Blogs in Plain English

What is a blog and how do I use one?

A blog is a type of website that can be continually updated with new content or posts. The word 'blog' is a contraction of the term weblog, which relates the the reverse chronological order of blogs. For a great explanation of blogs from Common Craft, watch the video below.

There are millions of blogs in the web of many different kinds. There are personal blogs that are maintained by single person and may focus on the day to day life of the individual or that individual's perspective of current events. Therefore personal blogs often overlap with subject-related blogs. There are also corporate blogs written by companies. These can either be used to help a company communicate better with their customers or communicate internally within the organization.

Blogsearch

So now you know what a blog is, it's time to start reading them! The best place to start is by using a blog search website. Some blog search websites are like search engines for blogs, whereas others are more like social bookmarking sites specifically for blogs. So take a look at some of the following blog search sites and start looking for topics that interest you.

• Google Blog Search
• Technorati
• Blog Cataloge
• Blog Search Engine
  

Start Blogging Now!

Now that you know what a blog is, why don't you create one? There are plenty of sites that allow you to create a blog for free. Try out Blogger.com, Wordpress.com or LiveJournal.com to sign up and start writing your own blog for free. Alternatively you can learn how to build your own hosted blog using the Wordpress software in this Affilorama Lesson here.