A
Basic Introduction to Blogging
By Mal Keenan
Web logging first appeared
on the net in the mid-1990s. The term “web log”
was initially coined refer to a server’s log
file and then expanded to include the meaning of online
personal journaling. Later on, to avoid confusion,
the word “blog” was adopted to refer to
personal journaling. Today a blog is defined as an
online publication where an author puts his or her
personal thoughts and opinions from the most intimate
to corporate ideas, concerns or events, in chronological
order on the net.
Although, there are as many
kinds of blogs on line as there are people, most of
these will roughly fall into these kind of bloggers:
Personal Bloggers (the original use of blogging),
then there are the organizational and business Bloggers.
Organizational blogs are meant
to facilitate communications between its internal
and external audiences. It may also provide information
for the external publics’ use.
Business blogs promote products
or services for profit. They also increase awareness
about the company, as well as establish itself as
an authority with customers, vendors, through publications
that demonstrate their expertise in the market.
What are the kinds of contents
that readers can find in a blog that’s for distribution?
The authors’ ideas, opinions, expertise in his/her
field of work, resumes, and home recipes, pictures,
streaming audio or video clips, e-books, poetry, works,
products, services and consultations.
Why have blogs become very
popular compared to websites or email? Most websites
are infrequently updated, while blogs have instant
publishing tools which permit the author to regularly
update & introduce new content. Although both
have great content, websites are usually impersonal
in informing their audience. While blogs allow the
readers to leave their comments and feedback, to hold
two-conversations with the author, who usually does
the publishing and can immediately respond to his/her
readers.
The blogs’ abilities to
reach and immediately react to an expanding mass of
audience have made businesses and marketers use these
as a strategic marketing tool. Additionally blogs
are very efficient, cheap to use and can quickly distribute
information.
However, before you decide
to jump on the blogging bandwagon, take time to find
out what are your objectives for creating your own
blog. Is it a personal, organizational or business
blog? This will help you decide on what your blog
will contain, where you’d place it and what publishing
tools you’ll be using.
Copyright 2005 Mal Keenan
For more information on blogging
and other aspects of Internet Marketing and Home Business
visit Mal Keenan's personal blog: http://www.home-business-tips-newsletter.com/blog/
