For earning an income online, blogging is one of the most used platforms. Blogs are a significant part of the global online culture and have been steadily increasing since their humble beginnings in the late 1990s. Blogs are written about anything and everything. You name it, google it and you will probably find more than one blog on any topic.
The term “blog” is a shortened version of “weblog” that was coined in 1997. The number of blogs exploded during the 2000s. According to Technorati, by 2006 there were over 50 million blogs on the internet! No doubt that number has increased exponentially in the years since.
Blogs are generally topic driven, with all the posts relating in some way to the subject topic. These can be a source of good information, although the reader should investigate the credentials of the author, if possible. Blogs can also be pictorial or a series of stories or an outlet for news and other media. The variety of blogs is astounding and anyone who has spent any time browsing the internet has no doubt stumbled upon at least several blogs. In fact, one may have favorite blogs they visit repeatedly.
The most successful blogs are those that engage their readership in one form or another. Many blog writers allow their readers to leave comments on their blog posts thereby creating a vibrant social community. There are blogs that give away how-to information in the form of tutorials, complete with pictures; there are blogs that give away prizes, often awarding a prize to one fortunate RSS subscriber or commenter; there are blogs that replace all the cookbooks gathering dust in kitchens across the planet.
Blogs that are intended to earn an income for the authors need to be marketed like any other product of service. This can be overwhelming to the new blogger. Fortunately, there are various blog networks to join which is advantageous to the blogger who is starting out and seeking an audience.
Blogs are easy to begin and easy to maintain, provided the blogger loves to talk about their chosen subject. Generally a blogger is writing on a subject that is his or her passion, so coming up with new content is usually not a problem. The new blogger, however, may not be familiar with how to begin a website, which a blog is exactly that – a website. There are many blogging platforms available, however, that will take care of the nitty-gritty “behind the scenes” tasks such as domain registration, hosting, etc. Many of these are free! But eventually, a blogger will become savvy enough that they will have discovered how to own their own domains, control the hosting and how to optimize their blog. Believe it or not, all this information is freely available on the internet, usually on another person’s blog.
Since the rise of the popularity of the blog, there have been a number of other social media outlets that compete for audience and readership. But the savvy blog writer is already using those social media outlet to promote their blog. Readers still enjoy going to the one place they know will give them what they want, whether it’s the latest news, fashion, how-to tutorials, daily inspiration or chuckle – the blog is here to stay!