Soon, you will get useful articles that will be helpful to you in starting your professional blog. But there are some aspects you should know before going deep into making money using a blog or creating an alternative income source online. So, we will be discussing them one by one from now onward. I write this article to guide newbies on what blogging is, useful terms in blogging, and why they should start a blog.
What is a Blog?
The words ‘web’ and ‘log’ give rise to the word ‘blog’. The blog is the short form of the word ‘weblog’. A blog is like an online diary; it is a dynamic website where you publish articles of your interest, personal views, or opinions about an issue.
Blog owners update their blogs regularly, and most blogs feature the most recent articles on their homepage, so readers can see the latest topics. Some blogs display their posts in different order too. A sole owner or a group of members can maintain blogs.
What is Blogging?
Blogging means sharing your thoughts on a blog. You can share the things you are passionate about or your knowledge with the world. Anyone can create a blog and share his ideas with the readers. This will help others to learn from their experience. Blogging enables us to create an online community about a topic.
Blogger
The person who does blogging or chooses to blog to adorn his career is called a blogger.
Blog Authors
They are the people who blog on a blog. A blog can have more than one author. Among them, the admin is the one who manages the other authors and has full control of the blog. Webmaster is the term used to represent the admin of a blog or website. Other authors can post blog articles and the authors who have admin privileges can only manage the admin dashboard settings.
Blog Members
They are the followers or registered users of a blog. They act as active users and post comments. Some blogs require membership to post comments. For example, this website is a blog, and I am a blogger. So, I am writing this article for this blog, which is called blogging. As of now, my blog has only one author that is me and I have admin privileges.
A blog can also act as a social website. Because multiple authors post articles and connect with other authors and members. Other blog members can post comments and contact other members and authors. This interactive feature enables a blog to look like a social website.
Video Blogging and Photo Blogging
A photoblog (or photolog) is a special-purpose blog for photo sharing and publishing. Photo blogging means sharing photos on a blog. Photoblogs contain mainly pictures. These blogs have blog posts that might contain only photos or photos of an event or a particular thing with some texts explaining them.
Video blogs, known as vlogs, are essentially blogs that specialize in video content sharing and publication. You can even embed videos from video-sharing websites like YouTube in the posts and explain it with some brief text.
What are the Differences between a Blog and a Website?
If what is blogging or what is a blog were the first question, this will be the second question raised by the newbies. I will try to answer it in my own way. A blog is a digital magazine. That means your most recent content will be there on the home page (you can show old content if you wish). But on websites, the home page will be the same, and it will not change according to the recent content. So, simply saying a website is static, and a blog is dynamic.
A single or few pages are more than enough to create a website. Whereas the blog needs to be updated regularly. People create websites for a specific topic or small niche, like a firm, an actor, a product, etc. However, you can create a blog without focusing on a specific topic and can even use it as a personal online notes collection.
Of course, a professional blog should be niche-specific. One of the major differences between a blog and a website is that the blog avoids the prime limitation of a website which is difficulty in inter-linking. We can manage a website easily when it has fewer pages. If the number of pages increases, it highly tedious task to manage and inter-linking them. But, the blog displays all the posts by default, and we can even manage it with categories and tags. A blog can have an enormous number of articles and any blogging software can easily manage it.
For example, consider a company that promotes a specific product. It creates both a website and a blog for product promotion. Let’s see what they look like. The website will have a few pages explaining the product, like its features, shipping time, shipping place, and what it is all about. The blog will have the latest updates, events conducted by them, tutorials of the products, awards received, and current news about the product.
Blogging Platforms
A blogging platform is a web-based platform or software that can be used to create a blog and manage it. To create a blog, you need to choose a blogging platform. There are many web-based blogging platforms available, and they are of two types hosted and self-hosted. Let’s see them.
Hosted:
In hosted blogging, we do not need to host any CMS (Content Management System). Blogger and WordPress are the best among them. They give you all you need, like a visual or HTML editor and hosting space for your files.
Blogger provides the option of adding custom scripts to your blog so that you can place ad codes to earn money. But you need to be a premium member of WordPress to do so. Also, Blogger is very easy to use, well-known, and very good for beginners. But it lacks SEO features. Not only Blogger, but most of the hosted blogging platforms have fewer SEO features, or we have to pay more to avail them.
Self-Hosted:
Self-hosting means hosting the blog CMS at your own risk on your server or server provided by some hosting services like HostGator. We should not host our blog on free hosting services, as they are not reliable, and they might delete our account at any time. A professional blog needs some investments, and buying hosting space is one of them.
Also, there are hundreds of blog CMS available. But WordPress is the topmost one. Millions of bloggers trust it and it has limitless features. As I already said, the hosted WordPress blogging platform or blog hosting service provided by WordPress has some feature-limited free tariff like we cannot add our widgets, themes, and plugins. But if we self-host the WordPress CMS, we can overcome them.
How Blogging is Useful to You?
Initially, blogs are used to share authors’ personal experiences with their readers. It can be called as a personal diary. But today the term blog has a different meaning. All use it mostly for business purposes. Many of the top websites are blogs. Every company wishes to create a blog, and some professional bloggers blog to teach others and thereby make money. Many companies hire professional bloggers to write for their blogs. Also, blogging is one of the universal hobbies, and many want to learn it.
We can use a blog as a tool for meditation and yoga for utilising the internet efficiently. What I am insisting is you will learn more if you are an active blogger since a blogger must acquire knowledge about the topic that he blogs about. Hence, you will never tend to waste time, as your mind is on the right track. It is a rich and useful hobby for everyone. There is a sure possibility to earn money in blogging if we take it seriously. That’s why I compare blogging to meditation and yoga.
So, to make use of your free time and generate revenue, blogging will be very useful for you. Remember, this is a competitive world, and the number of professional bloggers who make money by working at home is increasing day by day. So, you should make the right decision at the right time. Even if you are a full-time worker in a company, it is a wise idea to create an alternative source of income as well as to bring forth your mental potential to the world through your blog. I will post articles about how to make money from your blog later.
Useful Topics for Blogging
If you wish to blog as a hobby, there is no need to create it for a specific content theme. But if you want to create it for business purposes, it will be better if you choose a particular niche.
Some example topics are technology, blogging, Blogger tutorials, affiliate marketing, programming tutorials, software downloads, software reviews, politics, money-making tips, the internet of things, WordPress, Android, app creation, religion, human morals, travel, daily news, sports, culture, science, and personal experiences.
Discuss and write articles on the topic that demands it. While browsing the internet, find the hot topics and try to match them with your passion, and based on that, select your blog niche.
Popular Blogs
I have listed some of the most popular blogs for your reference. Just check them and analyse how they select topics and organise their sites. This will be helpful for you to get some ideas before starting your own blog.
You Turn
You learned about what blogging is and its importance. It is well and good even if you wish to start a personal blog, and it will help you learn new things and use your free time effectively. If you need any clarification, you are most welcome to comment. What would be your answer if I asked you, “Do you wish to start a blog?”
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