What are Blogs?

Web Blogs Defined, Explained and Understood
by Sharon Housley ©Copyright 2004

What are Blogs?
Having heard the term previously but not having paid much
attention most are just to afraid to show their ignorance
and ask the question, what is a blog? Lets face it; the term
blog does not conjure pleasant images. Blogs are web logs
that are updated regularly, usually on a daily basis. They
contain information related to a specific topic. In some
cases blogs are used as daily diaries about people's
personal lives, political views, or even as social
commentaries. The truth of the matter is that blogs can be
shaped into whatever you, the author, want them to be.

Where Did Blogs Come From?
The roots of blogging can be traced back to the mid 1990's. Who
the very first blogger actually was is unclear, as the art of
blogging did not really take hold until 1999. The original
"weblogs" were link-driven sites with personal commentaries.
The very first blogs were human guided Internet web tours. While
initially thought of as diaries or online journals, blogs have
evolved into the latest fresh web content.

The Future of Blogs
A buzz word in techie circles, "blogging" is the wave of the
future. Whether it's a fad, or proves to be a new way to
communicate with existing and potential customers it deserves
at the very least a cursory look.

Why is Blogging Helpful to Businesses or Individuals?
Just as animated .gifs were once cool, blogging is the trendy
thing to do. That does not mean that it is not beneficial to
businesses. Webmasters struggling to keep fresh, attractive
content on their websites to lure visitors back, have found
blogs to be the answer. Content is a necessity for online
businesses, both for purposes of being found by search engines,
but also because it gives visitors a reason to come back.

Now that we have established that blogs are not only trendy but
also beneficial to businesses, it's important to understand how
they can be used to your advantage. We currently manage and
update two blogs on a daily basis. The first is our new business
blog at:

http://www.notepage.net/blog.htm

This professional business blog allows us the opportunity to
tell potential, or existing customers industry news, updates,
or generally how mobile or paging software can be used in
specific situations to alleviate problems. The bottom line is
we control the content. It's updated daily, which increases the
chances that search engines will spider on a regular basis and
it helps with page rank because it's been submitted to all the
blogging directories. Initially started on a whim, we've found
it beneficial to report tips, tricks or make visitors aware of
new regulations related to the mobile or paging industry.

The second blog we manage is at:

http://www.softwaremarketingresource.com/blog.html

This blog is less formal and contains marketing tips, or
promotional advice for software developers or online
marketers. We found that we had overflow from our monthly
newsletter. Generating a daily blog required very little
effort and assisted us in creating fresh content which our
readers told us was of significant interest.

Blogs & Your Business
The bottom line is you need to determine how a blog will benefit
your business, determine a schedule and adhere to it. Let your
readers know what to expect and when to expect it. Blogs provide
great supplemental content and direct attention to areas of your
business that you want to showcase; you direct the content but
let your readers guide you.

Creating a Blog
There are numerous online tools that can be used to create a
blog. We found that because of security concerns, it would just
be best to use a standard html program. In our case, we use
Dreamweaver and create daily posts. It's really not much more
complicated than typing an email. The content is then sent via
FTP to a web server. If you want to test the waters there are
online web-based tools that help you publish to the web
instantly. The most popular web based tool is likely Blogger
(http://www.blogger.com).

Other Advantages to Blogs
While you may initially create a blog for your existing
customers, you may find that you can attract new customers by
illustrating your expertise in a specific field. There are
numerous websites that act as "blog search engines". Be sure
to submit your sites to these websites to increase your
exposure. This will also help with your page rank and increase
the likelihood you will receive decent ranking with Google.
You can also create an RSS feed in order to syndicate blog
content and gain additional exposure.