If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

This post is part of the blog series Beginner’s Guide to Running a Successful Website. Visit the blog series index for more information pertinent to this topic.

A blog — more formally referred to a weblog — is simply a Content Management System (CMS) that contains information written by the blog’s owners (or third parties selected by the blog owners) that is publicly available for visitors to read.

A Content Management System is an application that organizes information provided by its owners such that it is displayed in a friendly, easily accessible manner. CMS’s come in many forms, such as: eCommerce stores (osCommerce, Zen Cart); blogs (WordPress, Blogger, LiveJournal); and generic Content Management Systems (Jumla!, Drupal). CMS’s like these can be rather complex in their design with the similar goal of making it easy for users (visitors and customers) to find what they’re looking for.

Aspects of a Blog

• Posts. In looking at a blog, the organization is almost always the same prior to applying customizations. By default, the most recent post (also commonly referred to as an entry or article) appears at the top of the homepage with each successive post appearing in reverse chronological order. Beyond the most recent blog posts appearing on the homepage, older posts are typically paged and accessible via links labeled something like “Older Posts” or “Next Page”.
• Pages. Sometimes a page is more suitable than a post. Pages are commonly used for information that is often viewed by visitors to a blog and should remain at the forefront of a blog. For example, MattHuggins.com includes About Me and Advertising pages among others.
• Categories. In addition to appearing on the homepage, posts can be found by searching within categories or monthly views, each of which is part of the organization specific to the blogging structure. Links to category and monthly views often appear in a navigational bar located alongside blog posts, on either the left or right side.
• Comments. Within individual posts, a visitor may provide his or her thoughts on the post by leaving a comment. Comments typically appear below a blog post and may be read by any other visitor.
• Blogroll. “Blogroll” is simply a fancy name for “links” that the blog owner provides within the sidebar.
• Trackbacks and Pingbacks. A pingback is a signal sent from one blog to another, which typically occurs when a post linking from the source blog to the target blog is written. The target blog checks for the existence of the source blog URL to ensure it isn’t simply spam. Similarly, a trackback performs a ping at the time of posting at which point the target blog displays the trackback information and a link to the source blog within the comments section of a post.
• RSS Feed. An RSS feed is a technology that encapsulates all recent blog posts into a format called Extensible Markup Language (XML). Multiple RSS feeds from various sources can be read by a feed reader, simplifying the process by which visitors find content relevant to their interests.

Who Writes Blogs?

Blogs are written by individuals and businesses on the World Wide Web.

Individuals often select a topic, or niche, for a blog, which typically includes subtopics separated by category. For example, MattHuggins.com is a blog about Internet entrepreneurship with categories such as advertising, affiliate marketing, blogging, and search engine optimization. Some individuals blog as an outlet for their creativity, others blog as a means of self-promotion, and still others blog in an effort to make money through various monetization opportunities.

Business blogs have become more commonplace on the Web in recent years. These blogs are more often a subset of a business website separate from the rest of the site. Many businesses provide information specific to the product or service they offer in addition to news pertinent to their industry. The goal of a business blog is typically to demonstrate competency within the field while promoting the business that the blog represents.

Resources & Tools

• WordPress. A free downloadable blog that can be installed onto your website. Alternatively, WordPress.com hosts free blogs for you, which take the form blogname.wordpress.com.
• Blogger. A popular blog hosting site owned by Google. Blog URL’s take the form blogname.blogspot.com.
• Technorati. The blog directory authority. This site rates blog popularity and tracks blog posts and inbound links.
• Google Blog Search. A search engine dedicated to blogs.