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EVER WONDERED “WHAT IS A BLOG, AND WHAT DOES IT DO?” IN THIS INTRODUCTION TO BLOGGING FOR BEGINNERS, WE ANSWER YOUR BASIC QUESTIONS ABOUT BLOGGING, INCLUDING A LOOK AT THE THREE DIFFERENT TYPES OF BLOGS.
Surely you’ve heard the term “blog”, but do you know what it means?
What is a Blog?
The dictionary lists the definition of a blog as:
blog /bläɡ/
noun
- a regularly updated website or web page, typically one run by an individual or small group, that is written in an informal or conversational style.
verb
- add new material to or regularly update a blog.”it’s about a week since I last blogged”
A blog is short for “weblog,” a term that originated in the 90’s, and was shortened to “blog” a few years later.
It’s a website full of individual blog posts (otherwise known as articles) written about any topic, usually for the purpose of sharing information with others.
The Three Different Types of Blogs:
There are primarily three different types of blogs on the internet, each with a different purpose and strategy.
The three types are:
- Personal
- Promotional
- Informative
A PERSONAL BLOG
Sometimes, people start a personal blog as a form of an online journal.
They use it as a place to share their thoughts or happenings in their daily life.
This is how I got started as a blogger.
My very first site was a personal blog where I wrote about living in Hawaii with my husband (then an Active-Duty Marine), mostly for the purpose of having a creative outlet and keeping family in the loop.
A PROMOTIONAL BLOG
The second type people may have is a promotional blog; used primarily as a marketing tool to promote a business, product, or service.
The second site I started was promotional; it was a photography blog.
I started my portrait photography business while living in Hawaii, and I began sharing my photo shoots on my photography blog.
It not only served as a way for people to see my work but also was fantastic for Google SEO.
A promotional blog can work as an add on to most any website.
Whether you’re a realtor, builder, plumber, hair stylist or life coach, (or anything in between), blogging can be used as a promotional tool for your business to help you reach more people.
The added bonus? It helps to further reinforce you as the “expert” in whatever field you are in.
AN INFORMATIVE BLOG
The last type is an informative blog; this is a site that teaches someone about something.
It could be about couponing, traveling with kids, eating paleo, or hunting for agates.
An informative blog teaches you something.
Most informative sites have a goal of earning revenue; they’re usually run as a business.
(Yes, it IS possible to make money from blogging, and informative sites are the main money-makers.)
WHAT IS A VLOG?
You might have heard the term vlog too, or vlogger as opposed to blogger.
A vlogger is someone who posts videos instead of writing posts.
Vloggers may also teach and inform, but many vloggers are lifestyle vloggers which means they are filming and sharing their daily lives.
It’s sort of like a reality TV show, but without the production crew or script.
– – – – –
They might not be the prettiest words in the English language but blogs and vlogs make up a big part of the internet.
Bloggers and vloggers are working hard every day to create content that others are searching for.
Whether it’s a personal, promotional, or informative blog, the internet is waiting for you to stake a claim on a corner of it.
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