An Introduction to Blogging

A weblog or a blog can be referred to as a personal online diary or a journal maintained by an individual or a group in order to share their thoughts and opinions to the world. Wikipedia defines blog as

“A blog (a contraction of the term “web log“)[1] is a type of website, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order. “Blog” can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog”

Blog has gained a lot of popularity in recent times and the meaning has broadened from what it was originally created for. Blogs are also one of the earliest forms of social media where user interacted with the readers of his blogs. Everybody has heard of blogs specially now when an online presence for one is must. So what exactly does a blog mean?

What is a Blog?

As already mentioned above a blog is an online diary which could be used to


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express anything from personal feelings to fact and figures. People use blogs to connect with other people. While a personal blog could be based on someone’s day to day experience or his travel experience, there are many professional blogs ranging from news to technology information. Today blogs have become one of the easiest and fastest sources of information.

Since a blog is frequently updated, the information provided is as up to date as it can get. Blogs are primarily textual with some images. There are also blogs completely focused on pictures, art, photographs, audio, videos etc as well. Blogging itself has given rise to a new form of social media called micro blogging where users share updates in form of short messages. While most blogs are owned by a single author, there are a lots of multi author blogs existing today. The multi author blogs are easier to update as they are many authors contributing to them.

History of Blogging

Blogging became one of the most successful and widely used ways of sharing information among web geeks. What actually started as a passion with a common interest grew to be a cult in itself. It primarily started when people started posting links to interesting information on their websites and added a scope for people to do the same. This gave rise to online discussions over topics and links.

Blogs are said to be originated around 1994 with “”Links from the Underground” by Justin Hall where he wrote about his passion and the blog went down in history to become one of the most legendary blogs on journalism and media.

Who Blogs and Why?

If you have been wondering who are these people behind millions of blogs written ever day? The answer is simple; it could be anyone you see, even you.


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Blogging might have started as a hobby among techies and web geeks but now blogging has caught on like a wild fire among anyone and everyone. From personal experiences to detailed product review, you can find a blog by anyone on anything and anyone. Writing a blog doesn’t require any technical knowledge and the reason for the success of this whole phenomenon is the fact that anybody with as little as zero knowledge on computers could be a successful blogger. This has been made possible because of the numerous tools available online.

If you think you have something to express, share, manage, writing a blog is the easiest option. Blogging is just another way of maintaining your diary in the sense that it is much more organized and well maintained. While there are many blogs calling controversy, you can always choose to blog about anything you want.

Different kinds of Blogs

A blog can be formal, informal, personal, and corporate and you can choose from vast variety to take the plunge. Let’s see what the various kinds of blogs are:

Personal Blog: These are more like personal diaries maintained online. The topic could be anything you want to write. It mostly involves talking about your own experience and readers take note of your experience to learn from them.

Group Blog: A group blog basically is a multi author blog where many authors contribute on a regular basis. You could get a group of friends together to get this started. This is easiest to maintain since it doesn’t require you alone to update every time.

Product Review Blog: This is basically an informatory blog which talks about your comments and opinions of a product. It could include anything from consumer products to a software technology. These blogs are one of the best ways to get to know about things you want to go and purchase.

News Blog: These blogs are meant to track news and keep people updated. They could range from a certain specific segment (eg Technology, Politics etc) to region or area specific news. To make the blog interesting, you can always add additional information by looking at various online sources and adding you personal thoughts.

Hobby Blogs: If there is a certain interest area that you’d like to particularly talk about or invite discussion on, a hobby blog is what you should opt for. From photographs to laptops, a hobby blog includes news, updates, reviews , launches and so on, on a topic of interest.

How can blogs be used?

A blog is not just your own way of putting your thoughts across; it can be


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really helpful to various people visiting your blog. In more way than one blogs can be great way of educating and entertaining people. Here are few ways in which a blog can benefit others:

Educational: Some blogs can be great source of information from a knowledge point of view. Not only do you get to learn about certain topics, you get firsthand experience about things you wanted to learn. Some blogs can also be used as a source of personal research. You could choose to carry on a research based on a blog you read or you could continue with a research already done by someone.

Various teachers use blogs to share information with their students as well. Discussions over topics are one of the best part about maintain blogs.

Online Journals: With the kind of tools available online, writing an online journal is way better than maintaining that age old diary. You can choose to make a blog public or private. It not only works easier in terms of maintenance and organization, it helps you keep an updated online presence as well.

Blogs work as a great way for connecting with people. When you share your ideas to the world, you are establishing an online connection with others.

In the digital world that exists today, online presence is very important. Blogging goes a long way in creating your online personality and enhancing your social media presence.