About Blogs and Blogging

-By Pujan S Mehta (2008)

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction to Blogs
    1. What is a Blog?
    2. Terms related to blogs
    3. Pros and Cons of Blogging
    4. Future of Blogs
  2. How to make a blog?
    1. Systems available dedicated to blogging
    2. Common features of a blogging system
    3. Supporting Technology
  3. Why to make a blog?
  4. Categories of blog
  5. Guidelines to start a blog
  6. Marketing and increasing traffic for your blog
  7. How do bloggers make money from blogs?
  8. Introduction to My Blog
  9. References

Blogs: My research on what is a blog, how to make one, how to market it and attract audience, how to categorize it, technologies to use, how to make money blogging.

What is a blog?

A blog is a website in where you write your point of views on a particular topic and you can interact with other people on web with similar interest by the means of comments. A blog is a personal diary, a collaborative space, apolitical soapbox, a breaking-news outlet, a collection of links, and your own private thoughts. Most of the times it is written by a single individual compared to group writing. Blog is not a static web page, most of the times it is updates on a daily or weekly or monthly bases depending on the writer. A typical blog consists of text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic. The comment feature of blog is a revolutionary step of making web a two-way conversation compared to the old days when the Internet was just an informational tool. In the early life of the World Wide Web some 20 years ago, websites were simple and provided a one-sided conversation. That all changed with the evolution of Web 2.0 (the social web) wherein user-generated content became an integral part of the online world. Today, users expect websites to provide a two-way conversation and web logs (or blogs) were born.

Terms related to blog:

Blogging: The act of writing a post for a blog

Blogger: A person who writes content for a blog

Blogosphere: The online community of blogs and bloggers

Pros of blogging:

· Express yourself to the whole wide world free of cost.

· Social Networking: Make new friends and connect with people having similar likings as yours.

· Opportunity to be more creative: Come up with new and creative ideas to enhance your blog.

· Earn money: Lots of sources available to make your blog worth some dollars.

· It’s an easy, cheap and fast publishing tool.

Cons of blogging:

· It asks for lots of commitment.

· It consumes time.

· Most of the times, it’s a solo effort.

· The emergence of blogging has brought a range of legal liabilities and other often unforeseen consequences.

· Blogging can sometimes result into defamation of people, community, race etc.

· Blogging can result into releasing proprietary or confidential information.

· Personal safety: Sometimes expressing your views on a sensitive topic might create animosity against you.

The Future of Blogs:

Blogging will become even more powerful in the future with more people and businesses recognizing the power of bloggers as online influencers. Everyone will have their own blog in future, like they have an email address today.

How to make a blog?

There are many systems available dedicated to blogging:

· Blogger - one of the most popular free blogging systems available now owned by Google.

· WordPress - an alternative free blogging system.

· Bloglines - another free system which offers blogging alongside other facilities such as search and personalized subscriptions to blogs and news sources.

· Typepad - a subscription based blogging system aimed at commercial applications.

· Elgg - An open source (non-commercial) social networking system that can host a community of blogs (Elgg is the system used at Leeds).

Common features of a blogging system:

· Tools that allow text, images, video etc to be incorporated in blog entries very easily.

· A search facility.

· Facility for blog readers to add public comments to each post.

· Automated archiving of previous entries.

· A news feed which allows readers to subscribe to a specific blog and be automatically alerted to new posts.

· Tools and features that allow the owner to make money via his/her blog.

Blogs can be created by the people with very less technical knowhow, that’s one of its very important features. But if you want to enhance you blog you have a decent functional understanding of a variety of web technologies:

· Blog publishing software

· HTML/CSS

· Blog comments (and comment spam)

· RSS/syndication

· Feed aggregators

· Pings

· Trackbacks

· Search engines

· Search engine optimization (SEO)

· Page rank

· Social bookmarking

· Tagging

· Contextual advertising

· Traffic statistics

· Email

· Podcasting, instant messaging, PHP or other web scripting languages.

But a big question is, Why to make a blog?

There are many reasons to start a blog; few of them are listed below:

· Express your thoughts and opinions on some topic of your interest.

· To market or promote some product of your company or other company.

· To Help People who may be going through similar situations that the blogger has experienced.

· To establish yourself as an expert: Blogs are wonderful tools to help bloggers establish themselves as experts in a field or topic as they are continuously in search of new information available on their topic.

· To connect with people having similar likings as yours.

· To make a Difference by making political blogs and social issues blogs which tries to make a difference in their own ways.

· To stay connected with friends and family

· To Make Money: With patience and practice, you can make money through advertising and other income-generating activities on your blog.

· And of course to have fun and be creative: Many people start a blog simply for fun. One of the most important keys to successful blogging is having a passion about your blog's topic, so you can write prolifically about it.

Categories of blogs:

From the above listed reasons to making a blog, we can categorize the blog as:

Personal blogs: Written for sharing personal data with selected friends and family members

Public blogs: This can further be categorized as News blogs, Political blogs, Social issue blogs, Marketing and promotion blogs, and many more.

Profile blog: A prospective employee can make a profile blog in which he/she can have his/her resume, description of his previous work experience and sample projects and presentations, description of the educational background. This profile will give a thorough understanding of the person and will make the employer’s hiring decision easier.

Blogs are also written by politicians, musicians, novelists, sports figures, newscasters and other notable figures for their fans and readers.

To start a blog, you should follow the following guidelines:

· Define Your Goals: You should know exactly what you are going to write in your blog.

· Know Your Audience: You should know whom you are targeting.

· Timeliness: Update your blog frequently with new and meaningful content which will force your audience to visit your blog again and again.

· Be Inviting: You should try to answer as many queries as possible in your blog; this will show that audience that you really care about them and will increase their loyalty towards your blog.

· Social Networking: Socialize with people with social networks and promote your blog.

· Take Risks: Do not hesitate to do some changes in the look and design of your blog. This is your chance to show your creativity, so take full advantage of it.

· Ask for Help: Whenever you have any query, do ask your fellow bloggers as their feedback can be very helpful for you.

· Be Yourself: People read blogs to get bloggers' opinions on the news, the world, life and more. Don't blog like a reporter, blog like you're having a conversation with each of your readers. Blog from your heart.

Marketing and increasing traffic for your blog:

· Search Engines: Submit your blog to Search Engines

· Blog Rolls: Use Blog rolls and have links to few other blogs which will increase your audience.

· RSS Feed: RSS feed button on your blog makes it easy for your loyal readers to not just read your blog but also know when you publish new content.

· Use Links and Trackbacks: Linking helps to get you noticed by other bloggers who are likely to investigate the sites that are linking to them. This may lead them to become new readers of your blog or to add links to your blog from theirs.

· Advertise in Social Networks about your blog.

· Try to have images and videos in your blog, this will attract audience.

· Invite others to write on your blog and similarly you should also consider writing in other’s blog.

· Promote Outside Your Blog: Add your blog's URL to your email signature and business cards. Talk about it in offline conversations. It's important to get your name and your blog's URL noticed offline, too.

How do bloggers make money from blogs?

Advertising Programs - The most common way bloggers seem to earn money online is via the contextual ad program from Google – Adsense, Azoogle Ads, Intelli Txt, DoubleClick, Tribal Fusion, Adbrite, Clicksor, AdHearUs, Kanoodle, Pheedo, TextAds, Bidvertiser, Fastclick and many more.

RSS Advertising.

Sponsorship – Companies pay the bloggers to write about the company’s product and promote it.

Help sell others' products - Here is another click-through opportunity. Affiliate programs enable your blog to serve as a conduit between readers and online sites offering various goods and services. One popular choice is Amazon.com.

Digital Assets – Have a monthly/annual subscription plan for your blog.

Blog Network Opportunities- Blogging for an established network who will handle a lot of the set up/promotion/admin/SEO etc and will not only pay you, but also make your life easy.

Business Blog Writing Opportunities - Many of these companies have internal staff take on blogging duties, but an increasing number of them are hiring specialist bloggers to come on and run their blogs.

Selling Blogs – Once your blog is famous and grows bigger day-day, you can have an option of selling it to some company or individual who will profit by your blog.

Consulting and Speaking - Bloggers with no consulting background are able to make money by charging readers for their time in consulting scenarios BECAUSE of the profile that their blogs have built them. Blogging has the ability to establish people as experts on niche topics.

Companies can market their services by making a blog; this will save them money on advertising. They can also use blog to deepen their customer relationship.

As time rolls on there are more and more ways that bloggers make money from their blogs opening up.

My Blog:

Name: All in One (All necessary information for prospective student in one page)

URL: http://uratrightplace.blogspot.com/

Reason for this topic: I was so confused when I was a prospective student as there were very less amount of information available. So I came up with this topic and I tried to answers all the queries which I use to have when I was a prospective student, in this way I can very much aware of my audience’s requirements.

My audience: 70,000 students who apply for MS program in USA every year.

My advertising methods: Mouth to Mouth, social networks like Orkut, links to other similar blogs and I have also requested the President of Student council of India to have my blog’s link in their website which is also for prospective students.

Posts: 14 till 30th March 2008

Money Stream: Google Adsense

Authors: Invited two of my friends from other university to share their point of views.

Comments: 60 till 30th March.

Second version is under construction which is entirely dedicated to UMCP students as I get lots of question from the prospective students who want to join UMCP.



References:

· http://www.wired.com/entertainment/theweb/news/2007/12/blog_anniversary

· http://weblogs.about.com/od/startingablog/p/WhatIsABlog.htm

· http://weblogs.about.com/od/bloggingtips/tp/TipsBeginnerBloggers.htm

· http://weblogs.about.com/od/bloggingtips/tp/TipsIncreaseBlogTraffic.htm

· http://weblogs.about.com/od/startingablog/Starting_a_Blog_Blogging_Basics_for_the_Beginner_Blogger.htm

· http://www.sddu.leeds.ac.uk/online_resources/blogging/what_is.html

· http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-blogs.htm

· http://www.ideamarketers.com/?Earn_Money_by_Blogging&articleid=257465

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