Simply put, a blog is a website, generally maintained by one person and containing regular entries (blogs) of information, descriptions or commentary. Utilizing text, video, graphics and links to other blogs or websites, blogs typically appear in reverse date order. Some blogs are maintained as a sort of on-line diary, while others are used to express opinions on everything from computer games to politics. A unique and important feature that almost all blogs share is the ability for other readers (bloggers) to leave comments pertaining to the original message. This allows for a lively discussion to occur. There are several different types of blogs.
Corporate Blogs
Corporate blogs are used in two separate ways. First, a company may have an internal blog used to disseminate information to their employees as well as support the business culture. Second, external blogs are used for public relations, branding or marketing. These external business blogs are known as corporate blogs.
Personal Blogs
Often written in a stream of conscious or reminiscent of a personal diary, this is the typical blog and the most popular form. Used in many cases as an informal way to communicate with friends and family, it is also not uncommon that no one reads the personal blog other than the writer. In this way a blog can become a source of reflection for the writer. It is important to note that some personal blogs become quite infamous and have extensive followings. Social networking sites such as Twitter and MySpace have made the art of personal blogging into an obsession for many people.
Question Blogging
Used to answer questions from submittal forms, email or other methods, Question Blogs (Qlogs) are a popular means of internet communication.
Video Blog
As one might assume a video blog (vlog) is a blog using video as its main medium. With the rise in popularity of sites such as YouTube, vlog’s are becoming more and more common. Mobile phones with video capabilities have allowed vbloggers to record and present the sights and sounds of their lives very quickly.
Other Media Blog
As blogging gains in popularity, the methods and modes used to produce them are changing. Linkblogs, sketchblogs and photoblogs are all gaining in popularity. Using links to direct readers to other sites, these new blog types are quickly becoming the fastest way to disseminate information on the internet.
Blogs are further categorized by the devise used to produce them (mobile phone, PDA, webcam) and the genre of their subject. Travel blogs, project blogs, fashion blogs, political blogs and others are quickly gaining in popularity as more and more high quality blogs are turning up all over the internet.
The power of the blog has become evident. Corporations use blogs to promote brand recognition, home based businesses use them to drive traffic to their website, and personal vblogs are often the focus of media attention. Whether a blog is used for business or personal reasons or in support of a social or moral cause, they are the easiest and quickest way to communicate with the world community via the internet.
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{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
I have a variety of different blogs – most of them focus on one niche or another and have a lot of informative only type of content. I started a blog a few months back that I originally was going to have informative stuff but decided that its time for me to write a more personal type of site, something that has opinions and reflections and more than just “this is how you do that” type of stuff. We’ll see how that goes
I think though after a few months it might become my best blog ever!
@Chelle: I am starting my network of informative blogs now too. Do you write content for your blogs yourself or do you hire writers? Also, are you updating those blogs on the daily basis?
I have a blog that incorporates misc. media/video blogs…with over 100000 blogs added each day its a wonder how any of these blogs go from nothing to all the attention..
informative post for the new bloggers
I really enjoyed reading your post. Very simple to understand. Blogging is very popular and beginners will be definitely benefited reading this. Keep it up. Keep Posting.
I was going from keeping years of handwritten journals to journaling personally online in the late 1990s at geocities. Blogging was not a word heard, then. I kept resistant as blogging became a free world’s race to grab money, fame and headlines away from those who focus in those areas professionally.
Nice start for people who wants to know more about blogging.
Great post to help other people who wants to start blogging. Please continue to share.
there is some good advice here…its definitely a good idea to write with your audience in mind