What is a blog

Many of my clients ask me "what is a blog?" Although this topic is not directly about free marketing, I do highly suggest blogging as a marketing tool. So with that thought in ind I thought.. I know... it's time to answer that question. What you are reading is a blog and there are a numerous types of blogs. A blog is everything from an online diary to a highly technical resource guide.


Definitions of blog on the Web:

A blog (a contraction of the term web log) is a website, usually maintained by an individual, with regular entries of commentary.
- wikipedia

"A blog is basically a journal that is available on the web. The activity of updating a blog is "blogging" and someone who keeps a blog is a "blogger."‘
- Houston Texas Computer Repair


A blog is a type of website that is arranged in chronological order from the most recent ‘post’ at the top of the blog page to the older entries below. Blogs can be written by one person or several and are updated daily, weekly or even monthly. Blogs are often (but not always) written on a particular topic such as cars, fashion, business or art. You can write a blogs on nearly any topic you can think of. In addition to a variety of subjects, blogs have also advanced into whole blogging communities. Topics in blogging communities also vary such as specific industry, hobbies or just on the topic of blogging for sharing ideas and business networking.



Archives
An archive is a list, a saving of previous postings. Look at the right side of this blog and look for the archive of previous postings I have written. When I write a post like this one it goes to the top of the archive list. As I add more posts it begins its journey down the page until it seems to disappear from the list. It is not deleted forever -- it goes into the ‘Archives’ of my blog.


Comments

Not all blogs use comments - but most do. Blogs who use comments are striving for a conversational type blog. You can give feedback on a blog by simply clicking on the ‘comments’ link at the bottom of the post. This will take you to a form where you leave your name, email, feedback and a link to your own blog (free marketing.) You can also leave critique, questions or why you love my blog. Try it now. Scroll to the bottom of this page, click ‘comments’ and fill in the blanks with a little introduction to yourself.

Types of blogs

Every blog service is different. Some blog services are free such as Blogger. Others charge a fee such as TypePad. All of them have features that allow you the blogger to personalize your blog.

Personal Blogs - The personal blog, an ongoing diary or commentary by an individual

Corporate Blogs - A blog can be private for employees only or it can be for marketing purposes.

Genre Blogs - Some blogs focus on a particular subject, such as political blogs, travel blogs, art, non profit and events.

Video blogging, often called vlogging is a form of blogging but with video instead of writing.

Mobile blogging often called moblogging is a form of blogging in which the user publishes blog directly to the web from a mobile phone or other mobile device.

Micro-blogging is a form of blogging that allows users to send brief updates of approximately 140 characters or fewer.

A podcast is a series of audio or video digital-media files that can sometimes be included in the blogging arena.

Liveblogging covers some type of live event such as a sports event or press conference.