A weblog (or simply blog)
is a website that 'publishes' or features articles
(which are called 'blog
posts', 'posts', or 'entries'), written by an individual or
a group that make use of
any or a combination of the following:
·Straight texts
·Photographs or images
(photoblog)
·Video (videoblog)
·Audio files (audioblog)
·Hyperlinks
Usually presented and
arranged in reverse chronological order, blogs are essentially
used for the following
purposes:
·Online journal or a web
diary
·Content managament
system
·Online publishing
platform
A typical blog has the
following components:
·Post date -the date and
time of the blog entry
·Category - the category
that the blog belongs to
·Title - the title of the
blog
·Main body - the main
content of the blog
·RSS and trackback -
links the blog back from other sites
·Comments - commentaries
that are added by readers
·Permalinks - the URL of
the full article
·Other optional items -
calendar, archives, blogrolls, and add-ons or plug-ins
A blog can also have a
footer, usually found at the bottom of the blog, that shows the
post date, the author, the
category, and the 'stats' (the nubmer of comments or trackbacks).
There are numerous types
of blogs. Some of them are the following:
1. Political blog - on
news, politics, activism, and other issue based blogs (such as
campaigning).
2. Personal blog - also
known as online diary that may include an individual's day-to-day
experience,
complaints, poems, and
illicit thoughts, and communications between friends.
3. Topical blog - with
focus either on a particular niche (function or position) that is
usually technical
in nature or a local
information.
4. Health blog - on
specific health issues. Medical blog is a major category of health
blog that features
medical news from health
care professionals and/or actual patient cases.
5. Literary blog - also
known as litblog.
6. Travel blog - with
focus on a traveler's stories on a particular journey.
7. Research blog - on
academic issues such as research notes.
8. Legal blog - on law
(technical areas) and legal affairs; also known as 'blawgs'.
9. Media blog - focus on
falsehoods or inconsistencies in mass media; usually exclusive for a
newspaper
or a television network.
10. Religious blog - on
religious topics
11. Educational blog - on
educational applications, usually written by students and teachers.
12. Collaborative or
collective blog - a specific topic written by a group of people.
13. Directory blog -
contains a collection of numerous web sites.
14. Business blog - used
by entrepreneurs and corporate employees to promote their businesses
or
talk about their work.
15. Personification blog -
focus on non-human being or objects (such as dogs).
16. Spam blogs - used for
promoting affiliated websites; also known as 'splogs'.
Blogging is typically done
on a regular (almost daily) basis. The term "blogging"
refers to the act of authoring,
maintaining, or adding an
article to an existing blog, while the term "blogger"
refers to a person or a group who keeps a blog.
Today, more than 3 million
blogs can be found in the Internet. This figure is continuously
growing, as the availability of various blog software, tools, and
other applications make it easier for just about anyone to update or
maintain the blog (even those with little or no technical
background). Because of this trend,
bloggers can now be
categorized into 4 main types:
·Personal bloggers -
people who focus on a diary or on any topic that an individual feels
strongly about.
·Business bloggers -
people who focus on promoting products and services.
·Organizational bloggers
- people who focus on internal or external communication in an
organization or a community.
·Professional bloggers -
people who are hired or paid to do blogging.
Problogging (professional
blogging) refers to blogging for a profit. Probloggers (professional
bloggers) are
people who make money from
blogging (as an individual blog publisher or a hired blogger).
Below are just some of the
many money-making opportunities for probloggers:
·Advertising programs
·RSS advertising
·Sponsorship
·Affiliate Programs
·Digital assets
·Blog network writing
gigs
·Business blog writing
gigs
·Non blogging writing
gigs
·Donations
·Flipping blogs
·Merchandising
·Consulting and speaking
The following are a few
things that you need to consider if you want to be successful in
problogging:
1. Be patient. Problogging
requires a lot of time and effort, not to mention a long-term vision.
2. Know your audience.
Targeting a specific audience or group is a key to building a
readership.
3. Be an 'expert'. Focus
on a specific niche topic and strive to be the "go-to"
blogger on that topic.
4. Diversify. Experiment
with various add and affiliate programs that enable you to make money
online (aside from blogging).
5. Do not bore your
readers. Focus on the layout. White spaces, line spacings, and bigger
fonts make a blog welcoming to read.
Certainly, it is possible
to earn money from blogs. One just needs to take risks, the passion,
and the right attitude
in order to be a
successful problogger.
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