What is a Blog or Web Log and Is it a Website?
Blog is the short name for a Web Log and it has already replaced this old term pretty much everywhere.
Not many people have heard of web logs but most of us, even if we don’t really appreciate what they are, have heard the term “blog”. Blogs are now very popular and accessible to anyone who goes online!
What is a Blog?
According to Wikipedia’s definition of a Blog:
“A blog is a type of website, which is usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order. Blog can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog (or web log).”
In other words it is like a detailed diary because each entry, which can be many words and paragraphs, is stamped with the date it is created and the most recent entries are listed on the home or front page of the blog website.
What are Blog Posts?
The entries entered into the blog are referred to as blog posts and these posts have a title and content just like an article in a magazine.
Posts can also include images and videos embedded into the text and the text can also be styled (bold, underline, italic etc) formatted into paragraphs with headings and subheadings just like in documents in a word processor.
There is no limit on the length or number of posts that can be added to a blog.
Is A Blog A Website?
Yes, a Blog is, or runs on, a Website!
But it is organized in a different way so that when content is added is is kept in date order with the most recent blog posts appearing on the home page of the website, so that the freshest content on the site is easy to find and read whereas the older posts although still accessible are not displayed but can be found through other links on the website.
In fact Blogs are a lot more like websites than most people appreciate. Many have the ability to create web pages and therefore build a site that looks just like a traditional website. As blog software improves it is now getting to the point where the difference between a website created with blogging software looks very like the old type of website built with HTML code.
So now you can use blog software to build a standard website and this trend will continue to become more and more popular. But the way in which the blog functionality is still built in, means a blog website is now a much more powerful platform on which to build any website as blogs are easier to find in the search engines. Choose the right blog software and you can have a website and a blog. You can also add a blog to an existing website too.
So there it is – a blog can be a web log and a website combined!
Tell Me More!
And just for your information: This website is a blog built with blogging software and what you have been reading is a blog post. Also if you click on one of the tabs at the top of the site a standard web page will be opened and these are not blog posts, but blog pages!
For more details on blogs, blogging and bloggers (someone who writes posts on an blog!) just checkout this in-depth article and technical guide:
This introduction is written by the guys who have developed the most popular blogging software in the world (WordPress) ! But if you are new to blogging and not too technical it maybe just a little bit detailed, but it is still a great resource to refer to as you start to become a new blogger.
And to put this blog into context there are now literally millions of individuals on planet earth who have a blog and post to them regularly. So that’s millions of blogs already online. Blogging is now extremely popular!
“What Is A Blog” Video
Here’s a great video that explains what a blog is in an easy to follow visual and graphical format. Enjoy!
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Structure Of A Blog And What New Bloggers Need To Know
So What Does A Blog Look Like?
And how is it different from the traditional websites that we have all seen online?
Well for starters this is website is a blog and by taking a closer look at it you will be able to determine the main components and structure of a blog website.
This site is built with WordPress blogging software, but any blog, whichever blogging platform it is built on, will have a very similar structure.
The Anatomy Of A Blog
All blogs are similar as they all have most of the same components and elements which typify a blog:
HEADER
This is the area at the top of the blog which includes the blog title (usually in big letters) or a logo and maybe a tag line (to qualify the blog title and often below it). The header normally has a horizontal menu bar of links to web pages and sometimes to category pages as well. This menu is the main user navigation area for the blog. This header area of the site will always be displayed irrespective of which blog post or page your are reading.
FOOTER
This is the area at the bottom or foot of the blog and usually contains copywright information and links to the designer and sometimes to other less used pages on the site, such as a privacy statement or site terms of use. Like the header this footer area is always displayed.
CONTENT AREA
This is the large area between the header and the footer and it is where all the blog posts and web pages will be displayed. If you select just and individual page or post the whole of the page or post will be displayed on its’ own in this area. However it is also possible for several excerpts of different posts to be displayed one after the other, especially if you select posts by category or archive date.
Twenty Eleven New WordPress Theme For 2011
The Twenty Eleven Theme Is Here!
If you had not noticed already the Twenty Eleven theme is now the new default WordPress theme for 2011 and this means that whenever you now install the latest version of the WordPress blogging software this theme will be installed as default.
In the previous year this used to be the Twenty Ten theme, but this has been update and now there are a whole ton of cool new feature and improvements for you all to enjoy.
Twenty Eleven WordPress Theme
Some of the most important are the additional Post Formats that you can now use as wells as new and very beautiful header images to choose from. You also get some alternate color schemes and site layouts to pick and you can even select custom link colors if that is your thing.
What you get from all of this is a new feature set that simply adds up to what is to many the best part of this new Twenty Eleven theme for 2011. And that is how customizable it has now become and of course this is very easy to do.
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