Question – What is a blog?
A blog is a type of website. When the first blogs came online they were called “web logs” and were used by people to create an online journal of their lives or interests. They contain entries in chronological order and encourage reader/writer interaction through a commenting section usually located at the bottom of each entry (or ‘post’).
The main difference between a blog and a bog standard website is that you don’t have to pay a small fortune for a blog! If you are so inclined, you can start a blog for free and have your first post published in just a few minutes. All you need is an internet connection, a handy list of blogging sites that you can use for free, a valid email address and a cup of coffee. Actually, you don’t even need the handy list of blogging sites that you can use for free (and the coffee is optional too); there are really only two choices; WordPress or Blogger. The rest are just playing catch up.
Power to the people
Blogging gives power to people who do not have coding skills or the specialist software required to create websites – you create and manage a blog through a browser such as Internet Explorer. This has enabled many people to get online and create a presence for themselves. All they had to do was create an account and start blogging.
Free blog providers also offer a selection of default designs (often called ‘themes’ or ‘layouts’) that you can apply to your blog, and if you get tired of the way your blog looks, you can change it in an instant by choosing a different theme. Many individuals and companies have jumped onto the theme bandwagon and offer themes/layouts for free. This provides you with an immense choice of pre-coded designs you can apply to your blog, but beware, not all themes and layouts provided by third parties are up to the standard of those provided by the likes of WordPress or Blogger.
In addition to being able to change the design of a blog, you can also pick and choose the various elements that make up the pages of a blog. For example, you may wish to display a calendar or a list of your latest blog posts; this is done by using a widget on WordPress and a Gadget on Blogger – which you can pick up and drag to the location on the page where you want it to be displayed – usually a universal part of the page; a sidebar, header or footer.
This is a typical list of widgets available in a WordPress.com hosted blog:
On Blogger there is over 1500 Gadgets to choose from, here are a few of them:
So far I have talked about the free blogs you can get with WordPress or Blogger, and if you were to ask me which is best, I would say WordPress (others would disagree). However, there is one major difference between the two that could quite easily swing your decision in the way of Blogger, and that is advertising.
WordPress will not allow you to publish adverts on your WordPress.com hosted blog, whereas Blogger will allow you to add adverts to your Blogger.com hosted blog.
There is a way around this if you are prepared to spend some money…the software for WordPress can be downloaded for free and installed on a server away from WordPress.com. This means you can have a WordPress powered blog running on an external server, you can make use of all the themes (and plugins) that are available for WordPress and you can display adverts from Google’s AdSense program on your pages for just a few dollars a month, which could easily be recouped from your blog if it got enough traffic.
To summarize
A blog is a type of website that can be managed through a browser. New pages are added in chronological order. A blog can be set up for free in just a few minutes or the (WordPress) software can be downloaded and install for free on a web server. A blog can cover any topic you want – it can be used as a personal journal or for business.
Blogging can be as simple or as complicated as you want it to be. The medium is extremely versatile and can accommodate a whole plethora of requirements. The best way to see if it is for you is to sign up and give it go. You have got nothing to lose.
Get a WordPress blog or get a Blogger blog.
If you are looking for a good reliable host for WordPress, we recommend Arvixe.
