Learn How To Blog
So you’ve heard about this “blog” thing and think it’s something you’d like to check out? Well over the next week or two, I’m going to post a series of articles designed to help you understand what blogging is and what it’s good for. I’ll also offer some insight into the “dos & don’ts” of blogging and give a high level overview of how to set up a blog. Want to generate some extra income? I’ll cover that too!
So what the heck is a blog? At the basic level, “blog” is short for “web log”. Blogs have become a popular way for many people to create their own identity on the internet. If you can dream it up, chances are someone is blogging about it somewhere! Blogs are typically easy to update so that people who may not be terribly computer savvy, can have their own blog and update it as needed.
Whats the difference between a blog and a website? Thats a good question. I think that more and more, blogs are becoming more like a website. Websites are typically more “static” in nature. Once a website is complete, they don’t typically change on a regular basis. Blogs on the other hand, are normally updated relatively frequently. That’s one reason search engines are fond of blogs. Search engines such as Google, like a site that has a lot of good, fresh content. If you’re writing and posting weekly or even daily, your blog will tend to be ranked well by the search engines. (If you don’t have a clue what those last 2 sentences mean, don’t worry…we’ll cover search engines and rankings in a later post). Many businesses now have blogs that can be quickly updated to announce news, changes, enhancements and assorted other information.
So what do you want to do with a blog? This is really the first question you want to ask yourself. Maybe you just want to blog about yourself or your life, much like a diary. Maybe you want to put up a site where friends and relatives across the US or world, can check in on from time to time and see how things are going with you or your family? You may want your blog to be very personal or you may want your blog to be very open and have an appeal to everyone. The choice is yours, but whatever you decide will likely determine the direction you take from this point on.
It’s easy just to jump into creating a blog with no real direction, but this isn’t a good idea. If you have no direction, you’ll end up writing a few posts then decide it’s too much trouble to keep up with and let it go downhill from there. The secret to creating a good blog, is to write about something that really interests you! It really doesn’t matter what that is, cooking, sports, ATV’s fast cars, religion, country living. The opportunities are absolutely endless! The more focused the blog, the more likely you’ll be to pick up a following crowd that will subscribe to your blog and read it on a consistent basis, (provided that is what you’re looking for). For instance, you may enjoy raising puppies. Raising puppies might garner some appeal, but the pros and cons of raising a specific breed of dog would likely be more interesting to a more focused group of people. You see….we live in a world where you can go log into a computer, pull up your favorite search engine and find exactly what you’re looking for in a matter of seconds. Raising puppies is a pretty broad search. Breeding and raising Norwegian Elkhounds is more likely to appeal to a particular reader or group of readers.
So just as an overview, a blog can be thought of as a website that allows the owner to easily and quickly update the content. It can be very personal with the intent of sharing primarily with friends and family, or you can create blogs that cater to a certain group of people. The more focused the blog, the more traffic and followers you’re likely to attract. Perhaps you can begin to see how you can make a blog profitable? If you create something that people want to read about, you can easily market products & services to that particular group of people!
Thats an overview of a blog. I could probably dig a lot deeper, but hopefully I’ll cover all you need to know in future posts. For the person that is just becoming familiar with and interested in blogging, it’s easy to hit “information overload” very quickly! I’d prefer to spread things out a little.
If you have questions or comments, PLEASE feel free to contact me or post your comment here.
Thanks and have a wonderful day!
Chris
