What is a Blog?
If you’re asking the question “What is a blog?” then I bet you’re interested in learning more about what a blog is, its definition, and what blogging is all about.
You may also be thinking of starting a blog yourself. Great idea, by the way!
Let’s start with the meaning of the word “blog.”
Blog Definition
The history of the word blog stems from the term “weblog”, as coined by Jorn Barger. It was later shortened to “blog” by Peter Merholz.
To keep it simple, think of a blog as a log of posts, by someone on the web. i.e. their web log.
Meaning, their blog is their collection of blog posts on their website.
And, a blog is found on a website, which lives on the web.
Got it? Pretty simple actually.
Why Start a Blog?
When someone starts a blog it’s usually for one of a few reasons:
- They want to keep a personal blog journal of their life and have other people see it. Other people may include family and friends, career-based communities, interest-based communities or others. In this case, they’ll often start a free Google blog since it’s a very easy-to-use platform for blogging.
- They want to start an online business and have a blog as part of their website. They then use their blog to post articles with useful information for their audience to see. Kind of like the one you’re reading right now!
- In the case of a large corporation, they may want to use a blog to personalize their business and give it a more human touch.
- Small Businesses can start a blog to keep their customers aware of events, new products, information about their business and more.
- A newspaper or magazine may start a news blog to report on current events and interesting stories.
How to Start a Blog
I’m going to make the assumption that you’re here because you’re interested in starting a blog yourself.
And since this website is all about online business, I’m also going to assume you want to start a blog for your business.
And maybe you want to make money from your blog down the road?
So, taking that into account, here’s the basics steps for starting a blog:
Step 1
You’ll need to pick a domain name for your blog.
The domain name is the www. name for your blog. For example, the blog you’re reading right now is on onlinebusinessambitions.com.
The easiest way to do that is to come up with a list of names that are relevant to your business.
Be sure to specify a .com name, as those are the most well-known and what people are mostly used to seeing on the web.
Step 2
Once you’ve found an available domain name, the next step is to purchase it along with a Startup Hosting plan to host your website.
Your blog will live on that website.
Hosting has become so cheap these days, it’s amazing.
Step 3
Once you’ve purchased your domain and hosting plan for your blog, follow the plan’s instructions for installing WordPress.
WordPress will allow you to setup your blog design and the layout of your blog.
You’ll use WordPress to create and publish your blog posts on your website.
Step 4
Start creating blog posts!
At this point, your blog will be up and running on the web, under the domain you chose.
WordPress will be installed and you’ll have everything you need to start blogging.
Conclusion
I hope you found this informative…
To recap:
- The meaning of the word blog is derived from the term weblog.
- A blog is a log of posts on the web.
- People start blogs for several reasons, including starting a blog for their online business.
- To start a blog you pick a domain name, buy it and hosting to go along with it, install WordPress and start creating blog posts on your website.
That’s it!
Make sense? Are you starting a blog?
