Thinking about starting a blog, are you? Before you learn how to create a blog, you had better get an idea of what a blog actually is and how it is fundamentally different from other online presences. That’s exactly what I’ll be reviewing in this article.A blog, short for weblog (web-log, not we-blog), is an online journal. Blogs are specialized forms of web sites, so they typically contain text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, or other media related to their topics. “Blog” can also be used as a verb, meaning “to maintain or add content to a blog.”Blog entries, or “posts,” are usually displayed in reverse chronological order, and posts are assigned to categories to assist with organization. Posts refer to individual articles, or writings, in a blog.Blogs differ from traditional web sites in several crucial ways:

RSS feeds?RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a family of feed formats used to publish blog content. Feeds make it easy for people to keep up with their favorite web sites in an automated manner that’s easier than checking them manually.Feeds can be aggregated in a feed reader, a web page or portal page, or a web browser. The feed reader checks the user’s subscribed feeds regularly for new content, downloading any updates that it finds. In essence, it’s a way for your favorite content to be “pushed” to you, or in this case, a way for your subscribers to get your content pushed to them as it’s updated. In a nutshell, feeds make sure that your readers receive your content as it’s published.Blogs range from personal journals intended for close friends and family, to influential and significant media journals, to informal communication channels for companies. Blogs exist in about every shape, size, and topic imaginable.The power of blogs is that they allow millions of people to have a voice. Blogs are fluid and interactive, consisting of two-sided conversations rather than broadcasts. Blogs are fundamentally changing how we use the web, so get your blog started or you’ll be left behind!

Thinking about starting a blog, are you? Before you learn how to create a blog, you had better get an idea of what a blog actually is and how it is fundamentally different from other online presences. That’s exactly what I’ll be reviewing in this article.A blog, short for weblog (web-log, not we-blog), is an online journal. Blogs are specialized forms of web sites, so they typically contain text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, or other media related to their topics. “Blog” can also be used as a verb, meaning “to maintain or add content to a blog.”Blog entries, or “posts,” are usually displayed in reverse chronological order, and posts are assigned to categories to assist with organization. Posts refer to individual articles, or writings, in a blog.Blogs differ from traditional web sites in several crucial ways:

RSS feeds?RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a family of feed formats used to publish blog content. Feeds make it easy for people to keep up with their favorite web sites in an automated manner that’s easier than checking them manually.Feeds can be aggregated in a feed reader, a web page or portal page, or a web browser. The feed reader checks the user’s subscribed feeds regularly for new content, downloading any updates that it finds. In essence, it’s a way for your favorite content to be “pushed” to you, or in this case, a way for your subscribers to get your content pushed to them as it’s updated. In a nutshell, feeds make sure that your readers receive your content as it’s published.Blogs range from personal journals intended for close friends and family, to influential and significant media journals, to informal communication channels for companies. Blogs exist in about every shape, size, and topic imaginable.The power of blogs is that they allow millions of people to have a voice. Blogs are fluid and interactive, consisting of two-sided conversations rather than broadcasts. Blogs are fundamentally changing how we use the web, so get your blog started or you’ll be left behind!

Regardless of whether your goals for your blog are earning an income or just providing good content to your readers, one of your primary factors of success will be the community that forms around your blog.Think about it: your readers help you build your blog. Their comments are all indexed and become a part of the content on your blog. How many times have you performed a search only to find that the keywords showed up in someone’s comments? It happens frequently!Your readers even provide you with new content ideas either explicitly or implicitly through their comments and suggestions. They also are responsible for shaping your message and passing it on to others, which is a key component of web 2.0. Your readers initiate discussion, bring new readers on board, and become part of your blog’s identity.As valuable as your community is, you must do everything in your power to encourage its formation, and some of that responsibility rests directly with your readers’ ability to comment and add to the discussion. Once they participate, they have a vested interest in the success of your community. That’s why encouraging comments is so essential to your blog’s success. Commenting leads to more involved readers, which leads to more referrals and more engaged readers, which leads to more clicks and more sales.Think about it. If you read a blog post on a random blog, how likely are you to go back and reread that same post? But what if you add a comment to the post — how likely are you to revisit that post? I would guess that you would be very likely to revisit. After all, you want to see what others said in response to your comment. You want to see what kind of conversation forms.Here are a few ideas to capture comments:Provide a dofollow link in return: a very easy way to encourage a comment is to remove the “nofollow” attribute from your blog’s comments. You’ll see an increase in spam attempts, but it’s worth it to encourage comments.Ask for them: rather than wrapping each post up neatly, leave room for discussion. Ask an open-ended question in closing or ask for comments directly.Provide a comment RSS feed: blogs all have RSS feeds associated with them so that readers can keep tabs on your blog through their RSS readers. Why not provide them with a comments feed so that they can easily keep tabs on the conversation? Wordpress bloggers can use the “Subscribe to Comments” plugin for this.Highlight your commenters’ posts: plugins like “Comment Luv” provide an automatic link back to the commenter’s latest blog post. This is an ethical bribe: by contributing a comment, your readers can publicize their latest blog entry.Commenter highlighting: you can use plugins like “Meet Your Commenters” or “Top Commenters” to provide extra insight and incentive for comment posters.Reward commenters: you can even set up comment thresholds. For each reader who achieves a predetermined number of comments, you can automatically send them a reward: a discount, access to a private post, a free report or e-book, etc. Plugins like “Blog Commentifier” can automate this process for you.The community that forms around your blog can make or break it, but luckily, YOU can influence that. Start by actively encouraging comments. It can be incredibly simple, and much of it can be automated with some freely available Wordpress plugins.