Blogs have been around for a long time but there are many people that are just now finding out about them.  I sometimes still get quizzical looks when I say that I blog or attempt to discuss how great blogging can be – for personal reasons, business or nonprofits.

The truth is, there’s nothing complicated about what a blog is, or what it can do.  In this post I’ll answer the question “what is a blog” in simple terms from a historical perspective, and what blogs really mean today.

A blog (which is short for the term “weblog”) is a website where the publisher shares news and/or opinions with readers. Entries (called posts) are often listed in order of most recent first on the main homepage.  People who publish blogs are often called bloggers, and you can use the verb “to blog” to describe the activity.

As this excellent video from Common Craft says, blogging makes sharing news easy…

Blogs often share other characteristics such as the ability for readers to leave comments on posts.  This provides a venue for communication not just between the blogger and individual readers, but amongst readers themselves.

Darren Rouse, publisher of Problogger and co-author  with Christ Garrett on a book by the same name says that building community is one of the most important principles of building a successful blog: “Over the last 7 years I’ve started over 30 blogs – the three that became most successful for me were the three that became communities rather than just information portals.”

By nature blogging is a social medium, and often bloggers will link to other blogs that provide similar content, sometimes along with a quote that applies to a particular point.  (As you will see from this post!) Additionally, most blogs have a page for date based and/or category based archives to make it easy for readers to find back-content.

This is the end of short and sweet answer to “what is a blog?”  For more information than you probably require check out the wikipedia reference list or keep reading…

A brief history of blogging

Back in the mid-1990’s the earliest blogs were generally of one of two formats…

1. The weblog was often just a page where webmasters would publish a list of site changes in reverse chronological order.   Others were just lists of favorite weblinks that the person wanted to share with others.

2. Personal blogs, akin to a diary, are usually written by one individual who is simply publishing updates on their personal life.  Personal blogs may include opinions, links, and photos.  Some personal bloggers write to keep friends and family updated; others do so just for the enjoyment of it, and don’t care whether posts are read and by whom.

Blogging today

Since its beginnings as primarily a web based personal diary, the blog has evolved into a platform for sharing news and ideas of all kinds, with commercial and non-commercial purposes.  To explore some of the many different topcis coered by blogs you can visit a site like Blog Catalog which has a topic based directory or see blogs.com top 10 lists.

In the early 2000’s blog publishing tools and platforms became available to make blogging easier to use, many of which were free, and helped increase the popularity of blogging.

Why is blogging so popular? In short,

“It’s the easiest, cheapest, fastest publishing tool ever invented,” said Jeff Jarvis, news blogger, media pundit and director of the interactive journalism program at the City University of New York’s Graduate School of Journalism. “The people have a voice they didn’t have before.”

(from Wired, After 10 Years of Blogs, the Future’s Brighter Than Ever)

How big is blogging today? Here are some statistics provided by Blogworld:

• Over 57 million Americans read blogs.
• Over 12 million American adults currently maintain a blog.
• 1.7 million American adults list making money as one of the reasons they blog.
• 89% of companies surveyed say they think blogs will be more important in the next five years.
• 6% of the entire US adult population has created a blog.
• Over 120 thousand blogs are created every day.
• There are over 1.4 million new blog posts every day.
• 22 of the 100 most popular websites in the world are blogs.
• Blog readers average 23 hours online each week.

Types of blogs

In general blogs fall into two broad categories: personal and business. Technorati, a website which aggregates thousands of blogs and blog posts recently published its 2009 State of the Blogosphere report. It showed that 72% of blogs are hobby and 28% are business related. However, the study also found that personal bloggers are posting less frequently and business related blogs are growing.

Here’s a more detailed breakdown of different types of blogs:

1. Personal or Hobby Blog

Many bloggers just write for the fun of it, to share their ideas, events happening in their life or thoughts on a particular subject.  Many writers  focus on the hobby they are passionate about and only briefly mention personal life details.  The Technorati report further described the motivations and habits of personal blogs:

Representing 72% of the respondents to this survey, hobbyists say that they blog for fun. They don’t make any money from their blogging – and only some would like to do so. More than any other group, though, Hobbyists say they blog to express their “personal musings” (53%). 71% update at least weekly, while 22% update daily. Because 76% blog to speak their minds, their main success metric is personal satisfaction (76%).

There are blogs on just about everything: sports, food, photography, celebrities, fashion, business…the list goes on and on.  Often blogs will be about a micro-topic within a broad category, for example, Cupcakes Take the Cake focuses on just, you guessed it, cupcakes.

2. Business

Many businesses from solo entrepreneurs to multi-national corporations, are using blogging as an effective strategy to reach customers.  In all cases, a blog provides a much more personal way to connect with current and potential customers.  Here are some of the benefits for specific businesses with examples:

• Corporations publish company news with a more personal touch than traditional press releases (Southwest Airlines)
• Small businesses highlight products, sales and connect with local customers (Allen’s Retail Liquor)
• Real estate agents share information about listings, tips for buying/selling a home (ReBlogWorld)
• Consultants share their expertise, which increases their reputation, trust with the audience and get more clients (Pamela Grow)
• Professional speakers share video clips of speaking gigs, with aim of getting more bookings (Mike Robbins)
• Authors blog to connect with readers/fans, sell more books (Neil Gaiman)

3. Problogs

While existing businesses may blog to promote their products or services, there are other blogs that generate revenue directly from the web.  These blogs focus on a specific topic and often written by one person, a solo-entrepreneur or “problogger.”   It’s unclear who first coined the phrase, but Darren These blogs generate revenue from space advertising, programs such as Adsense, affiliate programs or the sale of products.

David Risley publishes PC Mech, a blog with computer and technology information.  This is how he describes problogging:

As a pro blogger, we are not interested in promoting an offline business. Secondly, a pro blogger specifically targets a market and does not blog about anything he finds interesting. A pro blogger has to stay on topic. A pro blogger often releases content in a strategic fashion so as to promote a particular product, and the methods of doing so is an entire subject otherwise known as marketing.

Being a problogger is demanding. It requires a combination of writing skills and marketing skills. It can also be very lucrative if you are in the right market and are adept at the two above skills.

Sometimes blogs will start out simply as a hobby, and as they gain popularity the owner will begin to monetize the site.  This is what happened to me when I started Step by Step Fundraising.  At the time I wanted to start a web-based business, but I didn’t think this site would be a web business.  I was simply sharing my own experiences fundraising as a volunteer with others.  I was surprised to find that after several months the site was getting pretty popular and there were ways to earn an income from it!

While many problogs provide a part or full time income for the sole writer, others employ not just one person but several, sometimes hundreds.  Weblogs Inc. (which was purchased by AOL) and b5Media are two of the largest blog networks that hire writers to provide content for their blogs.

4. Journalism

Traditional print newspapers are now using the blog platform to publish online versions of their articles.  The LA Times is listed in the Top 100 blogs by Technorati (as of today it’s at position 20).   However, a media outlet doesn’t have to be in a big market or national stage to take advantage of blogging.  My hometown newspaper, which serves a population of about 125K uses a blogging platform.

Some journalists are bypassing traditional media altogether.  Many of these blogs started as single journalist publishing their work as a blog and evolved into a multi-author site. Some of the most well known journalistic blogs are Huffington Post and Daily Kos.  Many others can be found at the Technorati list of political blogs.

5. Cause blogs

Blogs that promote a not-for-profit cause are some of the most growing types of blogs on the web.  As evidence, this year was the first time since the BlogWorld conference began in 2007 that a seminar track specifically for nonprofits and cause marketing was offered.  A number of volunteers and nonprofit staff were in attendance. A social media fundraising campaign was conducted which raised over $70,000 for cancer related nonprofits.

A wide variety of cause based groups are gaining publicity, educating the pubic about an issue, connecting with donors, recruiting volunteers and reaping many other intangible benefits by blogging.

In the rest of this series I’ll explore examples of great cause blogs, how nonprofits can impliment a blogging strategy without spending lots of money and how to set goals and measure outcomes.

Next up… Part 2 – Who are cause bloggers?

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