What is a Blog? Why Should I Blog? Who Blogs?

What is a blog?

A blog is basically a website that publishes your content (text, images, video, audio) dynamically and in sequence. Whereas a regular website is a collection of web pages, a blog website is a collection of individual blog posts that can either contain just text and perhaps an image like a newspaper article, or in many cases bloggers publish just videos (vlog) or just images (photo blog) in each post. Check out the official Poles Apart Design blog, The WordPress PAD. Notice that each post in our blog has a date and the most recent post is at the top. In a sense, a blog is like a database driven online newspaper since the articles are chronologically published, and all articles are automatically archived.

The difference between a regular website and a blog (and a blog-powered website such as Poles Apart Design) is the software (a database driven content management system, or CMS for short) behind it that allows the following: easily update, categorize, upload files, images and other content; add dynamic elements such as forms, analytics, image galleries; visitor interactivity through features like commenting and social bookmarking; and more. Websites without content management systems require a lot of work on the site developer’s or the site owner’s part. That can be challenging if you don’t have the programming skills necessary.

A blog, on the other hand, especially a WordPress blog, is built for ease of use, archiving tons of data, and allowing for seemingly endless flexibility in enhancements and design. You can publish anything on a blog from articles, to images, to press releases, to videos. Whatever a website without a CMS can do, a WordPress blog can do much better. Also, a blog is powerful because it allows endless capacity to engage your visitors to engage with you, learn about you and what you have to offer them.

Why should I blog?

A blog (like our blog The WordPress PAD) or a blog-powered website (such as Poles Apart Design) is the most effective way to keep your website fresh, engaging and your visitors and potential or current clients interested enough to stick around and, more importantly, come back for more. The Internet was originally based on getting free information quickly. That hasn’t changed much. People like free stuff. Also, for the individual, the small business, the professional, the community looking to make your mark online, a blog is perhaps the most cost-efficient and least complicated type of website you can have to meet your personal or business needs. A blog is also one of the best marketing and communication tools available to spread the word about you or your services fast (and fun):

  • Promote your product, yourself, your service, your community easily and with little to no cost
  • Reach an established or build a specific consumer base or readership
  • Strengthen your personal or business identity (brand)
  • Publish press releases
  • Perform market research
  • Share information
  • Poll your readers
  • Form long-term relationships with your customers, clients or readers
  • Create a network of like-minded people

Who blogs?

Generally, individuals or businesses who decide to blog have a need to consistently engage a community of individuals with common interests or clients/customers with needs and information the businesses can provide. A small business, a corporation, a professional, an individual, a community all blog in different ways but for the same ultimate goals: to engage, to inform, to sell (product or information for a fee or for site traffic), to get noticed.

Small Businesses to Larger Corporations

“57 million American adults, read blogs, and 95% of bloggers get news from the internet. Bloggers also tend to be high consumers of online products and services.”

  • Small Business Blogs / Corporate Blogs: Small businesses and corporations looking to attract and keep clients in a media jaded world, blog. A blog humanizes your business and lets your current and potential clients know, one human to another, about the products or services you provide and how your expertise can benefit them. A business blog allows you to publish information about what’s going on in your company as soon as it happens, or as soon as you want people to know. A blog can also offer your clients or customers a place to find your best deals and offers. A blog is also a fantastic way to show you are an expert at what you do. Publishing articles online gives you credibility as a knowledgeable source for a given subject or industry. And, the nature of a blog makes your clients come back to you time and again because people simply like free, fresh and updated information. In turn, your track record of reliability and trustworthiness creates a profitable and symbiotic relationship between you and your clients. This also guarantees your clients will spread the word to anyone willing to listen. Example business blogs: The WordPress PAD, Dell, South West Airlines, Local Biz Bits

Professional Artists

“45% of paid online artists say the internet is important in helping them create and/or distribute, promote and sell their art.”

  • Professional Artists looking to share, display and profit from their creative talents, blog. There couldn’t be a better way to promote, sell and share your art than having a blog. A blog defines who you are, what you know and what you are cable of creating. The number one reason why artists create art is to express themselves the best and most personally rewarding way they know how. Poles Apart is staffed by artists. We know how scary it is for your art to be critiqued once it’s out there for the world to see. Yet, we also know how uplifting and reassuring it feels when we receive praises, appreciation and cold hard cash for what our “artistic minds” have accomplished. Also, as an artist, let’s face it, we’d rather not deal with the boring technicalities of things if we can help it. We just want to get to the raw power of our art without having to worry about the technology or financial costs that may hinder our creativity. A blog let’s you just get your art out there in an affordable and simple (and fun) way. Example professional artists blogs: Fictionbox, Anita Davies, Imagery & Our World, The Painting Activist

Individuals

“6.5 million bloggers say that they have never published their writing or media creations anywhere else. 4.4 million bloggers blog to share their life and experiences with friends, families and the world at large. The blogger demographic is evenly split between women and men, and racially diverse.”

  • Individuals looking to share themselves and connect with others, blog. It’s enlivening and cathartic to write down your thoughts, opinions, experiences, your life. There’s also an amazing feeling that swells up in you when you share your experiences with others who can understand who you are and what you have experienced. It’s also just fun sharing information, personal experiences, media (images and video) and thoughts on politics, society, movies, books and so on. Being part of the blogosphere (a collective term encompassing all blogs and their interconnections) even a little connects you to the rest of the world. Blogging makes you part of something big, lovely and amazing. Social networks like MySpace can sometimes seem unruly and perhaps there are too many that are. But having your own blog creates a space that represents just you (without interruptive ads) and brings like-minded people into your circle. Example individual (personal) blogs: Outside Insight, Crooked Brains, Adult Child Bio.

Communities

“100 million people belong to groups that have an online presence. Members of online groups also say the internet increases the chances that they will interact with people outside their social class, racial group or generational cohort.”

  • Communities built explicitly for trade and professional associations, hobbies and crafts enthusiasts, sports and entertainment fans, cultural groups, life style groups, political groups, local community groups and associations, and other groups, blog. Our human natures compel us to want to be around people who do what we do, like what we like and/or know what we know. Many of us also like to engage in challenging interactions with people unlike ourselves. Unfortunately, the basic laws of physics disallows us to be in more than one place in a given moment in time. Damn! So, what’s the alternative? Online communities, of course. More specifically, community blogs. Community blogs create truly inspiring opportunities to become better, more aware and knowledgeable people, and ultimately more connected with a group of people who you otherwise would have never known. Creating a community blog brings people together to share personal or professional and common (and not so common), needs, concerns and interests. Example community blogs: Coworking, Channel-AI, The Dublin Community Blog.

How do I start blogging?

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