Have you asked what a blog is? Many beginners do. I have not thought to write about what a blog is before I saw many people asking me the same question.
Before explaining what a blog is, let me give you a simple background. The first time I heard about what a blog was 7 years ago. Looking around on the internet to find the next big thing, I started noticing article websites with constantly updated content.
Some like huffington post that are techinicaly a news media, than a blog. Others such as moz where they used to blog about interant marketing and SEO related content. TMZ, a gossip website with some analysis.
All this had one thing in common: all have a constantly updated content.
With further research, I embarked on different types of websites. Ecommerce, where people buy stuff. Forums, where people discuss a certain topic. websites, where people find static content or information about a certain topic or a company. And finally, a blog, where people get a solution on a certain issue.
Then I started asking why blogs? where is the professionalism in that? Because people seemed to engage in a certain niche or market without a prior certificate or recognition to back their claims.
How could you believe a highschool dropout who tells you to invest in a stock market? How could you listen to ex-addicts on how to live a better life?
I felt blogs were beautiful faces of the internet but the inside was broken.
I was willing to join the party but I was not sure how someone could tell me what a blog is and how I should teach others on a topic I didn’t go to school to.
What happened next? Well, I began to look around, reading the genuine content among the spams and the video Ads that used to be hip these days.
Throughout my research, I found out that some of the bloggers, even the beginners were not average joe who write useless content only to get a space on the paper.
In fact, most of the content was useful. don’t get me wrong. The three-page blogs that had long URL such as howtogetmoneyinthreedaysdot com were all over the place.
But the ones that really worked to help the reader were easy to see their use.
Then I was hooked.
Blogging became my thing. Even this blog is intended to show you the shortcut to success online business and blogging which I learned the hard way
Here, I will show you what a blog is and how is it different from other websites? How many types of websites are there in the world? Which one should I start?
At the end of this article, you will be able to distinguish what a blog is from other websites and even good blogs from the bad. You will see the best blogs out there and what makes them different. You will also learn how to start your blogs and how to make money from it.
What a Blog Is
A blog features diary-type commentary and links to articles on other websites, usually presented as a list of entries in reverse chronological order.
wordpress
To understand what a blog is, you only need to know what a simple website is.
A website is an online platform that contains a few pages with fixed information. For example, a school website could contain about page, contact page, and news page. Except for the news page, the rest don’t need update every week or every day.
On the other hand, a blog is constantly updated. Every time you visit a blog, you may find new content. Even this website is arranged chronologically.
Besides this blogs also has a feature called comment where people react to content.
So, what a blog is, is a website that presents content in chronological order. The content is called a post. Depending on each blog’s schedule new articles are placed on the website.
#What A Blog is
Example of a Blog
Gary Vaynerchuk has been all over the place recently. You may know him from his youtube channel where he talks non-stop and loud about social media and entrepreneurship.
Gary has a different philosophy when it comes to blogging. He in fact believes more in social media, and he thinks you should dominate every social media out there.
On the other hand, he advises constant work for success. He inspires thousands on his blog to do better in their life and online business and brand.
Timothy Sykes is one of the millionaire bloggers. He started with few thousands of dollars in a penny stock and turned it into millions.
With this legend as a story, he began documenting his success in his blog. He went on teaching thousands on how to be successful in trading.
Moz by a college dropout Rand Fiskin is another blog on SEO. Since 2012, SEO MOZ is blogging on SEO type content helping blog on how to rank organically.
The blogs make money form its SEO software.
TechCrunch is a technology blog by Michael Arrington. This blog is one of the topi in the industry, and posts news, updates, and rumors on tech products and companies.
The amazing story of Techcrunch is it was acquired by AOL for 30 million dollars.
#What A Blog is: Top Blogs
What a Blog is and Why Do People Write Blogs
After you understand what a blog is and the different blogs out there, next is why should I blog?
There are diffent reason why people blog. Even from the above few examples of blogs, you see why people begin a blog in the first place.
There are several reasons why people start a blog.
- To express their opinions. Vaynerchuk has a saying in his book that everyone is one of the three: text, audio, or video. The latter two are for the ones who like acting or talking. Text is for the ones who enjoy writing and express themselves with one.
- Blogging communicates an update and gives a solution to problems that customers may have. For example, this post is part of the richrow blog which works to teach how you can make money or how you can start a blog. This gives you an answer to your questions. Therefore, a researched answer to your questions. This is what defines what a blog is and its place today.
- To make money- believe it or not, you can make money from blogging. In fact, the above mentioned making millions from their blogs. You can make money with a simple Ads on your blog, or from affiliate marketing or selling your products. in any case, you need to have your platform called a blog.
- Start your own blog Because blogging is a medium you can control. Unlike social media that change their algorithm every time, blogs are easy to control. Since you own the content and readers’ contact, you can always communicate with m no matter how the blogging platform exited or not.
- Start your own blog because through blogging you help others. If you plan to help people with a challenging start blogging. Be specific with your offers. Don’t go for health, go for diabetes or weight loss for adults.
- Start your own blog grow as a human being- Lifestyle blog document blogger’s life. For example, mommy bloggers blog bout their experience as another and afterward. They share their experiences on how to give birth or raise a child or work-home balance. Others share their skill and their development.
- Start your own blog because it could be the beginning of your entrepreneur’s life. Amazingly many bloggers get clients through their blogs. People need evidence of your passion. Many people also get jobs by showing what they do on their blogs.
#What A Blog is: Why to start blogs
Why You Should Avoid Blogs
Blogging is a bood tool for communication. That is what defines what a blog is and its place. However, bloggging is not for every one.
1- Blogging is hard work. Writing a 2000 words content may take you hours depending on your experience, your research ability, and your time.
You need to wear different hats, as a marketer, content writer, designer, PR and more. If you think it is easy to blog, then this is not for you.
2-You, join blogging only for the money .- This is a quick mood kill. When you know the money is dry, you quit. Blogging is not a quick money venture. In fact, it takes at least 6 months to see a tiny amount of money. Unless there is traffic, you don’t make any money. If you think what a blog is about then you won’t survive long.
3-You, don’t want to learn- Unless you learn and change fast, blogging should not be for you. You can teach others what you don’t know. You need no college degree. but you need to learn before teaching others.
#What A Blog is: Why to avoid blogs
How to Start a Blog for Free
You can star a blog for free. In fact most bloggers used to start for free, and he transfer to a paid one. However, most of these bloggers who began free regret their decisions.
THis is due to the copleicated process of transfering to paid services. Second, when you host your blog for fee, the host runs Ads on yoru website to make money from it. This way they cover their cost. And on the other hand, this hurt your website and your brand.
Even Ad-free platforms are not professional. For example, yourdomain.wix.com is less professional than yourdomain.com.
Third, you cannot control free websites. You are just hosting your content.
With that being said, here are three platforms where you can start your blogs for free.
Blogger should come first in this list Blogger is owned by google and has a free platform. This used to be a top choice some years back.
Today, the free service doesn’t have options like WordPress, in my opinion, but is one of the best fee options.
Wix is known for its easy drag and drop website builder and already made templates.
Wix is generous wit its offers on a free account. You will get up to 1 Gb Bandwidth and 500MB storage.
You need premium plans to get your own domain, and services such as google analytics.
WordPress.com is the free version and wordpress.org is the paid version. On the later one, you only need to upload the software to your Cpanel and to launch your blog. You only pay for the domain name and hosting.
WordPress.com is free because you don’t need standalone domain and hosting. Instead, yo host your content on wordpress.com. Then, you own a website called yourdomain.wordpress.com instead of yourdomian.com.
Joomla is a CMS platform that you can start your blog for free. Compared to the user and resources it provides, this is one of the best CMS platforms next to WordPress.
Medium is a new entree in the market. It is an article platform or a directory of articles. Thousands blog on medium, and even make money with membership articles. It is completely free to join. You can even transfer your posts from other websites easily.
#What A Blog is: Blogging for free
How Popular is Blogging
Some say blogging is so 2013. It iseems everyone is sweiing in ame pool and killed blogging trying to get attention.
On the other hand, the easy entree in to blogging makes it popular. Blogging is still popular. Many readers turn to blogs to find a solution to their questions.
No matter how repetitive, and bland posts are filling the space, the search engines are also evolving cleaning these blogs.
With time, the criteria for a good blog is also changing. The appropriate number of words per post goes up to 2000 and more.
Blogging is popular and alive. But in no way, it is the same as it was years ago. It is evolving creating its own rules.
#What A Blog is: How popular is blogging
Steps To Blogging for Beginners
There are only 7 steps to blogging for beginners.
1-Pick a Profitable niche– This is an important step. Do not skip this. Picking a niche is a hard process for many. It is here many beginners get stuck.
But it don’t have to be same for you. Picking a niche should not be hard.
Keep three rules in your mind.
1-Wealth, health and relationship make the most money.
2-The hobby market is also big. Hobbies such as sports, the automobile also have a big share in the market
3-Donot follow love, follow a passion. Follow the money. Because it is there you will find customers that you can help. If a market has low competition, there are not many people that are looking for a solution.
- A Guide to a Successful Niche that Makes Money
- 16 Profitable Niche Market that Makes Money on the Internet
Get your domain and hosting fast- A domain name is your website name Unlike human names there can’t be two names exciting. Richrow.com is our domain name. No other person can take it unless we gave it away or drop it without registering.
For this reason, getting a good domain became a complex process. But you don’t have to waste time on this. Frankly, if done right, finding a domain name today is not that hard. And any name works if you followed the principles.
- Domain Name 101: How to Choose a Great Name for Your Blog
- 129 Unregistered Domain Names you can Use Today Free
- A simple (but best) guide How to Pick a Domain Name
2-Hosting is where your website is placed for readers to access.
3-Create your blog– Once you registered domain and purchased host for few dollars from Bluehost, install WordPress in Cpanel.
4-Choose a theme. If you are serious about blogging thing of buying a premium theme.
5-Start blogging- Find what people are looking for and give them that.
6- Market your blog and get traffic
- Pinterest For Marketing Guide: How to get 1000s of Visitors
- SEO 101: Three Things you Should Know to Win on Google
- How To Increase Blog Traffic: 8 Repeatable Steps to Reach Thousands
6-Monetize your traffic
#What A Blog is: Steps to blogging
Summary , What a Blog is
After you understand what a blog is and how it is different fro other websites, the next process is to take a risk. You need to fast forward the process and take action. You need to register your domain and start. You will learn more in the process. That is what a blog is. It is all about learning and teaching.
On the other hand, blogging is not about money and being famous. In fact, it is not about you. it is about the reader. Someone who has pain on its finger doesn’t have the interest to know what you ate last night.
I am not suggesting you should erase yourself out of your blog. But mostly it is about them. It is about what they need to solve.
Offer something of value, and in exchange ask for the money. Sell something. Advertise on your site. and make money. That is what a blog is and it is how it survives.
