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What does a blog mean to you? What is a blog exactly?Blog for beginners:What is it?


If you don’t know, then you have landed in the right place in this post I will tell you everything about blogging. As well if you are looking to start a blog, then you need to understand this term properly so that you can achieve your goals fast.

Blogs; initially called logs, really evolved from online diaries and journals around the mid-’90s. Through these channels, internet publishers talked about their daily lives or used to share things that they were doing on a regular basis.

Then, a new way of communicating information developed online which spread quickly among non-technical users. It was even further propagated with the growing number of helpful tools, making the beautiful world of blogging even more accessible easily.

Blog Meaning


A blog which was at first called “weblog” or “log”, normally run by one individual or a small group of people is a website or webpage which is regularly updated.

The information presented here is conversational in nurture. It is also a place where such people(also called Bloggers)write about their opinions and thoughts.

A blog where most of the content is in video form is called Vlogging.

Don’t be surprised if I tell you approximately 409 million people view more than 20 billion pages per month;with more than 600 million blogs being present on the web.

The number of active bloggers in the USA alone, posting once a month, is over 31.7 million users. There four times as many bloggers in the U.S than in the UK ( the second most populated country within the blogosphere )
WordPress users publish 70 million posts each month with 77 million blog comments generated on a monthly basis.

People search”How to start a blog”121,000 times per month on Google according to Ahref’s statistics.


How blog is created?


Each blogger can have a different objective to start a blog. Most of the time a blog is created by 1 individual only for personal use. Such bloggers use blogging, instead of online journals and diaries, as a means to share their ideas and creativity to a much wider audience.

Business blogging has become really popular recently.

Blogging for business, make money (which is their primary objective) by ranking their website higher in Google SERPs and thus increase their online visibility. They thus get more consumers to buy their products and services.

Blogging thus helps them to grab the attention of a lot more consumers and make their website visible. There’s no denying that running a blog is an important part of the online marketing strategy used by many online marketers/businesses.


Why are many people blogging today?

  • To connect and socialize with your relevant audience and like-minded people.
  • It helps to boost your traffic thus sending quality leads to your website.
  • It helps a lot to organize your thoughts and ideas.
  • With proper monetization techniques, you can make a considerable amount of money
  • Running social media campaigns or influencing public opinions by raising awareness
  • To help others
  • To Find new jobs, for example, a photographer who posts all his pictures to gain visibility and find job offers.
  • To share knowledge and learn at the same time as you research more to bring up valuable posts
  • Blogging out of passion
  • Allows you to build a brand by showcasing your niche authority.

How Often should you blog and why?


Ideally, you should be coming up with new blog posts as frequently as possible and you should also aim for good quality valuable posts.

Thus your website’s chance of being discovered and ranking higher is more as well as the chance of being visited by your target audience.

A blog can act as an effective lead generation tool. Always remember to add a call to action (CTA) to your content. Thus you can convert your website traffic into high-quality leads.

You can build trust with your audience by creating valuable and engaging content that grabs your audience’s attention and let them beg for more.

This will increase your credibility especially if you are a beginner blogger.

Basic Blog structure


The appearance of blogs has evolved with time, and these days every blog has a unique structure, layout and normally includes widgets and other items.

Before writing your first post, always remember to include the following major components of a blog so as to keep up with the expectation of readers who visit your blog for the first time.

Header


One of the most important aspects and the very first thing a visitor sees on your site; the header of a blog is what lets you make a good impression.

You can easily customize the header of your blog, normally your brand name, with WordPress or programs like Photoshop. You can use fancy fonts for your header to catch the attention of visitors.


Main Blog Pages.


These should include important pages such as About Me, Contact, and homepage which helps visitors to know more about you or your business. Remember to make it easily accessible under the header for a good user experience.


Blog Posts


The most important component of your blog is, blog posts should be high quality, SEO-optimized (great title tags, introduction, and meta-description among all), and bring lots of value to your audience.

This will make sure to grab the attention of visitors and make them come back for more content thus growing your following.


Blog Comments

Building engagement with a comment section is really important and it also helps to rank higher on Google. Installing an anti-spam plugin like Akismet can help moderate comments that can cause harm to your blog Google.


Sidebar


This normally includes social media profiles link, favorite content that you want your audience to see, ads, and call-to-action.


Footer


This can include relevant links like a disclaimer, privacy policy, contact page, terms, and conditions as well as copyright policy.


Blog Categories


It helps to increase user experience as the latter can find the content they are looking for quickly. Generally found under the header section

Read the full post A blog post structure

Blogs and websites

What is a blog and what is a website? Is there a difference between the two? Many people are really confused about this question.
It gets even more confusing as many companies nowadays are integrating blogs into their websites.

Main difference between blogs and websites?

What is a Blog?

A Blog is a type of website which is frequently updated and whereby newer content appears first (reverse chronological order). A Blog is dynamic with blog content called “blog posts” added several times per day by some bloggers.

Additionally, Blogs keep the reader engaged via the comment section and where they make their concerns and thoughts known to the community.


What is a Website?

Websites, on the other hand, have content called “pages” which are static in nature and rarely updated.
Websites can be used for different purposes such as personal, business, Governmental, and Agencies.

These websites ( along with their contents) are hosted through Web hosting services which make the content available to the world wide web. Each website has a unique domain name.


The main difference between Blogs and Websites

Websites being static, visitors will not see any difference from one visit to the next whereas this is not the case with Blogs where Blog owners regularly update “blog posts” along with coming up with new “blob posts” on a regular basis(A Blog being dynamic)

What is blogging?


History


Blogging really started in the year 1993 and since then it has continuously evolved during the last 28 years to become “present-day’ blogging as you surely know it.

Rod Palmer was the first person who wrote the very first online journal(“blog’) which consisted mainly of plain text with no images or any fancy formatting.


Definition of blogging


Blogging is a collection of skills that are needed to run and maintain a blog by a person who is called a “blogger. It involves writing, posting, linking, and sharing content that is important, helpful, or interesting for others.


Why is blogging so popular?

Blogging is popular because anybody can do it easily. Regardless of anybody’s skills or profession, starting a blog nowadays is really very accessible. With all the blogging tools available today as well as themes, creating a blog is a piece of cake.

The more successful bloggers, one of them being Michelle of Makingsenseofcents, are making from six to up to eight-figure incomes from their blogs. Blogging has become an alternative career or side gig for many.

Most of them have quit their day jobs and are focussing entirely on their blogs. They are thus building successful online businesses.

If you haven’t started your blog yet, then you are missing out on a lot of opportunities.

Always talk about a topic that you are interested in, have minimal knowledge of, and are passionate about.

Thus you can express your opinion more easily and also you will not get bored in the long run and quit.

Who knows one day your website/blog might be one of the best in your particular niche with the work, motivation, and dedication that you put in?

Who is a blogger?

So who are bloggers? Bloggers are individuals who write regularly for an online journal or website. Their brain is trained to spot potential topics and write blog post about them.

They can write about every idea passing through their head and can post on topics ranging from arts, and home designs to finance articles.

Additionally, many bloggers are free in their own time and in any country they wish to travel. They have great liberty blogging and are constantly on the internet!

Once your blog receives enough attention and followers/fans, you can implement ways to monetize your blog unless you are doing it just as a hobby.


How blogs make money?

Bloggers who are making between $2k to $7.5k; their main income sources are; ads (35%), affiliates (27%), sponsored posts (14%), services/consulting (7%), and online courses (3%)-Source by Income tier.

You can as well good money as a blogger but as you might have heard before a lot of hard work, dedication and perseverance will be needed from you to reach that level. If somebody else can do it, why can’t you?

It won’t be an overnight success but if you put in the effort and learn the right techniques, nothing can stop you from achieving the same results as the greatest bloggers on the web.

Some of the most common blog monetization strategies are :

Advertising on Google AdSense

This ad platform from Google finds ads, displays them, and takes care of collecting payments from advertisers. You even have those payments sent directly to you for a small cut. However, it’s not really interesting for low-traffic beginner websites.

Becoming an affiliate partner

By promoting products on your website and earning a commission on successful sign-up/sales.

Selling digital products

You can sell eBooks or online courses or even offer them for free to start building up your email list.

Setting up an online store

You can read my full post on blog monetization strategies here

Do you Want to start a blog on your own?

Have you thought well (but not too long) before taking this important decision in your life?
Creating your own personal blog is really very easy as explained earlier. The first two things you will need to get started quickly is the best blogging platform (the most popular platform being without any doubt self-hosted,WordPress.org).

Do you know 30% of all websites on the internet are built using WordPress; thus you can choose to blog with WordPress with closed eyes.

You will also need a web hosting service. Bluehost, along with Siteground are two companies that could be a great web host choice for your blog.

Additionally, Bluehost offers a free domain name ( for the first year only), which is one of the first things you need to start a successful blog. After purchasing hosting with a free domain name included, Bluehost offers 1 click WordPress installation.

Conclusion: Blog Definition

I hope this article helped answer all your questions about what is a blog and what’s the difference between a blog and a website. Please leave a comment and don’t forget to share this article if you enjoyed reading it.

Related article: Registering a domain name

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About Ross

Ross is the founder of Hostingwhich, a free resource site where you can learn about Starting your own Blog & also find out about Web Host Services. Click here to learn more if you want to start a blog.