As part of my ‘Blogging For Beginners’ talk in May, I had promised I would roll out a number of short posts covering topics up for discussion. The great thing about that is the access for those in attendance to notes and archived material for reference after the talk.

To begin the Blogging For Beginners series, let’s look at the first question to ask yourself - what is a blog?

Definition Of A Blog

The term ‘blog’ is an amalgamation of the words ‘web’ and ‘log’ or weblog, representing a log or diary maintained online in some type of chronological order. Over the years the term has evolved from ‘weblog’ to ‘blog’. Those who maintain a blog and publish content to a blog are therefore known as bloggers.

Blogs to tend to deliver content in a chronological fashion, with the latest blog post entry sitting on the homepage of the blog, followed by the next most recent post, and the next etc.

A blog may contain text, images, audio, video and more. The joy of maintaining a blog online with a service like Blogger or Wordpress is the use of the CMS (content management system) type interface offered. You can start a blog with either of these services by registering an email address and password. Once registered, you are given the tools to publish your content and ideas, hitting the web with immediate effect without the need to learn any web programming language.

Uses Of A Blog

A blog may be used for any number of reasons

• A personal diary
• Keeping details of club events
• Publishing news on a particular topic
• Maintaining an online portfolio
• Showcasing your latest photography
• Sharing thoughts, opinions, tutorials and/or advice on any given topic.

Blog Statistics

Online blog monitoring service Technorati currently tracks 112.8 million blogs and over 250 million pieces of tagged social media, and that’s only coming from blogs registered with the service.

It is also estimated, at time of writing and again according to Technorati, that over 175,000 new blogs are created every day with over 1.6 million blog posts making their way to the web on a daily basis.

This post is part of the Blogging For Beginners series on ProFreelanceBlogger.com.

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