What Is A Blog and How Does It Works With Four Reasons To Start A Blog Today ?

Do you really want to know what is a blog and how does it works and why you need to build your own blog today. “Then this guide is quite for you.

Starting a blog is one of the easiest, most accessible ways to launch your own business and earn an income online (from anywhere in the world).

Blog is the most used content marketing tool on the internet nowadays for businesses through which companies guide and educate customers on the use of their products.

Note : Here the term ‘blog‘ and ‘website‘ are used interchangeably because they literarily have the same meaning with slight difference.

Before we move on to how to create a website/blog, let firstly understand what is meant by blog, blogging, blogger and website. As a beginner, one has to understand these terms to know what blog is and how it works before ventures into blogging system.

What is a “Blog” ?

Introduction To Blogging

Blogging is one of the digital marketing system used mainly for an educational and infomational purpose.
But today Blogging has grown rapidly to the extent that people are making passive income from their blog.

What blog really is ????

A Blog is an informational website where you manage and write articles on a specific topic that drives readers attention.

When you go to Google and search for something, all possible results will be displayed to you, then you choose one from all the search results brought by Google.
All those answers and results are written and posted by bloggers.

So, a blogger is a person who owns or runs a blog or a person who maintains a blog. That is, posting articles or new posts, information, sharing the most up-to-date news and opinions.

While blogging is the act writing and managing blog posts.

It is a process of maintaining or running blog posts, articles and informations on webpage.

Through blogging, you will learn a little bit of web design and graphic design.
Also you will learn marketing,copyrighting, freelancing and some blogging tools.

Out of many benefits associated with blogging, I want to highlight three:

1) In the course of blogging you will learn many other beneficial skills.

2) You will learn how to build an audience and market an online business.

3) Blogging also gives you an opportunity to earn money online through many ways.

Among the ways are:
1)Through Affiliate Marketing.
2) Through Freelancing.
3) Through Online course.
4) Through Google AdSense.
5) Through Podcasting.
6) Through Vlog.
7) Through selling digital product.
8) Through Sponsored posts.
And some others.

I hope you understand ??

Some popular blogging niches include:

Lifestyle
Tech
Entrepreneurship
Food/Recipes
Parenting
Health/Fitness
Travel
Finances/Budgeting

History of a Blog

The term “weblog” was coined by Jorn Barger on December 17, 1997. The short form, “blog“, was coined by Peter Merholz, who jokingly broke the word weblog into the phrase we blog in the sidebar of his blog Peterme.com in April or May 1999.

Shortly thereafter, Evan Williams at Pyra Labs used “blog” as both a noun and verb (“to blog”, meaning “to edit one’s weblog or to post to one’s weblog”) and devised the term “blogger” in connection with Pyra Labs’ Blogger product, leading to the popularization of the terms… Source : Wikipedia.

Features of a Blog

Types of Blogs

🔹Personal Blogs : The personal blog is an ongoing online diary or commentary written by an individual, rather than a corporation or organization

🔹Collaborative Blogs : The type of blog in which posts are written and published by more than one author or by group.

🔹Aggregated Blogs: Individuals or organization may aggregate selected feeds on specific topic, product or service and provide combined view for its readers.

Blog By media Type

Blog by media type comprises the following :

• Vlog (video blogging) : A blog comprising videos

• Podcast (audio blogging) : A blog comprising audios

• Linklog : Blog comprising links

• Sketchblog : Blog containing a portfolio of sketches

•Photoblog : Blog comprising photos

Blog By Genre

Blog by genre focuses on a particular subject, it comprises the following :

•Tumblelog: Blogs with shorter posts and mixed media types

• Political blogs

• Journalism blogs

• Health blogs

• Travel blogs

• Book blogs

• Fashion blogs

• Lifestyle blogs

• Wedding blogs

• Project blogs

• Sociology blogs

• Education blogs

• Quizzing blogs

• Legal blogs

• How-to/Tutorial blogs

Difference between a Blog and Website

✒ A blog is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts) which are typically displayed in reverse chronological order, so that the most recent post appears first, at the top of the web page.

Notable examples are toyaab.com, flashlearners.com and wpbeginner.com.

✒ While a website is a collection of web pages and related contents that is identified by a common domain name and published on web server.

Notable examples are wikipedia.org, google.com and amazon.com.

What is the Best Blogging Platform to Create a Blog ?

The most used blogging software that powers almost 33% of websites on the internet is WordPress.

It is a software which is installed on your own web server and gives you more control over on your website. You can slso install “themes” and “plugins” to add new styles and functionalities to your website without any advanced technical knowledge.

 

Four Reasons To Start A Blog Today ?

1: TO BUILD ONLINE PRESENCE

Blog is one of the best ways to build your online presence and stand a chance to get true audience for your brand.

2: TO MARKET AN ONLINE BUSINESS

There are many benefits of blogging for business, these days, nearly all online companies have a blog with which they used to advertise, educate and guide their customers.

3: TO SHOW YOUR EXPERTISE ON A FIELD

If your are a guru or a teacher on a particular topic, you can use a blog to teach your students.

4: TO MAKE MONEY ONLINE

When you are ready to take a blog as a business, then you are ready to make passive income from your blog even when you are sleeping

How to Create a Blog in 7 Easy Steps.

The below is the overview of the steps to take to get your WordPress blog started within few minutes.

• Choose your blog niche (what your website will be all about).
• Choose a domain name (the name of your website and extension).

 

• Pick a hosting provider and plan (your web server provider).
• Install WordPress and choose a theme (install wordpress software on your choosen server).

 

• Pick your WordPress plugins (to enhance functionalities).
• Customize your website to suite your choice.
• Monetize and drive visitors to your website.

The below is how to create, drive traffics or visitors and monetize a WordPress website in 07 simple steps.

Step One: Getting Started and Choosing Your Niche.

Choosing a niche is to pick a topic which your website will be all about. It is recommended to choose the topic you know about very well, it can be your hobby ,your work or about anything, just make sure you have passion or create passion for your chosen topic so that you will have something detailed and reasonable to offer.

Step Two: Choosing a Domain Name

Before anyone can begin building a website, choosing a domain name is one of the most important part as this is how visitors will find the site and identify the brand name.

The domain name is what people type into their browser to get to your website. You can decide to choose a domain name that you derived from your own personal name or from your nickname, but it is recommended to pick a domain name that both represents your brand and easy for people to remember.

Step Three: Set Up Your Hosting Account and Pick Up Your Plan.

Once you have picked your website name, you will need to buy your domain extension and hosting plan that best suits the needs of your website.

Web hosting provider will offers you web server on which WordPress software will be installed. The server serves as a place or room where your website lives on the internet.

As you live in a particular room in your house as your website lives in a particular server on the internet, Hope you understand ?

There are different server types offered by web hosting companies, the basic web server type is Shared Hosting.

Since you are building your website on WordPress.org, choosing a web hosting provider that suites for WordPress site is recommended and buying your domain name and host plan from the same provider company is also advisable because there will be no need to transfer anything to anywhere.

Note: It recommended for you to purchase a domain name and hosting plan from our top-picked provider like Toyaab Hosting.

Toyaab Hosting offers both domain and hosting plan at an affordable price and it is recommended for a starter because they offer hosting plan with free domain for life.

Step Four: Install WordPress and Choose a Theme.

Part of the benefits of choosing Toyaab hosting is one click WordPress installation. When you have chosen Toyaab Hosting as your web host, you will install WordPress with one click automatically.

Step Five: Select WordPress Plugins.

Plugins are used in WordPress to increase the functionalities of WordPress self-hosted. This is the functional area that allows you to control what your website visitors will see when they land on your pages.

Also you need to learn and understand WordPress admin dashboard and some WordPress terms.

Step Six: Customize Your Website.

Now that you have set up your website, you can then begin customizing your website with different styles, colors, fonts, widgets and so on. You are ready to apply your color choices, font styles, and special elements that will help you express your company personality. You can then write your first post.

Step Seven: Monetize and Drive Traffics.

After you have set up your blog, you can start monetizing it by driving more traffics or visitors to your website. A blog can be monetized in different ways. Check the links below for details on how to monetize and drive visitors to your website.

Recommended: 9 Evergreen Ways To Monetize Your Website Today

➡ Endnotes.

Creating a website with WordPress is so easy that you don’t even need any advanced technical knowledge before you can own a website or a blog.

WordPress can be used to create any type of website ranging from personal websites to an e-commerce sites (business websites). The only need is to know which type of theme and plugin is suitable or applicable to the type of website you want to create.

If you encounter any problem while creating your website with WordPress. Feel free to leave your question into the comment box below or contact me through the contact page.