The Newbie Manuals

Blogging

Having a blog is considered by many in Internet Marketing to be an essential element

So what is a blog?

A blog (a contraction of the term “weblog”) is a type of website, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order. “Blog” can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.

Many blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject; others 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.

Most blogs are primarily textual, although some focus on art, photographs, sketches, videos, music, and audio. Micro-blogging is another type of blogging, featuring very short posts. The most common being Twitter.

The personal blog, an ongoing diary or commentary by an individual, is the traditional, most common blog. Personal bloggers usually take pride in their blog posts, even if their blog is never read by anyone but them.

Blogs often become more than a way to just communicate; they become a way to reflect on life or works of art. Blogging can have a sentimental quality. Few personal blogs rise to fame and the mainstream, but some personal blogs quickly garner an extensive following.

A type of personal blog is referred to as “microblogging,” which is extremely detailed blogging as it seeks to capture a moment in time.

Sites, such as Twitter, allow bloggers to share thoughts and feelings instantaneously with friends and family and is much faster than e-mailing or writing. Twitter is also considered an essential element within Internet Marketing as you can very quickly build up a list of thousands of followers to your blog posts (tweets).

Although relatively new, Internet Marketers very quckly realised they have a captive audience  within Twitter to whom they can market to. Intigration of Twitter into a blog is a very simple process which can bring in hundreds of visitors to the blog.

Using a blog for Internet Marketing can bring huge financial rewards to the blogger.

Using a powerful application such as Wordpress and having it hosted with your own domain name (website address) means you can firstly tailor the blog to your preferences, usually by selecting an appropriate theme and adding various plugins of which there are hundreds available to suit various applications. Once you have the layout and functionality to your liking, you can then monetize it. By this I mean add affiliate links etc and when anybody makes a purchase you get paid a commision.

If you are to be successful at blogging, then you need to add content of value to your readers who will if they like your content, come back time and time again.

All this may sound a bit daunting to the Newbie and so The Newbie Manuals has written a  Free step-by-step guide on how to upload and set up Wordpress.

How to upload and setup Wordpress

• Introduction
• How To Choose And Register A Domain Name
• Search For a Domain Name Hosting
• How To Upload Wordpress
• Setting Up Wordpress
• Changing Themes
• PlugIns
• Recommended PlugIns
• Pinging Your Blog
• List of Blog Directories

Wishing you great success.

Graham Maddison

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