I wanted to do an article on understanding blogs and blogging. When people ask me what I do I tell them I sell products on the internet. I am also a content writer for websites and blogs. The word blog, blogger, blogger etc always leads to people wanting to know more about that. They want to understand the meaning of blogging!

To understand blogs, you need to know the terms blog, platform, domain, and web host. Once you have mastered these key elements of blogging, you can enter any conversation about blogging with confidence. After you know what exactly a blog is, you will be on your way to passing the final exam of blogging 101.

Blog is short for weblog, which simply means a series of online posts presented in reverse chronological order. That’s all! Most blogs are text, but there are also photo blogs and video blogs. The rest of blogging 101 has to do with the technical side of things.

If you are setting up a blog, you will need a platform, a web host, and a domain. A blogging platform is a computer software program that allows you to write posts and to update your blog. Your platform is also what you use to design the look of your blog, from color scheme to font size.

The web host is sort of like the virtual file cabinet where your blog is stored. Your computer communicates with the host when you upload or edit a post. The domain is the online address of your blog, and usually ends in ‘dot com’.

The definition of blogging is something that is very much in flux, as the new technologies that appear every day redefine what a blog is, what a blog can be, and what a blog should do. Blogging is always changing and is always attracting new bloggers and readers.

For many years, blogs were defined as text-based websites that kept records of days, similar to a captain’s log on a sailing ship. However, this started to change as the group of people who kept blogs became more diverse. The more bloggers began to explore the limits of the medium and of the technology that made it possible, the more the boundaries of what could be called a “blog” expanded.

Today, there are an abundance of photo blogs, and there are even video blogs as well. Mobile blogging devices may well change the definition of blogging entirely by making it possible for bloggers to create new kinds of posts.

A good blog excites the reader and is interesting enough to make them want to come back. Allowing visitors to become part of the discussion through polls and comments has made blogs more interactive.

Another element of the blogosphere that is starting to redefine blogging is the corporate blog. As more companies hire writers to keep blogs with the sole purpose of creating positive buzz about their brand, bloggers across the globe are arguing about whether these manufactured blogs are really worthy of the name.

Between all of these different forces that are constantly expanding and reshaping the blogosphere, it is difficult to imagine that the definition of what is and is not a blog will ever remain fixed for very long.

As you can see real meaning of blogging has become personal. It can be a hobby, a business, a support tool for an offline business or corporation, and so on.

In my case Team-Schuman blogs to support my mailing list, attract readers, search engine traffic, to make money blogging, to get new subscibers to JV With Jeff, and so on. Plus I enjoy doing it, so I will do that until it is not fun anymore. Then I will hire someone to do it for me as my blog has become a business assest worth keeping.