What is Blog in 2024? How to Start a good Blog in 2024? How to earn with blog in 2024?

What is a Blog?

 A blog or blog is a website that includes, as a personal diary of its author or authors, the content of interest, which is usually updated frequently and is often commented on by readers.

It serves as an online publication of stories with a very high frequency, which are presented in reverse chronological order, that is, the most recent thing that has been published is the first thing that appears on the screen. Before it was common for blogs to show a list of links to other blogs or other pages to expand information, cite sources, or point out that a topic started by another blog is being continued.

What is Blog in 2022

Currently, a blog can have various purposes depending on the type, taxonomy, or even its authorship, such as to reinforce the author's personal brand, generate information for specific thematic communities,, or even serve as a means to search for opportunities, etc.

Technical characteristics

There are several elements common to all blogs.

Comments 

Through a form, other web users are allowed to add comments to each entry, being able to generate a debate around its contents, in addition to any other exchange of information (if the blog author prefers, comments cannot be added to the tickets).

Links

A particularity that differentiates weblogs from news sites is that the annotations usually include multiple links to other web pages (not necessarily weblogs), as references or to expand the added information.

In addition, and among other possibilities, it allows the presence and use of:

• A permanent link (permalink) in each annotation, so that anyone can quote it.

• An archive of previous annotations.

• A list of links to other weblogs selected or recommended by the authors is commonly called a blogroll.

Reverse links 

In some cases, annotations or stories allow them to be trackback, a reverse link (or backlink) that allows, above all, to know that someone has linked to the entry and notify another weblog that one of their entries is being cited or that has published a related article. All trackbacks automatically appear below the story, along with comments, although this is not always the case.

Photographs and videos 

It is also possible to add photos and videos to blogs. The blogs dedicated solely to this have received the name of photo blogs and video blogs respectively. This makes it easier for the person reading it to understand the information.

Syndication 

Another characteristic of weblogs is the multiplicity of formats in which they are published. Apart from HTML, they usually include some means of parsing them, that is, of being able to read them by a program that can include data from many different media. Generally, web feeds in RSS or Atom format are used for syndication. The dissemination of the information provided in the blog is intended.

Integration 

Blogs allow multimedia resources hosted on web 2.0 services to be displayed embedded in their pages: images, audio, videos, etc.

Types of blogs 

There are many types of blogs, not just because of the content, but because of the way the content is written.

Personal blog 

The personal blog, an ongoing journal or comment by an individual, is the most traditional and common. Blogs often become more than just a way to communicate, they also become a way to reflect on life or works of art. Blogs can have a sentimental quality. Few blogs become famous, but some of them can quickly amass a large following.

One type of personal blog is the microblog, it is extremely detailed and tries to capture a moment in time. Some sites, like Twitter, allow bloggers to share thoughts and feelings instantly with friends and family, and are much faster than posting or writing.

Microblogging 

Microblogging is the practice of posting small pieces of digital content (can be text, images, links, short videos, or other media) on the Internet. It offers a mode of communication that for many is organic, and spontaneous, and captures the public's imagination. It's used by friends to stay in touch, business associates to coordinate meetings or share helpful resources, and celebrities and politicians for concert dates, conferences, book launches, or travel schedules. A wide and growing range of additional tools enables complex upgrades and interaction with other applications, and the resulting wealth of functionality is helping to define new possibilities for this type of communication.

Corporate and organizational blogs

A blog can be private, as in most cases, or it can be for business purposes. Blogs that are used internally to improve the communication and culture of a corporation or externally for marketing, branding, or public relations are called corporate blogs. Similar blogs for clubs and societies are called club blogs, group blogs, or similar names; typical use is to inform members and other interested parties about club parties and member activities.

A corporate blog is usually part of a content marketing or content marketing strategy, whose purpose is to attract organic traffic to the company website and get customers interested in a product or service. To this end, it is recommended that the corporate blog be limited to certain non-consensual standards, but accepted by good practice:

1. You have to write what you know. To add value is to provide qualified and verifiable knowledge, it is to avoid informational confusion and it is to prohibit oneself from controversy. What better way to carry out this maxim than writing from the profession.
2. You have to avoid complacency. A corporate blog seeks to attract, not convince, so writing only about the positive and excellent qualities of oneself or the company often causes suspicion. In reality, the seriousness with which the content is expressed already does the work of excellence itself.
3. You have to be constant. It should not be published from time to time or create a feeling of emptiness and silence among those who may be waiting for a response. One article per week may be enough to show that the company is alive, but two or three reflect that it is working.
4. You have to gain subscribers. Unconditional law of every blog: if you collect information from readers, you create your own database of potential customers, and, from there, broader and more complex marketing strategies are created, such as e-mail.
5. You have to be participatory. This is applicable in two ways.
   • If the company has several qualified workers, it is advisable to also give them the floor and write articles. This is extremely effective if each of those workers is an expert in a certain field. In addition, this ensures that the blog flows because it does not depend on the availability of a single person.
   • The author or authors of the articles must allow interaction with and between users who access the blog. Responding always and politely is not recommended: it is mandatory. Nothing should be prohibited, but intervene when the tone of a user (especially against another user) is rude or insulting: a community must be created.
6. You have to have one voice. This does not go against the previous section: a single voice is not a single writer, but a specific style, a specific corporate signature, and a characteristic tone. If the blog comprises several authors, they must be coordinated to avoid contradictions between articles or too obvious changes in tone.
7. You have to plan. It means creating a clear publishing policy, addressing elements such as:
   • Categories: it is recommended that all blog categories have the same number of articles.
   • Calendar: consistency is achieved, most of the time, by setting publication dates.
   • Relevance: the content of an article is more relevant the closer it is to the reality of the reader. This is usually achieved if the topic in question is current because, given the hyper-informed reality ie live, practically all of us share the same current container. If, in addition, the corporate blog is one of the first to talk about a specific topic, it will have reached a level of prevalence that the community will take into account.

Educational blogs 

An educational blog or edublog is made up of materials, experiences, reflections, and didactic content, which allows the periodic and updated dissemination of the activities carried out at the school. Educational blogs allow teachers exposure and communication between the educational community and students, promoting active, critical, and interactive learning.

In fact, some scientific articles show how useful blogs can be as an educational tool and learning resource.

By gender

Some blogs focus on a particular topic, such as political blogs, LGBT blogs, educational blogs, health blogs, travel blogs (also known as travelogues), gardening blogs, home blogs, fashion blogs, etc. educational project blogs, classical music blogs, fencing blogs, legal blogs, etc. Two common types of genre blogs are music blogs and art blogs.

Blogs with discussions especially about home and family are not uncommonly called mom blogs, and this type of blog was made popular by Erica Diamond, creator of Womenonthefence.com, which is followed by more than two million monthly readers. Although it is not a legitimate type of blog, as it is used solely for spamming, it is known as a Splog.

By media type 

A blog that includes videos is called a vlog, one that includes links is called a linklog, a site that contains a portfolio of sketches is called a sketchbook, or one that includes photos is called a catalog. Blogs with short messages and mixed media types are called tumblelogs. Those blogs that are written on typewriters and then scanned are called typecast blogs. A rare type of blog included in the Gopher protocol is known as a Phlog.

By Device 

Blogs can also be differentiated by the type of device used to build it. A blog written by a mobile device, such as a mobile phone or PDA, could be called a moblog.

One of the newer blogs is the Wearable Wireless Webcam, a shared online diary of an individual's personal life, combining text, video, and images streamed live from a laptop and Eye Tap device to a website. This semi-automated practice of blogging with live video alongside text is known as sub-monitoring. These magazines have been used as evidence in legal matters.

Reverse blog 

This blog is made up of its users rather than a single blogger. This system has the features of a blog and multi-author writing. These blogs can be written by multiple authors who have contributed to a topic or have opened one for anyone to write on. There is usually a limit to the number of entries, to prevent it from being operated as an Internet forum.

Glossary

• Entry, delivery, posting, or seat: the publication unit of a blog. In English, it is called "post" or "entry".

• Draft: is an entry entered into the publishing system, but has not yet been published. Generally, you choose to save an entry as a draft when you plan to correct or expand it before publishing it. In English, it is called "draft".

• Fotolog or photoblog: the union of photo and blog, photographic blog.

• Videolog or video blog: similar concept to the previous one that is born from the union of video and blog, a blog with video clips, typically using embedded players from well-known sites such as YouTube or Vimeo.

• Permalink: permanent link. It is the unique URI assigned to each blog entry, which should be used to link to it. A permalink is a permanent link. It is used in blogs to assign a permanent URL to each blog entry so that it can be referenced later.

• Blogger – Post writer for the blog format. It is common to use the original English term: "blogger".

• Comments: these are the entries that blog visitors can make, where they leave opinions about the note written by the author. In English, it is called comments.

• Template or Theme – A document that contains easy-to-use, pre-coded design guidelines. In English, it is called a template. These templates, which usually use Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), can be modified in most cases by the users themselves and adapted to their needs or tastes.

• Plugin: plugins similar to those used, for example, in web browsers to extend the fproduct's functionality Not all platforms allow the use of plugins. The leading product on the market, WordPress.org, currently (2013) has more than 25,000 plugins in its official repository.

• Blogging: the action of posting messages on weblogs.

• Blogosphere or blogosphere: a set of blogs grouped by some specific criteria (location, theme, language). For example the Hispanic blogosphere, Argentine blogosphere, or the political blogosphere. The term was coined in 2002 by William Quick.

• Blogonymy: Investigation of the origin of the names with which the bloggers or owners of the blogs have baptized their blogs. The term was first used on the eMe blog.

• Blogaliphobic: qualifier that is applied to those companies or organizations that do not accept that their employees have blogs. As the word indicates, it would be a phobia of blogs. It is based on the fear that information will appear on the blog that could damage the image of a company, or that harm its own interests...

• Tumblelog: the blog of notes, sketches, quotes, or links without editing or completeness requirements. They do not allow comments, tags, or categories. They have a new web 1.0 air.

• Online newspapers are the blogs of An online newspaper, digital newspaper, online newspaper or digital newspaper is the edition of a newspaper that uses the Internet as its main means of dissemination.

The Political Significance of Blogs

According to journalist Alan Wolfe, thanks to blogs, world politics is becoming more global (that is, the nuances of events within one country instantly attract the attention of the whole world) and internalized. There are both pluses in this - thanks to blogs people become more informed and interested, and minuses - "going virtual" reduces the attractiveness of traditional methods of influencing the authorities - for example, protest demonstrations.

For many, blogs are the only accessible and safe means of expressing their own opinions. This is especially true for countries where censorship, administrative pressure, and "disputes between business entities" lead to the fact that there are practically no media outlets that would allow themselves to openly adhere to a position that does not coincide with the official one.

As a rule, in this case, the entire sphere of public policy is reduced, and key political issues are now resolved mainly behind the scenes. All this contributes to the fact that critically thinking people who take an active civic position express their opinion in areas that are not tightly controlled by the authorities - in particular, in blogs.

Professional politicians also use blogs - both for information, to search for supporters and propaganda of their ideas, and for counter-propaganda, fighting political opponents. There are diaries opened on behalf of Hillary Clinton, Angela Merkel, Segolene Royal, and even Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The number of Russian politicians is gradually growing, keeping diaries in LiveJournal: Nikita Belykh, Garry Kasparov, Leonid Nevzlin, Valeria Novodvorskaya, and others. Sergey Mironov, Vitaly Tretyakov keep diaries and Vladimir Zhirinovsky.

The informational role of blogs is also growing as a kind of alternative to the official media. So, during the war in Iraq, blogs of American soldiers appeared, reporting what really happened in the theater of operations, as well as their friends and relatives, who began to post soldiers' letters describing what was happening. These blogs dealt a powerful blow to the propaganda of the US administration.

The most famous blogger who wrote about the war in Iraq was foot soldier Colby Buzzell. His blog "Colby Buzzle sends to war on..." has gained immense popularity. When Buzzell returned home, he was offered a job at a magazine. Esquire, and in 2007 he received the prestigious Lulu Blooker Prize for his book My War: Killing Time in Iraq.

A significant event took place in 2003. The British newspaper The Guardian, in its online version, posted an article in which the then Deputy Secretary of Defense of the United States, Paul Wolfowitz, was credited with the statement that the United States invaded Iraq to ensure the security of oil supplies (which he never said). This quote has been copied by many of the world's media. However, bloggers quickly discovered the error. As a result, the Guardian was forced to apologize and did not include inaccurate material in its "paper" issue.

During elections, blogs become platforms for the exchange of data on various informal polls. For example, while there is a ban on the publication of data from exit polls and other voter surveys in the media, Internet users are already sharing information about their votes on blogs.

The Russian authorities also actively use LiveJournal bloggers and invite them to cover their activities. The working trips and events of President Dmitry Medvedev in 2010 were repeatedly covered by the LiveJournal blogger Rustem Adagamov Dragoi.

In 2011, Ilya Varlamov " Zyalt " traveled with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

Contests 

With the growing popularity of blogs as a new way of broadcasting, there are competitions for the best blog in one category or another. Since 2004, the international competition for the best blog The BOBs (The Best of the Blogs) has been held by the German media company Deutsche Welle. The BOBs competition is organized among blogs written in 11 languages: English, Arabic, Spanish, Chinese, German, Portuguese, Bengali, Persian, Indonesian, French, and Russian.

In 2009, the Runet launched its own award for achievements in the field of social media - the Runet Blog, the main goal of which is to highlight the brightest Russian blogs, online communities, and social groups, as well as the best bloggers and companies using social media in their daily work. activities and business activities.