WHAT IS A BLOG?

A blog (a shortened version of “weblog”) is an online journal or informational website displaying

information in reverse chronological order, with the latest posts appearing first, at the top. It is a
platform where a writer or a group of writers share their views on an individual subject.

Some blogs operate mainly as news filters, collecting various online sources and adding short
comments and Internet links. Other blogs concentrate on presenting original material. In addition, many
blogs provide a forum to allow visitors to leave comments and interact with the publisher. “To blog” is
the act of composing material for a blog. Materials are largely written, but pictures, audio, and videos
are important elements of many blogs. The “blogosphere” is the online universe of blogs.

Quick History of Blog

 It’s generally recognized that the first blog was Links.net, created by Justin Hall, while he was a
Swarthmore College student in 1994. Of course, at that time they weren’t called blogs, and he
just referred to it as his personal homepage.
 It wasn’t until 1997 that the term “weblog” was coined. The word’s creation has been attributed
to Jorn Barger, of the influential early blog Robot Wisdom. The term was created to reflect the
process of “logging the web” as he browsed.
 1998 marks the first known instance of a blog on a traditional news site, when Jonathan Dube
blogged Hurricane Bonnie for The Charlotte Observer.
 “Weblog” was shortened to “blog” in 1999 by programmer Peter Merholz. It’s not until five years
later that Merriam-Webster declares the word their word of the year.
 The original blogs were updated manually, often linked from a central home page or archive. This
wasn’t very efficient, but unless you were a programmer who could create your own custom
blogging platform, there weren’t any other options to begin with.
 During these early years, a few different “blogging” platforms cropped up. LiveJournal is
probably the most recognizable of the early sites.
 And then, in 1999, the platform that would later become Blogger was started by Evan Williams
and Meg Hourihan at Pyra Labs. Blogger is largely responsible for bringing blogging to the
mainstream.

The Growth Period

The early 2000s were a period of growth for blogs. In 1999, according to a list compiled by Jesse James
Garrett, there were 23 blogs on the internet. By the middle of 2006, there were 50 million blogs
according to Technorati‘s State of the Blogosphere report. To say that blogs experienced exponential
growth is a bit of an understatement.

Political blogs were some of the most popular early blogs. Some political candidates started using blogs
during this time period, including Howard Dean and Wesley Clark.

One important event in the rise of blogging was when bloggers focused on the comments U.S. Senate
Majority Leader Trent Lott said regarding U.S. Senator Strom Thurmond in 2002. Lott, while praising
Thurmond, stated that the U.S. would have been better off if Thurmond had been elected President in
1948. During that race, Thurmond was a strong supporter of racial segregation (though his position
changed later in his political career). The mainstream media didn’t pick up on the comments and their
potential implications until after bloggers broke the story.

In-depth topic blogs were also becoming more popular during this time. They often delved much deeper
into current news and pop culture than mainstream media sources, in addition to commenting directly
on what traditional media was reporting.

By 2001, there was enough interest in blogging that some how-to articles and guides started cropping
up. Now, “meta blogs” (blogs about blogging) make up a sizable portion of the most popular and
successful blogs out there.

A number of popular blogs got their start in the early 2000s, including Boing Boing, Dooce, Gizmodo,
Gawker (the first major gossip blog to launch), Wonkette, and the Huffington Post. Weblogs, Inc. was
started by Jason Calacanis in 2003, and was then sold to AOL for $25 million. It was that sale that helped
to cement blogs as a force to be reckoned with rather than just a passing fad.

A couple of major blogging platforms got their start in the early 2000s. Version 1.0 of Movable Type was
released in September of 2001.

WordPress was started in 2003, though parts of its development date back to 2001. TypePad was also
released in 2003, based on Movable Type.

Some peripheral services to the blogosphere also started in the early 2000s. Technorati, the first major
blog search engine, was launched in 2002. Audioblogger, the first major podcasting service, was founded
in 2003. The first video blogs started in 2004, more than a year before YouTube was founded.

Also launched in 2003 was the AdSense advertising platform, which was the first ad network to match
ads to the content on a blog. AdSense also made it possible for bloggers without huge platforms to start
making money from when they first started blogging (though payments to low-traffic blogs weren’t very
large).

Once bloggers started making money from their blogs, the number of meta blogs skyrocketed. Bloggers
like Darren Rowse (of Problogger.net and Digital-Photography-School.net) and John Chow made sizable
amounts of money telling other bloggers how they could turn blogging into a full-time career.

One early event that highlighted the rising importance of blogs was the firing of Heather Armstrong, the
blogger behind Dooce, for comments posted on her blog regarding her employer. This event happened in
2002, and sparked a debate over privacy issues, that still hasn’t been sufficiently put to rest by 2011.

“Dooced” became a slang term to describe being fired from one’s job for something you’ve written on
your blog, and has made appearances in Urban Dictionary, and even on Jeopardy!

Blogs Reach the Mainstream

By the mid-2000s, blogs were reaching the mainstream. In January of 2005, a study was released saying
that 32 million Americans read blogs. At the time, it’s more than ten percent of the entire population.
The same year, Garrett M. Graff was granted White House press credentials, the first blogger ever to do
so.
A number of mainstream media sites started their own blogs during the mid to late 2000s, or teamed up
with existing blogs to provide additional coverage and commentary. By 2004, political consultants,
candidates, and mainstream news organizations all began using blogs more prominently. They provided
the perfect vehicle for broadcasting editorial opinion and reaching out to readers and viewers.

Mainstream media sources are also teaming up with existing blogs and bloggers, rather than just setting
out on their own. Take, for example, the regular posts on CNN.com from Mashable editors and writers.
Another good example is the purchase of TechCrunch and associated blogs by AOL, which, while not a
traditional media source, is one of the oldest internet companies still in existence.

During this time, the number of blogs grew even more, with more than 152 million blogs active by the
end of 2010. Virtually every mainstream news source now has at least one blog, as do many
corporations and individuals.

The Rise of Microblogs and Tumblogs

A lot of people only think of Twitter when they think of microblogging, but there are other microblog
(also called tumblog) platforms that allow for a more traditional type of blogging experience, while also
allowing for the social networking features of Twitter (like following other bloggers).

Tumblr was the first major site to offer this kind of service, starting in 2007. They allow for a variety of
different post types, unlike traditional blogging services, which have a one-size-fits-all post format (that
allows users to format their posts however they want, including adding multimedia objects).

It also makes it easier for users to reblog the content of others, or to like individual posts (sort of like
Facebook’s “like” feature).

Posterous is another, similar service. Launched in 2008, Posterous allows bloggers to set up a simple blog
via email, and then submit content either via their online editor or by email.

Posterous is sometimes considered more of a lifestreaming app than a blogging platform, thought it’s
technically both.

The Future of Blogging

Eight to ten years ago, blogs were becoming the primary point of communication for individuals online.
But with the advent of social media and social networking in the past five years, blogs have become only
one portion of an individual’s online persona.

Vlogs and podcasts have also taken on a bigger role in the blogosphere, with a lot of bloggers opting to
use primarily multimedia content. Services that cater to these kinds of posts (like Tumblr and Posterous)
are likely to keep growing in popularity.

With new services like Quora coming onto the market, there’s the possibility that the blogosphere will
shrink, and more people will turn to sites like these to get information. But services like Quora also
provide valuable tools for bloggers, as they give insight into what people really want to know about a
topic.
Blogs are unlikely to go anywhere in the foreseeable future. But there’s a lot of room for growth and
innovation in method in which their content is found, delivered, and accessed.

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Blog Structure
The appearance of blogs has changed over time, and these days blogs include a wide variety of items
and widgets. However, most blogs still include some standard features and structures.

Here are common features that a typical blog will include:

 Header with the menu or navigation bar.

 Main content area with highlighted or latest blog posts.

 Sidebar with social profiles, favorite content, or call-to-action.

 Footer with relevant links like a disclaimer, privacy policy, contact page, etc.

Types of Blogs
There are many different types of blogs, differing not only in the type of content, but also in the way that
content is delivered or written.

1. Personal Blogs

The personal blog is an ongoing online diary or commentary written by an individual, rather than a
corporation or organization. While the vast majority of personal blogs attract very few readers, other
than the blogger's immediate family and friends, a small number of personal blogs have become
 popular, to the point that they have attracted lucrative advertising sponsorship. A tiny number of
personal bloggers have become famous, both in the online community and in the real world.

2. Collaborative Blogs or Group Blogs

A type of weblog in which posts are written and published by more than one author. The majority of
high-profile collaborative blogs are organized according to a single uniting theme, such as politics,
technology or advocacy. In recent years, the blogosphere has seen the emergence and growing
popularity of more collaborative efforts, often set up by already established bloggers wishing to pool
time and resources, both to reduce the pressure of maintaining a popular website and to attract a
larger readership.

3. Microblogging

Microblogging is the practice of posting small pieces of digital content—which could be text,
pictures, links, short videos, or other media—on the Internet. Microblogging offers a portable
communication mode that feels organic and spontaneous to many users. It has captured the public
imagination, in part because the short posts are easy to read on the go or when waiting. Friends use
it to keep in touch, business associates use it to coordinate meetings or share useful resources, and
celebrities and politicians (or their publicists) microblog about concert dates, lectures, book releases,
or tour schedules. A wide and growing range of add-on tools enables sophisticated updates and
interaction with other applications. The resulting profusion of functionality is helping to define new
possibilities for this type of communication. Examples of these include Twitter,
Facebook, Tumblr and, by far the largest, WeiBo.

4. Corporate and Organizational Blogs

A blog can be private, as in most cases, or it can be for business or not-for-profit organization or
government purposes. Blogs used internally, and only available to employees via an Intranet are
called corporate blogs. Companies use internal corporate blogs enhance the communication, culture
and employee engagement in a corporation. Internal corporate blogs can be used to communicate
news about company policies or procedures, build employee esprit de corps and improve morale.
Companies and other organizations also use external, publicly accessible blogs for marketing,
branding, or public relations purposes. Some organizations have a blog authored by their executive;
in practice, many of these executive blog posts are penned by a ghostwriter, who makes posts in the
style of the credited author. Similar blogs for clubs and societies are called club blogs, group blogs, or
by similar names; typical use is to inform members and other interested parties of club and member
activities.

5. Aggregated Blogs

Individuals or organization may aggregate selected feeds on specific topic, product or service and
provide combined view for its readers. This allows readers to concentrate on reading instead of
searching for quality on-topic content and managing subscriptions. Many such aggregation called
planets from name of Planet (software) that perform such aggregation, hosting sites usually
have planet. subdomain in domain name (like http://planet.gnome.org/).

6. By Genre
 Some blogs focus on a particular subject, such as political blogs, journalism blogs, health blogs, travel
blogs (also known as travelogs), gardening blogs, house blogs, Book Blogs, fashion blogs, beauty
blogs, lifestyle blogs, party blogs, wedding blogs, photography blogs, project blogs, psychology blogs,
sociology blogs, education blogs, niche blogs, classical music blogs, quizzing blogs, legal blogs (often
referred to as a blawgs), or dreamlogs. How-to/Tutorial blogs are becoming increasing popular. Two
common types of genre blogs are art blogs and music blogs. A blog featuring discussions especially
about home and family is not uncommonly called a mom blog. While not a legitimate type of blog,
one used for the sole purpose of spamming is known as a splog.

7. By Media Type

A blog comprising videos is called a vlog, one comprising links is called a linklog, a site containing a
portfolio of sketches is called a sketchblog or one comprising photos is called a photoblog. Blogs with
shorter posts and mixed media types are called tumblelogs. Blogs that are written on typewriters
and then scanned are called typecast or typecast blogs. A rare type of blog hosted on the Gopher
Protocol is known as a phlog.

8. By Device

A blog can also be defined by which type of device is used to compose it. A blog written by a mobile
device like a mobile phone or PDA could be called a moblog. One early blog was Wearable Wireless
Webcam, an online shared diary of a person's personal life combining text, video, and pictures
transmitted live from a wearable computer and EyeTap device to a web site. This practice of semi-
automated blogging with live video together with text was referred to as sousveillance. Such journals
have been used as evidence in legal matters.

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Examples of Free Blog Sites

Wix (www.wix.com)

Wix is a free website builder that can be totally managed from the front-end. The main characteristic of
this platform is that it comes with drag-and-drop options, so you don’t have to handle anything in the
back-end. The design is very intuitive and modern, which can be used by both beginners and advanced.

The nice thing about Wix is that it has free hosting included, so you just need to arrange the layouts, pick
a template, and you’re all set. It provides a nice collection of free and premium themes and templates
for different purposes, including blogging.

To launch a Wix blog, just sign up and make a choice: you can either let the Wix ADI create a site for you
based on a questionnaire or build your blog yourself – which includes selecting a template and arranging
the layouts via the WYSIWYG editor. If you go with the second option, all you need to do is to find a
beautiful template and start customizing everything on the front-end, in a live preview mode.
You can add multiple elements to your pages, from multimedia widgets to backgrounds, menus,
typography, forms, video boxes etc. When you think the site is ready, click Publish and start blogging
your stories. After publishing, you can return anytime to edit the content blocks.

WordPress (www.wordpress.org)
WordPress.org is the king of free blogging sites. It is a free platform, but you need to build the site mostly
by yourself afterward. You also have to host the software yourself. While you can find some free
WordPress hosting, a better long-term strategy is to pay a moderate amount for a solid WordPress host.

This is where Bluehost comes into play. Not only is it very cheap (the Basic plan starts at just $2.75 per
month when you sign up for three years), but it also provides solid features, including a free domain
name, 50GB of disk space, unmetered bandwidth, free SSL, and 100MB of email storage per account. At
this very moment, Bluehost is the cheapest sensible WordPress hosting you can find out there.

Because you’re hosting the WordPress software yourself, you have full control over how your site looks
and functions, as well as how you make money from your site. But the flip side is that the setup process
is a little bit more hands-on.

LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com)

You probably didn’t see this one coming. LinkedIn isn’t most people’s first choice when considering
which of the free blogging sites to choose. That being said, it really does deserve some attention!

Two main reasons for this: easy to use tools, and pre-existing audience.

About that second thing – the audience – what’s great about LinkedIn’s user base is that those are highly
focused users, professionals and business owners. In fact, it’s reported that more than 30 million
businesses are active on LinkedIn. And they’re not just there for the sake of it. Other data indicates that
94% of B2B marketers use the platform as one of their primary lead sources.

In short, LinkedIn just works as a platform where you can get exposure, and this makes it one of the best
free blogging sites of them all.

From a technical point of view, publishing on LinkedIn is easy. Just go to your LinkedIn feed and use the
“Start a post” widget at the top of the page. To convert your status into a full post, click on “Write an
article on LinkedIn” to open the full-screen editing window.

This is where you can find all the editing tools that you’re used to – for text formatting, adding images,
and more.

Weebly (www.weebly.com)

Weebly is another website builder that you can use not only to blog but also to sell products or
showcase your portfolio. It is somewhat similar to Wix to the extent that it provides a WYSIWYG editor
with drag-and-drop elements. If you want to add a certain button, you can simply drag it to the page and
customize it. The same happens with photo galleries, slideshows, and any other multimedia element.
Weebly provides sidebars, media boxes, forms, ad spaces, social media icons, newsletter subscription,
and many more. Moreover, the platform comes with built-in analytics and lets you use your own
customized domain (for which you need to pay).

On the free plan, you get five custom pages, a Weebly subdomain, 500MB storage, and ad spaces.

Blogger (www.blogger.com)

Blogger is one of the oldest free blog sites, though its popularity has dipped in recent years.

It’s a solid solution for personal blogs, but it’s not the best resource for professional use. It works just like
the other hosted platforms: you need to create an account first in order to use it. After you create it
(which is simple), you have to pick one of the default themes and you can start writing your thoughts
down. This platform has an interface similar to a Google+ profile and the editor looks like a Word page.

Blogger delivers a bunch of themes to choose from, each providing different skins, advanced color
filtering, and various minimalist gadgets (aka widgets). But nothing too fancy or any advanced design
customization. In general, Blogger has simple appearance options, so the focus stays more on the writing
part. A nice part about this site is that it comes with ad spaces that you can place within your content
pieces.

Tumblr (www.tumblr.com)

Tumblr is one of the original free blogging sites on the web. It’s just a bit ‘milder’ than the others on the
list. Unlike the rest of the platforms that are mostly created for publishing purposes, this one here is
more oriented to multimedia or social media-like content. The interface of Tumblr is more playful and is
easy to get started with – you can simply sign up and then you’re allowed to start posting.

Just like a regular blogging platform, it provides multiple post formats for different types of content. The
thing with Tumblr is that it is purely for personal use and wouldn’t put up a great solution if you have
business-oriented plans. It is simplistic, offers basic customization options and, like I said earlier, has
more of a social media vibe.