Definition of a blog: In essence, a blog is a regularly updated set of posts that are normally added as new
You might yourself have also asked at some point though, how is a blog different from a website? A common question is also what bloggers do and how they make a living. There is a lot to blogs and the blogging world and in this post, I will explain all aspects of blogging.
Table of Contents
What Is a Blog?
Blog Definition
Another explanation of a blog is:
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.
Oxford Dictionary
In other words, content that is frequent and put onto a website. That’s really it!
Although why am I doing a blog post with thousands of words if that is it? Of course, there is a lot more to it as you will see.
How Do Blogs Work & What Are They Used For
Blogging started on sites such as Blogger.com (owned now by Google) and was really like a diary of notes (a weblog).
The blog can be for any niche, whether it be related to cats blogging, world travel or corporate training, it is about writing content often.
Having a blog section means that you can talk about different aspects of your niche and draw visitors into your site
In terms of what they are used for, there are three main categories of bloggers and these are as follows:
- Casual bloggers – are people who just like to write and write posts (often just 200 – 300 words) and write an online diary, much like the original
web-logs . - Businesses and self-employed workers – tend to use blogs as a way to add content to their website to rank for keyword terms related to their niche. If you are a marketing website and you have a blog post on SEO and User Intent, then you have a chance to draw in traffic for that term – if you have a page on it on your site!
- The Political Blogger – by this I refer to bloggers who use their
blog posts as a way to drive their opinion on a subject. It might be to raise awareness on heart disease, global warming, or about disability access. The blogger in this category is not doing blogging just for fun and not because of specific business interests.
So What Is the Difference Between a Blog and a Website?
Even though many websites have a blog section and blogs might be seen as websites, there IS a fundamental difference between the two, in essence! Many businesses combine the two hence it can be confusing.
The key differences are:
1. A Blog Is Content Driven.
A blog relates to regularly written content whereas a website often has static content that never changes or gets added to.
A website can have a blog section on it and that blog section might be called a blog, news, updates, or anything you want to name it.
2. Blogs Are Great for Interactivity with Readers
The regularity of blogs lends itself to greater interaction!
Blog posts can include a comment area where readers add to the post.
Furthermore, because the content is more up-to-date and topical, and regular than a static and old webpage, readers tend to be far more willing to interact with blog posts.
Blog posts can be posted on social media feeds, including on Pinterest and Facebook, and this is great for driving traffic to your site.
Why Blogging Is Essential for Every Online Business
In recent years, individual bloggers and businesses have come to realize that blogging can be very profitable!
WHY have businesses realized blogging is so valuable?
This video introduced by myself (Paul) and presented by Valeria, will provide you with
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Reasons Individuals Love to Blog
Blogging is NOT ONLY for business. Blogging is popular worldwide for a number of reasons! These include
Provide You with a Global Voice
Anyone in the world (well in many countries at least) is able to express their thoughts, life experiences and views to a global audience. Blogging is powerful! Blogging is empowerment for many people.
Opportunity to Work from Home and Be Self-Employed
Blogging also means the opportunity to have your own micro-business.
You can now blog about your hobby and passion and make a living from it. Blogging is freedom in many respects in that work CAN be fun!
You can work from home and build a successful business and without the need for any real seed money at the beginning.
Opportunity to Share Knowledge & Expertise
Blogging also provides an opportunity and platform to share knowledge on a wide range of subject areas.
It is extraordinary how powerful blogging is! It pervades world politics, makes heritage intangible across borders.
Being able to exchange ideas on your area of interest, to discuss and share knowledge is facilitated through the Internet, including via blogging.
You can now discuss Italian food recipes for example, from your armchair in Cornwall, England, with someone in the Andes, in Argentina.
How Much Does Blogging Cost?
You can start a blog for FREE, although for a very nominal cost, you can easily get set up with your own custom domain name, hosting and a nicely designed pre-made template for your blog.
Free Options:
If you are blogging purely for fun and have no particular interest in making money
Paid Options:
Whilst the free blog platforms can be fine for some bloggers, i.e. the casual blogger blogging for fun, if you are a blogger looking to make money blogging, then a free platform is not sufficient.
Even though you can get free hosting, it is not the best option if you are looking to make money blogging.
Take a look at this table that we have composed, for example, to see the difference between using Wix to host your blog for free and using your own WordPress hosting.
The situation is this. With paid hosting you:
- Have complete control over how you include ads on your site to make some income.
- Can easily install Google Analytics to get lots of free and very useful data.
- Will have the ability to use any WordPress theme or plugins that you want to.
- Will OWN THE SITE and its DATA.
- Will have much more web space.
And the thing is that paid hosting is VERY CHEAP and is affordable for the majority of us.
For the cost of a cappuccino each month, you have your own hosting and all of the benefits above.
We recommend BlueHost hosting if you are starting a new blog.
The reason for this is because with Bluehost you get:
- One-click install for WordPress (it is extremely easy for beginners to install WordPress without any effort, through Bluehost).
- You get a free domain with the hosting (reduces cost)
- They offer 24-hour support (many other hosts only offer office-hour support and to U.S. hours)
How Should I Structure a Blog?
Classic Layout
The classic structure for a blog is like you see on this page where we have a main middle section and a thinner right side. This is a very typical blog post structure.
You can literally choose any design i.e. one, two or three columns and you can customize the design for each blog post as needed. All good templates will allow for this customization.
If you have one blog post (see our example on the blog post checklist) where you want to make the content full-page, you can do this for one specific blog page only if you wish.
The beauty of a content management system such as WordPress is that you can customize each blog post page.
Layout Design Considerations
To ensure your blog is designed effectively you need to make sure that it is fully responsive.
When you buy a template such as via Themeforest, make sure that it is listed as being ‘responsive’.
This means that the template for your blog will be designed to look good on all devices including mobiles, laptops, desktops, and iPads.
What Do Bloggers Do?
How many times have us bloggers who make a living blogging, been asked this question
What do you do for a real living?
Blogging certainly can be a real job and some bloggers make a very successful living from it!
Examples of Bloggers Who Make a Living from Blogging
Some examples of bloggers who do very well are:
- Alyssa Ramos – has quite a 6-figure living from blogging about her travels.
- Niamh Shields has made a healthy living (pun intended) from writing on her site ‘Eat Like A Girl’.
- Likewise, Eric Asimov has done very well as an expert wine blogger over the last few years.
You CAN make a VERY GOOD income and career out of blogging.
Many people are already doing it and so can you!
How Do Bloggers Make Money?
A very common question and understandably so, given you probably also would love to do the same, is how you can make money blogging?!
The key ways that bloggers make a living this way is via:
- Affiliate income – by selling products for 3rd parties for a commission.
- Sponsorship – such as by a brand to promote a certain product/s.
- Selling
eProducts and Courses – This can be a great way to build followers and also to sell affiliate products at the same time.
So – what do bloggers do really comes down to the type of blogger that person is.
A full-time professional blogger is a master of all trades. As bloggers on this site, for example, Valeria and I fulfill all of these roles in order to make money blogging, as a:
- marketer
- web designer/maintainer
- writer
- graphic designer (although this is easy with Canva)
- administrator
As a self-employed blogger, you are, in other words, someone who will turn your hand to many tasks.
With the opportunity to aim for passive income and to reach a global audience, you will find that you have to master many skills. But, blogging can be a lot of fun!
What Can You Blog About? Which Niches Work Best?
There really is no limit to what you can blog about!
You have seen some examples in this post already about travel, food, and wine bloggers. Valeria of PromarketingOnline from this site has her hobby blog site on her passion Belly dance.
Some even stranger blogging topics that people are blogging about include:
- Spooky Little Halloween – a blog about Halloween but written all year round.
- Plants are the Strangest People – another
slightly weird and yet interesting blog.
In essence, there really is nothing you cannot blog about (as long, of course, it is considered lawful in the country you reside).
The key is to have a long-term view. Ask yourself, what could you write about every week for a year and still be passionate about it.
Strategically, you might not intend to make money blogging at first, but why not leave the opportunity there for the future?
To do this, use this long-term view but starting with a blog that you know can potentially be time-unlimited if you wish to develop it in the future into something that generates income.
How Do You Start a Blog? Blogging for Beginners
I have written an in-depth guide on how to start a blog that you can go
In the guide, we explain all of the following:
- How to choose the hosting and how to select a domain name.
- Getting set-up with WordPress and choosing a site theme.
- How to start building content.
Common Blog Questions
We have a special section on this site dedicated to 101 Blogging Questions that
Further & Useful Resources
References in this article:
- Blogging Terms and Terminology
- Loiacono, V. and Fallon, J.M., 2018. Intangible Cultural Heritage Beyond Borders: Egyptian Bellydance (Raqs Sharqi) as a Form of Transcultural Heritage. Journal of Intercultural Studies, 39(3), pp.286-304.
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