A blog is the foundation of a properly developed social media marketing or reputation management strategy. However, the words “blog” and “blogging” are so overused that many people misunderstand what a blog is. A blog is short for “weblog” which is a mix between an online journal of your thoughts, insights and ideas, and a travel log. A blog can also have the characteristics of a magazine with lots of articles on a specific subject, as well as how-to tips, and can even look and function much like a website. Many websites are now designed using the free and surprisingly robust blog software like that found at www.wordpress.com. “Blogging” refers to the blog entry, also referred to as a blog post. You have created a new “blog post,” you write a new entry for your blog. So a “blog” refers to the site itself, “blogging” refers to writing something for the blog, and a “post” or blog post is the entry, thought or article itself. A blog is a kind of website that is maintained by an individual, a company representative, or even a team of bloggers, writers or contributors. This isn’t an item. This page is not HTML static (though these can be incorporated into a blog). This is a website log. For any reason you want, anyone can have anyone: personal, professional, job hunting, a family chronicle, commercials, libraries, celebrities, tech news, online newspapers, fashion do’s, dream newspapers, music, art, recipes, travel — whatever you want. A blog shares the following components:
• Title: this is your post’s main headline, including parts of the permalink.
• Body: it’s the principal text, photographs, etc. The main content/body.
• Permalink: This is every blog post’s complete URL.
• Date of post: date and time mark reflecting the post.
Some features you may want in your blog software Design Tools Design templates, plug-in tools and special functions, text editors, and spell-check functions are typical features. The compatible program type files, remote post functionality, navigation and sidebar options etc. also need to be taken into account, whether the program allows you to preview before posting.
Tracking and Publishing Tools
Publishing tools alert the search engines and blog search engines that you have posted something new. If you use your blog in any way to promote your business your software has an RSS output that allows you to post software in a running summary for feeds that “serve” your blog posts on other sites and subscribers. Your blog must have a certain type of RSS output. Tracking tools are essential for monitoring the time and time of your website. Again, access to traffic statistics is an important part of browsing the success of your blog when you use your blog for any kind of marketing tool. Software/Hosting and hosting are two elements that might appear confusing when you enter the blogs, but you’re starting here to decide what you need in a blog. If you want a blog, you will need a place on the web, where you can host or park your blog.
Firstly, you can go the entirely free route: free software and free hosting. Free is adequate if you just want somewhere online to write down your thoughts and ideas so friends can read them. But if you are selling a product and you want to be taken seriously, you’re going to need more storage space (hosting) and software features that are available for free.
The second option is the paid to host software. As with everything else in life, you get more features, functions and capabilities with the paid products like WordPress and Typepad than the free ones like blogger. It seems that WordPress and Typepad have become the de-facto blog design software for advanced bloggers and entry-level websites. For a super easy to use, free and very fast to set-up blog solution, you may look at www.blogger.com, which is owned by Google. You may also consider www.typepad.com and www.movabletype.com. They all have their pros and cons, so look into your options, needs, available time and comfort level with each before committing. The www.movabletype.com is also designed to create complete websites and has many advanced features for creating social media platforms as well. According to Mobile Type, “it is the most scalable and flexible solution to accommodate high-speed loads and large readers’ communities.” It has a dashboard for website, blog and social media administration. They also offer a content management system (CMS) that allows you to quickly and easily add and update the copy on your Movable-type website. If you want maximum simplicity, consider blogger.com. For maximum flexibility but a more complicated set-up, consider movabletype.com. Blogs can be very versatile and are a must-have component to any legitimate online marketing strategy. A blog itself can be so powerful and versatile, that depending on your needs, budget, available time and your overall strategy, a simple or advanced blog may be all you need to meet your online marketing objectives. At the very least, a well written and often updated blog is a great place to start your online presence.
Happy Blogging!!!
