Beginning Blogging: What is a blog?

You mean you don’t know what blogging is? That’s okay. All the time I am asked the question, “What’s a blog, anyway, and how does it differ from a regular website?”

A blog is a website

The word blog is short for web log, which is a type of website. A blog differs from a traditional website in two ways: First, a blog is not static. Second, blog entries usually provide a place for readers to leave comments. A blog is about the easiest way to have a website.

A blog contains articles called posts.

A blog is really an internet publishing platform that is very easy to use and update. Entries in a blog are called articles or blog posts. Blog posts are in reverse chronological order. This means that when someone lands on a blog page, they see the most current and relevant information first. New information is usually added to a blog from several times a day to once a week or so. A website, on the other hand, is usually only changed when needed. The information on a static website may be months, or even years, old. A blog is usually full of fresh information that is updated frequently.

Blog readers can leave comments

Blog Comments can be left by readers and the blog author can respond to these comments. This encourages a dialog between the person who owns the blog and the readers. Readers can also respond to other readers. This fosters discussions, which are fun and informative.

(Note: I’m often asked how to leave a comment on a blog when the comment box isn’t visible. Just click on the post title -not the title of the blog- but the title of the article. It will bring up the whole article and the comment section. This is a simple thing that many beginning bloggers don’t realize.)

Posts are kept in a database.

The fact that posts are in a database makes accessing them super easy. Most blogs classify the posts into categories and archives. This makes finding things simple because you can search by a topic or by a date. Categories are the way posts are organized by topic and archives are organized by date, usually grouped into months. An example is this post you are reading right now. It is in the category blogging tips and the archive December 2009.

Blogs have tags.

An element of blogs that is particularly confusing to people is tags. Blog tags are like micro-categories. They are like adding an index for a specific post. So when entering a tag, you don’t need to repeat the category you put the post in. People can search for a tag and all posts with the same tag will be linked.

Now that you know what a blog is, don’t you feel smarter? If you want to know more about blogs, stay tuned. Blogs are the hot topic for this cold month of December, with several more articles coming up.

What kinds of things about blogs would you like to learn? I’m asking because many of my clients ask about blogs. This series of posts is a way for me to answer their questions, so I’m curious what other blog question people have.

Speaking of upcoming articles, if you enjoyed this one and don’t want to miss the next article, sign up for my RSS feed. It can be delivered right to your email box.

Next up: Types of blogs