Blogging and SEO
Blogging gets its name from the term 'blog', itself a short form of 'weblog', which again is a blend of two words, 'web' and 'log'. A blog is a repertoire of web publications stored in reverse chronological order, which means that a new entry comes on top of the one just preceding it. Anyone who looks after a blog, writes for and maintains it is said to be 'blogging'. Blog-posts are articles posted on a blog by a 'blogger'.
Since early days, blogs have focused on particular subjects, for example web development, learning craft or estuarine fishing. Blogging is like an online diary, being constantly updated, that can contain both images and texts.
A typical blog-entry or blog-post will consist of title of the post, main content of the post, the URL of the full article called 'permalink' (article appears in a separate page), the date when posted, the blogging category of the post, comments if made and, finally trackback URLs' (which are URLs' of those pages that link to the blog-post).
Should you be blogging? Why not? But remember thousands of blogs debut everyday only to die soon after. So while blogging is surely an addiction (and perhaps a necessity), it is incumbent upon a would-be blogger to prepare a fertile ground for it to succeed.
Blogging Signposts
Blogging has become popular in a relatively short time. Here is a 'trackback' to sequence of events that together shape up today's blog scenario:
1. The term 'weblog' was first used in December, 1997 by Jorn Barger. From 'weblog' to 'we blog' to 'blog' - a short journey before Peter Merholz coined the term 'blog' in April, 1997.
2. Xanga.com, launched in 1996, is one of the earliest entrants on the blogging scene, having started with fewer than 100 online 'diaries'. Today, Xanga's community is populated by millions of users.
3. OpenDiary.com is another popular blogging site, having started in October, 1998. OpenDiary currently has nearly 450,000 users. Closely following OpenDiary came LiveJournal.com in March 1999, which today has over ten million users and nearly 230,000 posts everyday.
4. Blogging started gaining momentum in 1999 and in subsequent years, specially after the advent of hosted blogs.
5. Blogger.com is a notable blogging service that commenced in August, 1999. In Feb, 2003 it was acquired by and is now a part of Google.
6. Though reliable figure of total usage is not available, there is no doubt that blogging has arrived to share centerstage with other essential net activities, like emailing, chatting and surfing.
Free Blogging
To be sure, there are good numbers of free blogging tools to get going. Blogger.com from Google's fold is an excellent start-up. Xanga.com has both free and paid blogging service. So are host of others like Wordpress, Nucleus CMS (both database driven), Blog-City, Blogsome, Blog Studio, Yahoo!'s Flickr photo blogging (free and paid account), Fotothing photo sharing and so on.
All free services require you to sign up for an account and proceed step-by-step to ultimately establish your blogging account. Blogger.com also permits hosting a blogging account on your own server. Wordpress and Nucleus are both rich in features, but database-supported (PHP, MySQL) software applications.
Parameters of successful blogging
Before you start your own blog, here is a quick checklist:
1. Do you know your blogging subject well enough?
2. How conversant are you in your subject of blogging? As a rule of thumb, expect to contribute yourself for a good length of time before others join in.
3. Look for a niche category for your blogging, subject of course to the conditions above.
4. Are you in a position to devote time to your blog? Unless there are regular updates and a genuine willingness to do so, it is difficult to succeed.
Blogging and SEO
For any website to rank high in search engine results, search engine optimization is needed. Search engines prefer lot of relevant contents that are added and updated on a regular basis. Blogging fills in that requirement effortlessly and automatically. If you are a frequent contributor to your own blog, and if your articles are keyword enriched and relevant to the subject of your blog, be assured that search engines are keeping track of that. Examples are many where in terms of search engine traffic, websites have prospered on the strength of targeted blogs. So get going, start blogging today!
Article by Josh - admin @ hostingfrenzy.com Josh is the webmaster of http://www.hostingfrenzy.com Visit his site for a comprehensive web hosting directory, articles, tools, and much more.
Related Articles:
Blogging For Dummies- Free Assistive Article For New Bloggers
If you are searching for information related to blogging for dummies or any other such as liberal blog statistics, product marketing, top blogs or the best free blog you have come to the right article. This piece will provide you with not just general blogging for dummies information but also specific and helpful information. Enjoy it.
Web 2.0 Directory has Personal Information of Britney Spears, Madonna, Pamela Anderson, and Jenna Jameson
HumanBook.com, the world's first Web 2.0 directory has everyone's information, including celebrities.
Women's Careers Finding Web 2.0 Options at HR OptIn
HR OptIn Website has brought the power of Web 2.0 to working women. Online hub serves as an on-ramp to flexible, project-oriented career opportunity in the HR field by employing the best practices of Web 2.0.
Speed Blogging: An Innovating Tool of Networking
Gone are the days when people used to do business on their own. We are living in a world that literally thrives on networking. Be it relationship or business, the power of networking can hardly be underestimated. There was a time when the concept of speed dating surfaced when a group of singles started a round robin game somewhere in the New York City to test the compatibility quotient. The goal was to come up with the most compatible and prospective life partner. It became a huge success there and spilled over to other famous cities across the globe as well. Interestingly, some business professionals found this concept intriguing enough to be incorporated in their business networking strategies. Here, the goal was to create an opportunity ...
Blogging And Adsense - The Perfect Profit Partnership
At present we hear more often that adsense is used as an effective tool to display contextually relevant advertisements of a company or product on the website. If a visitor clicks on the advertisement to check it out the advertisement poster earns a percentage of revenue. Many webmasters are increasingly used the Google Adsense model as it is very effective and popular. Blogging is very good for Adsense profits. Let?s see in the next few paragraphs how blogging is used for increasing adsense profits.
Why is Market Research Important ?
Market research is an essential part of any business that wants to offer products or services that are focussed and well targeted.Business decisions that are based on good intelligence and good market research can minimise risk and pay dividends and by making market research part and parcel of the business process and conducting market research throughout the lifecycle of a product or service market research will bring the following benefits:-Market research will help you better communicate - Your current customers experiences are a valuable information source, not only will they allow you to gauge how well you currently meet their expectations they can also tell you where you are getting things right and more importantly where you are gett...
Nurse Baby Boomer Blogger Catches the Blogging Bug
And prefers that her message is presented with other thoughtful blogging personalities.
Make More Money Online with 'Easy' Web 2.0 Marketing, say Internet Business Experts Rich Schefren and Jay Abraham
"Doing business on the web has changed," say Rich Schefren, Jay Abraham, and Frank Kern who headline New Beginnings 2008: A Business Growth and Viral Marketing Conference in Walt Disney World, Florida, February 23-28.
Blogging and How it Can Help You Grow Your Business
Blogging, or weblogging, is growing in popularity by leaps and bounds, and is going to continue to be an excellant cost effective way to promote yourself and your business.
Instancy Presents the First Exclusive Conference Event: Web 2.0 Meets Enterprise Learning
Instancy's April 25th conference features seminars on Informal Learning and Making Web 2.0 and Learning 2.0 Real.
Blogging Tutorial
Let's start at the beginning. What is a 'Blog' and why would you care?Plain and simple.
TMA E- Marketing Successfully Demonstrates the Latest in Web 2.0 Tools
TMA E-Marketing provided the Pioneer Press' Website with three Web 2.0 tools to cover the U.S. Figure Skating Championship: podcasting, Internet radio, and Blogoshare, a blog-sharing tool that delivers the best and latest content from one or more blogs.
Outdoors Blogging reaches critical mass; OutdoorsBlogger.com announces 12 new blogs in October
The outdoors blogging network adds a dozen blogs, doubling in size in its second full month since launching.
Have You Done Your Market Research?
You've just decided to start an online business. You have a
great idea for a product, the adrenalin's pumping and you're
anxious to get started.
Travel Amazing South America goes Web 2.0
Travel Amazing South America, one of the leading websites about adventure travel in South America, goes Web 2.0. Travel aficionados can now share their stories, photographs and tips about their favorite travel places in South America.