Not all tools provide italics, bold and large font sizes, and you may have to get this by using HTML in order to achieve the desired results. In case you have to copy-paste Microsoft Word text, you need to check whether the blogging platform allows it without interference with RSS feeds.

In order to upload videos and pictures on the blog we have to mention Adobe Photoshop as one of the best tools here; yet, you may have to resize the images in order to make them easy to download by visitors. Furthermore, such tools enable you to align the photos in the way that matches your entry best. Embed multimedia files are also widely used by bloggers, mainly with the help of third-hand utilities like those offered by YouTube. All you have to do is include a JavaScript in the posts in order to allow the blog users to access the photo or video files you upload.

The RSS support may also prove crucial for the success of a blog, particularly since most Internet users are mainly concerned with accessing blog content via RSS feeds. You can find a variety of RSS formats available, not to mention that most tools include some sort of RSS help. To make sure you really get what you want, and the blog looks professional to the targeted audience, it is advisable that you should check the RSS formats a special software offers before actually purchasing or installing it.

Vlogs – video blogs explained

Vlogs – video blogs explained

What are vlogs exactly? The general term refers to a number of web pages that choose to use videos as journal entries instead of articles. Presented in a reverse chronological order, they find a great support in the use of photos and text; depending on the nature of the videos, there may be need of additional comments to make information relevant. The great part about vlogs is that they perfectly meet the present-day tendency of communicating via the Internet on a very familiar basis: when you see the person behind the text, the blog seems to actually live in from of you.

Most video blogs use some form of web syndication in order to upload and spread the videos online and at the basis of every transmission lies the RSS technology or format. Presently, vlogs, may even be accessed on mobile devices such as pods and mobile phones. Though, the very vlog phenomenon started as a collective attempt, there are many individual video logs that are authored by people who make a hobby out of it. It is a good thing to know that content contributors can get to be paid for their share in the process: on the sole condition that they upload viable material.

Let's take the case of the Google video blogs that enjoy massive success all around the world, it is a collective effort of keeping in touch with people that are thousands of kilometers away from you. Uploading and sharing videos is an instant procedure on http://googlevideo.blogspot.com/, not to mention that Google also provides a directory of vlogs where you may find whatever you're looking for. A similar example of a vlog collection that is also administered by Google is the very popular YouTube, which has attracted thousands of users ever since its beginnings in 2005.

The vlog working principles are less complex than those specific to a regular blog, though the basics are alike. For instance, if you join a video blog community, you'll need your own channel, and signing up is usually required in order to be able to follow the rest of the necessary steps. Once you have a channel, you can simply organize the favorite shows, videos or podcasts from everywhere in the world or simply load and send them across the web. Ipods, iPhones and iTunes are perfectly compatible with vlogs, so that you can pretty much take the web with you everywhere you go.

The advantages of having a blog

The advantages of having a blog

Why do some create blogs and why do others read them? This is actually a ten points question since its answer covers the very working principle behind the entire phenomenon. First of all, we are not far from the truth when saying that bloggers are very much like journalists or columnists, and that the material we find on blogs is very often much more interesting than that in the media thanks to the personal touch writers include in their articles. Furthermore we cannot ignore the interactive dimension of blogs, which is probably the greatest advantage in itself: comment boxes for instant responses, links to documented materials, videos and pictures turn the blog into a magic puzzle.

Blogging is trendy: no comment to that! Not only is it popular with people of all ages but it also makes one feel like blending in. You get an idea of what people appreciate in your writing, you get to comment and actually live some events of public interest, and you have the chance to speak up your mind. Everything you post on the blog, every piece of original material is achieved and easily accessible when you need it; many would-be writers actually take blogging very seriously since they are offered the opportunity of getting things into print without the intermediary of another publication.  

Many blogs offer the advantage of a debate area where you'll find all sorts of opinions: don't get angry if the feed-back is not always the one you've hoped for, points of view are personal and they should not hurt feelings. It's within your power to take things like that. Then, we should also mention the popularity and promotion advantages that are specific to a blog; just like niches, small business blogs create the proper environment for the easy reach of targeted Internet users. 

Many business owners have discovered that blogs are the perfect way to regularly keep in touch with customers and even employees, since these web pages function as online journals that are very frequently updated. The advantage that blogs clearly have above other sites is that they express something peculiar in the most active or dynamic of ways whereas the other “classic” web sites are definitely static. Without any shade of a doubt the voice of the writer is the element that makes a blog unique and interesting at the same time!  

Photo blogging

Photo blogging

Just like vlogs, photo blogs are born from the need to communicate and integrate in a community that has reached international dimensions. A photo blog mainly relies on photo sharing and publishing, while also using textual support as well. Nevertheless, when you visit a photo blog you'll understand where the focus really lies; the phenomenon deviated from blogging with the advent of the cameraphones that allow the instant photo sharing between web users. The big advantage of such pages is that they are very dynamic in nature as compared to traditional sites. There are photo blogs that belong to individual domains and others that use larger collective services such as Blogger.

Widely accessible all over the web, photo blogs are managed with the help of specific software systems that enable content control. Thus, photo bloggers are able to upload materials and manage all posts without any restriction; the same unrestricted form is maintained for the access to photo blogs, since all that is required is a browser and direct online access. There are cases when the transition from text to photo blogs is made with the use of plugins and even code rewriting; thus a combination of text and image is possible when a blogger selects a daily entry option.

Usually photo blogs have a single author, nevertheless it is not uncommon that two or three people contribute to the same web page. The posts display depends on chronology, with the main page showing the most recent entries, but you may go back to the archives any time you want. Photo blogs are highly interactive too since users may leave any comments they want for a special entry. The presence of friendly links is also important in the photo blogging community, given the fact that creators come to move freely between sites.

It is totally incorrect to take pictures galleries for photo blogs; while the former is a simple collection images, the latter is a chronological log that uses categories allowing the user to navigate among them from older to newer materials and vice versa. It is not uncommon to also have photo blogs and moblogs as one and the same unit; though they may also function separately as well. A photo blog that can be updated from a mobile location such as camera phones could be labeled as mob logs. Nevertheless this latter concept could well function without pictures as well. In a nut shell, the composite character of the Internet allows the happy existence of hybrid blog types that enrich the puzzle even more.

RSS – what's it all about?

RSS – what's it all about?

Before creating a blog as such, it is most advisable to learn what type of helping tools you may need to design and update the pages when necessary. One fine example is the famous RSS, a group of web feed formats that are mainly used to keep the blog content new and fresh as often as possible. Why is RSS the first choice of a large number of users? Simple, an RSS document includes the very text you have on the blog or a summary of the content in some other cases; thus, one can keep a close watch over the blog without checking the pages in detail.

To give you a further glimpse into the utility of the tool, we should mention that the abbreviation RSS stands for Rich Site Summary. Therefore, besides the advantage of delivering fresh web content, RSS allows many Internet users who need to stay informed; thus you can easily retrieve whatever item of information you are interested in from a specific site. From this perspective, RSS comes as a great alternative to subscribing for email newsletters since it doesn't require your giving away the email address. Presently, RSS has become the choice of many sites that need to keep a permanent contact with their visitors.

If you decide to use an RSS, you won't need anything else except a special feed reader, and even here there is a wide variety to choose from: Newsgator and FeedReader made by Windows or Amphetadesk that works for a variety of platforms including Mac and Linux. Moreover, there is also a large number of RSS feed readers that are totally web-based, they include Bloglines, Google Reader and My Yahoo. Once you install the reader on the computer, all you have to do is actually find the sites that summarize content and add the RSS feed on the page to your feed reader.

Presently, you can find many RSS blogs and sites that provide information on the best means to use this tool; nevertheless, we should mention that the information is constantly updated since there is more to say on RSS as it spreads out more every day. Thanks to the content synthesis, work on the web has become a lot easier, particularly since sites that have available RSS feeds use special signs to let you know about the facility. In a nutshell, on the long run, you'll see how much time you save by the use of a software such as RSS.

Optimizing your blog for search engines

Optimizing your blog for search engines

Competition is fierce online, and the top places on the search result pages are the most hunted for; therefore, any blog owner who tries to make money on the Internet needs to use a whole strategy to attract the best visitors and the highest traffic. The working principle for the blog optimization for search engines is  the keyword. When you start the race for SEO (search engine optimization), you already have an advantage: blogs are usually the ones to receive more traffic then other complex sites due to their highly informational content. By keywords we mean those sentences or structures that a user types in the search box of an engine.

Blogs mainly rely on articles that are regularly updated and re-freshened, so that they have something new to offer all the time. Before you write the blog content, you'll need to make a list with all the keywords related to your domain and which are most likely to be typed in the search box by Internet users. A brain-storming session is ideal to find the best structures you need to include in the articles; keep in mind that there are some rules you may have to follow here as well.

For instance, choosing some very general keywords is not the best way to promote a business via a blog given the fact that though you may receive a high traffic, the profit could remain modest. The explanation is very simple here: too broad terms attract all sorts of users, even those that are not interested in purchasing something. SEO experts use all sorts of parameters to check the profitability of a blog, and one of them deals precisely with the number of relevant users the web-page gets.

Once you manage to get the most high-in-demand keywords, you'll still have to do a lot of work in order to keep the blog position high in traffic. The status of keywords may change from one day to the other, given the intense competition that characterizes the Internet in general; consequently, every time you update or change the site content, you need to perform a keyword analysis beforehand and see where they stand in rankings. Last but not least, there is one thing that remains the golden rule of search engine optimization: quality informational content, that should be the essence of any successful blog!