What is A Blog? - How To Blog Series
Friday, June 08, 2007
Blog is short for "Web log"
Here is the definition from Wikipedia:
"A blog is a user-generated website where entries are made in journal style and displayed in a reverse chronological order. The term "blog" is derived from "Web log." "Blog" can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog. Blogs often provide commentary or news on a particular subject, such as food, politics, or local news; some function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs."
Verb: To blog or blogging. You can subscribe to my series on blogging and/or subscribe to my blog so you can learn how to blog!.
Noun: Mark Stark is a blogger. You can check out his blog at www.MarkStarkCeo.com
You refer to an individual entry as a post or blog post. As in, did you see Darren's post today about Litigation Affecting Real Estate?
The blogosphere refers to the community of blogs and bloggers all over the world. Which brings up the subject of Social Networking and Web 2.0. If you haven't already discovered it - the world in general - and in particular the Internet - is changing rapidly. Web 2.0 is the evolution of the web from an array of static websites (Web 1.0) providing information and limited communication to an interactive, real time, almost living and breathing entity with a life of its own.
Just take a moment to reflect on how you can interact with others all around the globe in so many ways now. Online dating services are an early example of the power of social networking. According to Wikipedia:
"U.S. residents spent $469.5 million on online dating and personals in 2004, the largest segment of “paid content” on the web, according to a study conducted by the Online Publishers Association (OPA) and comScore Networks." And that was 2004 statistics!
At the end of November 2004, there were 844 lifestyle and dating sites, a 38 percent increase since the start of the year, according to Hitwise Inc. However, market share was increasingly being dominated by several large commercial services, including Yahoo! Personals, Match.com, American Singles, and eHarmony.
It's a job to keep up with all the new sites and technology we are bombarded with almost daily it seems. Have you heard of or experienced FLickr (photo sharing), LindedIN (Business networking), del.icio.us (Social bookmarking site) , Twitter (Where are you now?), My Space, Facebook (social networking sites) . I bet your kids or your friends kids have. I also know some of your competitors and business contemporaries are on the cutting edge of the latest technology and are currently using the power of Web 2.0 for their business. Check out this post from Transparent Real Estate for a great example of how real estate listing (lead generation) sites have evolved and adapted their business models.
Here are some new words and phrases to get used to and learn about:
- social bookmarking - Top 10 Largest Social Bookmarking Sites April 2007
- social networking sites
- wikis
- podcasts
- RSS feeds A way to subscribe to and determine when new content is on a blog or site
- RSS feed readers - Here's a link to common readers and a feed to my blog
- tagging - Think of a tag as a simple category name. People can categorize their posts, photos and videos with any tag that makes sense.
One more assignment: Go to Technorati or Google Blog Search and start surfing some blogs of interest or see what the competition is up to in the blogosphere. Get familiar with the setup and flow of a blog. See what you like - formats, styles, the blogger's voice. Try subscribing to a few and or making some comments -get involved! I recommend using Google Reader, Bloglines, or use the View Feed option on your Microsoft IE 7.0 Toolbar next to favorites.
Up next: The Blogosphere - History/Stats