About blogs
What does a blog consist of?
A blog is another form of website, except that it is interactive with its readers. The word ‘blog’ is short for weblog, or an on-line diary.
Its software allows users to self-publish their updates instantly onto the web without the use of a web-designer.
It is a medium to provide businesses to talk about what they actually do. I say ‘talk’ rather than ‘write’ because essentially you are communicating with your readers. A blog will enable more exposure to potentially interested customers.
There are two kinds of blogs, free and hosted. The free version can be created in minutes, and is particularly designed for easy editing and submissions. Alternatively you can pay to host your blog, either on its own or combined with your website, but this requires some website-building knowledge.
Each submission or new entry is called a post, and they are either shown collectively on a continuously updated newsroll, or on separate pages with their own URL or permalink.
Posts can be sorted into chapters or topics called categories, which allows easy reference for particular subjects.
Posts can also be assisted in SEO (search engine optimisation) by the use of tags or keywords, which should be relevant to the content of the post.
Another important element is the headline. Not only will it be part of the post’s URL, but also it will form the link in RSS feeds (links to your posts outside your blog). Also, it is important it is relevant, interesting, valuable and informative to encourage a higher click rate.
Your posts should contain links to your website to encourage more traffic. Links help the search engines to locate you, so they should be relevant to your business by being contextual (linked phrases) and well directed.
You should encourage your readers to respond with their comments. This is excellent for feedback, to learn more about your readers’ expertise, and their links also encourage search engine activity. Each response can be vetted against spam.
There are a number of special elements called widgets, which are special programmes or applications to put on your sidebars. They enable readers to select pages and categories, see details of past posts and their comments, and provide links to your other websites/blogs and other related resources.
More details on each of these elements are available through the Make a Blog! visual e-courses >>>
