What is a blog?

This post might be a little basic, but it’s still a question I’m frequently asked.  And it’s also a subject that is often misunderstood.

So, really, what is a blog?

A blog is a section of a website where content is updated regularly.  Each time a new article–or blog post–is written, it is displayed as the top of a blog page as the most recent content.  Blogs can be written on any subject you have a lot to say about and updated as frequently (or infrequently) as you’d like.

One way to understand it better is by thinking of a website like a book.

Both books and websites are made up of pages.  Pages of a website usually have static content on them–content that doesn’t change.  For example, a local business might have a page that shows you where they are located and gives you their hours of operation.  Another page might tell give you information about the shop owners and tell you why they started the shop.  These are like the pages of a book.

For the blog, picture the end of a book that has a section for you to write down your notes.  You can continually add additional content to the end of the book, and it all remains in the “Notes” section.  Similarly, all of the posts written on a blog, live on one page of the website: the blog page.

Our local shop owner might use a blog to share details about how he creates his products or announce sales, etc.

Some websites use their blog page as the home page (the “home page” is the first page you see when you type in a web address), this is common when the blog is the main purpose of the website, like my home renovation blog, Little Victorian.

So a blog is a collection of individual blog posts.  (It’s a common misspeaking to call each post itself a “blog.”  It would be like an author saying “Yesterday, I wrote a few books.”  When they meant to say “Yesterday, I added a few pages to my book.”)

So now we’re clear on what a blog is, are you thinking of starting one? Head over to this post next for some things to think about first.

Does it make more sense now?  Have any more questions?  Ask in the comments!