What is a Blog and what does it do ?
The word blog can be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog. The Wikipedia defines the word blog as a “a truncation of the expression weblog”, and a “discussion or informational site published on the internet consisting of discrete entries, termed posts, typically in reverse chronological order”. The classic blog was from an individual or small group on a single topic, growing to multi authors from newspapers to univercities. The increasing interest in blogging has assisted the advent of web publishing tools for non-technical users. Social media sites like Twitter, Tumblr, Myspace and Facebook integrate single and multi author blogs into social networks, often termed micro-blogging due to the size of the posts. The majority of blogs are interactive allowing visitors to follow, leave comments, and build social relations with their readers.
A blog may be a commentary on a subject, an online diary, or a method of branding a company and its viewpoints. It is a means to express ideas on a particular subject in the form of text, images, links to other blogs and web pages. Blogs can contain any media related to the subject such as, videos, called vlogs, audio, often called podcasts, or mp3s, shared from sites like SoundCloud.
What types of Blogs are available ?
The type of blog is defined by both its content and delivery, major types include :
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Personal Blog :
An ongoing diary or commentary delivered from an individual. -
Collaborative Blog :
Written by more than one user based on a single uniting theme. -
Micro-Blog :
Small pieces of digital media placed on sites such as Twitter, Facebook, Myspace and Tumblr. -
Corporate Blog :
Internally enhance communication, externally market or brand. Club blogs list activities. -
By Genre :
Focus on an individual subjects such as art, health, travel, or popular 'how to' and tutorial blogs. -
By Media Type :
Defined by the media type. Videos are vblogs, links are linklogs, and photos are photoblogs. -
By Device :
Defined by the composition device. Blogs written on mobile devices are moblogs. -
Reverse Blog :
Composed by several non specific authors, one or more topics, but not a forum due to an upper limit.
Provide 3 examples of Blogs for a specific demographic.
I have chosen three examples of blogs from the "website development" demographic.
(1) Blogger
http://webdev-il.blogspot.com.au/?view=snapshot |
| Webdev-il ScreenShot |
(2) WordPress
http://www.web-development-blog.com/ |
| Web Development Blog Screenshot |
(3) Tumblr.
http://html5shelf.tumblr.com/ |
| HTML5 Shelf Screenshot |
Compile a list of 5 Blogging Systems.
(1) Blogger
http://www.blogger.comBlogger is a free, simple blogging platform offering a small selection of flexible layouts and background images. Templates can be customised via the interface or with technical knowledge by editing the CSS and HTML. It can be used for a single user, a company branding, or a business blog to publish a wide range of digital content. The domain name will end with blogspot.com unless a domain name is set up externally. Google AdSense can be integrated allowing ads relevant to the user to earn money for the owner. The attribution widget “Powered by Blogger” can be removed setting the widgets locked value to false, otherwise not supported. Blogs can be renamed, imported, exported or deleted, and site analytic tools provide the statistical information with the option to link to Google Analytics.
The platform can be integrated with Google+ to increase traffic. The layout editor is a drag and drop interface, easily embedding RSS feeds, also shared with direct links to the feed reader. There are almost 1000 widgets including, sharing pages, adding search boxes, slideshows, videos and polls, subscribe by email, quotes of the day and custom scripts. Support is provided online via the blogger help center, the blogger help forum, and an announcement newsfeed. Blogger lacks the SEO provided by other platforms and the interface is restricted to META description, robots.txt and no follow. With technical knowledge the template can be altered to include additional META, post name and heading tags. Blogger allows free HTTPS security for ecommerce although this feature is not available with custom domain names.
(2) WordPress
http://www.wordpress.comWordPress.com is a popular, simple blogging platform with a variety of free themes. With technical knowledge paid upgrades enable editing CSS and HTML and commercial themes can be purchased. Custom plug-ins aren’t supported however a VIP program is available. If a site receives 25,000 views / month the Ad Control splits revenue 50 / 50. WordPress.com reserves the right to display advertisements, unless an Ad-free upgrade or VIP program is purchased, and the right to display attribution links such as ‘Blog at WordPress.com,’ theme author, and font attribution. The platform integrates into social media with features like comments and polls. The sister site WordPress.org includes domain hosting with many additional paid options, although not part of the network, they will not gain traffic from blog of the day promotions.
This platform has enough versatility to be used by individual and business users in a broad range of circumstances. They are known for their high standard of support via documentation, support forums and online tutorials, but lack email support due to the network size. Maintenance is automatic including updates and backups, and code is optimised for SEO ensuring high rankings on popular search engines. RSS feeds can be embedded from other sites using short codes, a term used by WordPress to describe refined code. The stats page has graphs, charts and lists showing statistical information. Business plans can access Google Analytics, and a custom VIP plan allows a huge selection of statistical tool plug-ins. The network is continuously monitored for harmful activity and unauthorized access. The administrative page includes HTTPS secure support, and a two step authentication method ensures password hackers need your mobile device.
(3) Tumblr.
http://www.tumblr.comTumblr is a simple micro-blogging platform with a variety of free and premium themes. It is not a CMS or used for ecommerce, it is a blogging platform with over 200 million bloggers publishing 80 million posts / day. Popular amongst younger audiences it's suitable for individuals or commercial branding, with social and marketing value in follow, like and messaging digital content. The domain name is restricted to end with a .tumblr.com. The themes are customisable via a WYSIWYG interface and with technical knowledge in CSS and HTML. Anything from JavaScript, to jQuery, to iframes linked to external php code can be embedded. Revenue earning apps like Fiver, MyLikes, Google Adsense and affiliate programs gain network traffic from advertisements featured in sponsored blog promotions.
Tumblr states under the creative commons law attribution is an offence to remove. Removal by editing, or customising themes can result in account closure. Blogs can be renamed or deleted and free plug-ins are available to download and burn to cd for viewing. Support is available via a contact form and help documentation. Themes can be customized to generate META tags, otherwise SEO is not implemented. Tumblr generates RSS feeds viewers can subscribe to, although to import feeds the interface requires a plug-in called TumblrRSS. There are no statistical tools, generators like TumblrStats.com, or Google Analytics can provide a solution. Security procedures for malicious applications or fake login pages are well documented. Tumblr transfers data using SSL, an encrypted link between browser and server. Accounts can have two-factor authentication logging in via the interface and a code sent to a mobile device.
(4) TypePad
http://www.typepad.comTypePad is a simple blogging platform with a full 14 day trial period, then limited to a small selection of themes and plug-ins called a micro-blog. It includes a drag and drop interface with widgets for chatting, paying for goods and showcasing sites and media. The theme builder can create unique designs, with technical knowledge customised in CSS and HTML, and advanced templates include Javascript. TypePad does not place ads on premium plans, third party sites like Google AdSense and BlogAds ensure users retain revenue. The footer attribution "Powered by Typeform" can be removed on pro plans. TypePad can be used by individuals, for branding, for running ads, selling products via PayPal, joining an ad network, an affiliate program, or tip jar. Domain names end with typepad.com unless a premium plan domain mapping is used. TypePad is integrated into the social network via a share to Twitter and Facebook feature.
Blogs can be deleted but remain on the network for sending messages or account deactivated. New designs are stored in Your Designs, while there's an export tool for blog text, and advanced templates can be downloaded. Technical support has a trouble ticket system with knowledge database and tutorial section. The pro plan guarantee support replies within 6 hours. TypePad is optimized for SEO, sent to search engines via the TypePad Update Stream. RSS feeds are generated so viewers can subscribe, and widgets can embed RSS feeds. Visitor statistics can be viewed on the Overview page, or by using web based tools such as Google Analytics, ExtemeTracking or Sitemeter. TypePad is listed with over 3,000 malware pages, concerning since plug-ins granted access can cause damage and/or data lose. Two levels of password protection are offered combined with a terms of service security statement.
(5) Ghost
http://www.ghost.orgGhost is a free open source blogging platform created to solve the complexity of using a WordPress CMS to blog. Hosting is required, with the option to host internally. This includes server, application maintenance and backups. New customers to Amazon EC2 can host externally with a free trial year. Preinstalled with the Casper template, there are a variety of free and premium templates at the ghost marketplace. The traditional WYSIWYG interface has a Markdown and live-preview for continuous error detection. This is ideal for beginners, but customising the template requires a high level of knowledge. A drag and drop interface allows a comfortable workspace with widgets for performance, social media activity and news feeds. The side bar allows posting, tagging or sharing digital content.
The open source MIT licence implies no restriction on reuse, assisting an individual or business in any social media, marketing or branding endeavour. The instructions for removal of the copyright notice are on the default template. Internally hosted domain names end with myblog.ghost.io unless a custom domain name is purchased. Ghost has inbuilt support for SEO and social media, with more features than Yoast SEO. Including XML sitemaps, canonical tags, optimised URLs, microformats, Facebook Open Graph tags and Twitter Cards. A direct link is available for RSS feeds, with a plug-in to embed feeds. Third party RSS plug-ins like Google Feedburner, and statistical tools like Google Analytics can be added. Support is provided via a knowledge database and an open source community of developers. Security depends on the hosting service. The official host provides SSL and can be encrypted with HTTPS via CloudFlare’s UniverSSL.
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