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Blog Types, Functions, and Examples!

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Blogs are multifunctional online media that are getting more and more popular. According to a survey, 77% of internet users read blogs. No wonder, in 2022, there will be 600 million active blogs around the world.

Do you want to create a blog too? Well, before rushing to make it, let’s first look at what a blog is, its types blogs, functions, and examples in this article. Then, hopefully, you will be more stable and ready to create a cool blog.

No need to linger any longer. Just read the explanation!

What is a Blog?

A types blog is a website in the form of online media that contains content in the form of articles, videos, and photos managed by a blogger or several authors at once.

Topics featured on blogs usually focus on one particular area—for example, lifestyle, finance, health, technology, culinary, etc.

many bloggers have been successful in the blogging world. Call it, Trinity, Sugeng Riyadi, Sasyachi, Iwan Banaran, and many more.

Apart from being managed individually, blogs are also widely used by businesses. There are many functions and benefits of blogs that are certainly profitable for online business.

For example, branding, publication, to promote products. That’s why 55% of marketers prioritize blogging in their marketing strategy.

Difference Between Blog and Website

Maybe now you’re wondering. Actually, what is the difference between a blog and a website? To better understand the meaning of the blog, let’s look at the following explanation.

Websites

A website is a collection of online pages that can be accessed via a specific domain address. Websites usually contain information about products or services.

Since most of them contain product or service information, websites are usually static too. So in terms of design and content, it doesn’t need to be updated too often.

Regarding ownership, websites are usually used for organizations, schools, institutions, online stores, businesses, and the like.

Blogs

A blog is one type of website that contains article content in the form of opinions, experiences, and knowledge information.

Blogs are usually dynamic whose content needs to be added and updated regularly. It can be said. Blog content is the life that determines the success or failure of a blog.

Meanwhile, in terms of ownership, many blogs are owned by individuals. However, blogs are also owned by businesses, companies, and institutions for promotion and marketing strategies.

Blog Structure in General

Blogs usually have a fairly diverse look and structure. However, the blog structure generally consists of the following components!

  • Header: The top of the blog contains the title, description, and blog menu.
  • Navbar: This element can be referred to as a menu to help visitors select and browse blog content.
  • Main blog: The section where your blog posts are located. This section has structures such as title, date, author name, comment field, and the like.
  • Sidebar: The sidebar of a blog that usually contains some recommendations for popular articles, widgets, advertisements, or other additional information.
  • Footer: The bottom of the blog contains author information, contact, subscription form, and email address.

Meanwhile, in the main blog section, blog content is usually not only in the form of writing. However, I also inserted pictures and videos.

Adding images or videos to article content can make it easier for visitors to read your blog. Evidently, according to research from Social Media Today, blog content with images is read by 94% more people.

The History of Blogs and Its Development

Well, if we look at the development and history of blogs, the journey of blogs to becoming a popular platform is quite long. Here’s the timeline:

  • 1994: Justin Hall initiated the forerunner of blogs, who created an online personal journal under the name links.net. The page is still plain, just a white background with no visual images.
  • 1997: The term weblog was introduced by Jorn Barger. A weblog is a combination of the web and logs that describe their internet activities, namely logging to the web. In this phase, the concept of a blog that can read the latest to the oldest posts has been implemented.
  • 1999: The name Blog was born, popularized by a website designer, Peter Merholz. On his blog, he likes puns and did not expect the term blog to have such a big impact. Still, in the same year, blog platforms began appearing, namely LiveJournal, Blogger, and Xanga.
  • 2001: Blogs were introduced in Indonesia by Enda Nasution. His work in the blogging world has earned him the nickname the Father of Bloggers.
  • On 27 October 2007: he also initiated a blogger party with other Indonesian bloggers. The date was later commemorated as National Blogger Day.
  • 2003: Blogger platform officially acquired by Google. This year, Blogger’s competitor was born, namely WordPress. Both are easy to operate and free to use.
  • 2018: WordPress has become the most popular blogging platform. Not only for creating blogs but WordPress can also be used to create websites and online stores.

Read Also: Web Designers vs. Web Developers: What’s the Difference?

Benefits and Functions of Blogs

After seeing the historical review of increasingly popular blogs, what are the functions types blogs that many people use? Come on, see the discussion below!

As a Publication Tool

Do you want to channel your hobby of writing? Blogs can be a means to express your creative writing freely, whether it’s your life story, opinion, or other works.

If you have a business, a types blogs can also be a means for press release activities. If customers visit your business website, they can also see that your business still exists. Calculating this step can save expensive publication costs in online media.

As an Online Portfolio

Another example of the benefits of a blog is as an online portfolio. A portfolio is one of the important things for a professional because clients or companies can more easily find out the skills and experience you have.

With a types blogs, you can create an online portfolio containing your writings, photos, or projects you’ve worked on. You can beautify your blog with attractive blog themes and designs to attract clients. So you can earn money from a blog.

Branding Means

Blogs can also be a powerful branding tool. For professionals, writing articles on specific topics on blogs will make you known as an expert. So, clients or potential customers do not hesitate to use your services.

The same goes for business. With a blog, you can build company branding while providing consumers g useful information about your niche.

For example, Niagahoster has a niche blog about IT and online business. By continuing to display interesting and useful articles. Niagahoster’s credibility in technology is getting better in the eyes of customers.

That is why it is recommended that you write articles on a particular topic that you are also good at.

Promote Products or Services

Are you a business owner? Using blogs to market your company is also an option. Products, you know!

The reason is that 70% of people prefer to learn about business products through articles than through advertisements. Using a blog, you can write articles about the benefits of tutorials on your product.

This step has also been utilized by the online business of the plant, PlantMart. On his blog, he writes that he can write articles about the types, benefits, and how to care for the plants he sells. So, he can also promote products in his online store.

Types Blogs Often Found

In its development, blogs are not only used for personal needs. So, what types of blogs can you manage? Here are the types of blogs that you need to know.

Personal Blog

The first type blog is a personal or personal blog. At the beginning of its appearance, the blog was used for personal purposes. So, you could say the blog is a kind of online daily journal to record personal experiences.

Writing a personal blog is also not bound by certain rules. Blog writers are free to determine what kind of content they want to write. It can be about love stories, vacation experiences, food recipes, etc.

Although it is personal, not a few people gain success from working on this type of blog, take Trinity Traveler, for example. Trinity’s blog contains his experiences traveling around the world. Because of its unique stories, this blog has also been successfully turned into a book and film.

professional blogs

Well, in contrast to personal blogs, professional types blogs usually have one particular specific topic. In addition, tIn addition, the content in professional blogs is also explicitly made to show the professionalism of the blog owner.

For example, you are an expert in the field of SEO and digital marketing, therefore, you therefore, you can create a blog containing content according to the topics you are good at you will be known as an expert by writing a blog in the area of expertise.

Business or Company Blog (Content Marketing)

Along with its development, many companies are using types blogs for certain purposes. Such as promoting products, collecting leads, and bringing visitors to business websites follow how to start an e-commerce store.

For example, you have an online shoe store. You can create blog content related to shoes, for example, how to take care of shoes, choose the right shoes, and so on.

Well, if the blog content about shoes appears on the first page or even ranks first on Google, it will be easier for potential customers to find your business. So, your business looks more credible and has the opportunity to get consumers.

What Does It Take to Create a Blog

now is the time to start blogging afterthe time to start blogging afterer knong what a blog is and its benefing. Well, here are the things you need to create a blog.

Read Also: The Most Complete Blogging Guides You Must Read!

Determine the Platform to Create a Blog

To start creating a blog, you need to determine the platform you are using first. There are many best blogging platforms that can help you create a blog easily.

WordPress.org

WordPress.org is open-source software that can be used for free. It can be said, WordPress is the most popular CMS. More than 35% of blogs and websites use this platform.

The number of WordPress.org users is due to its easy use, attractive appearance, and the abundance of powerful plugins available.

Well, to be able to create a types blogs using this platform, you need to buy a hosting service and a domain first. Guidelines regarding hosting and domain selection will be discussed in the next chapter.

WordPress.com

Similar to WordPress.org, WordPress.com is also a CMS for website creation that uses WordPress’ hosting servers. So, the name of your blog will contain the domain .wordpress.com.

WordPress.com is free to use, but it has a lot of drawbacks. For example, there are no plugins and themes available. To be able to get plugins and themes according to your needs, you need to spend more.

Blogger

Blogger or blogspot is Google’s CMS platform. Well, the advantage of using Blogger is that you can take advantage of services from Google more easily, such as AdSense, AdWords, Google Analytics, and others.

Well, almost the same as WordPress.com, the drawback is that the name of your blog will be inserted with the .blogspot.com domain. This of course is not suitable for professional or business needs.

Choose a Blog Niche Or Category

A blog niche or category is a specific theme or topic that is covered on a blog. This means that in one blog, the content displayed is part of the same topic. For example, the topics of technology, culinary, travel, beauty, and the like.

In creating a blog, it’s actually okay not to determine a blog niche or create a mixed-use blog. However, by applying a niche blog, you can focus more and easily create articles, be better known as an expert, and easily get monetization from ads.

If you are still confused about what blog niche to choose, you can apply the following steps:

  • Topics You Are Good: Choose a topic that you are really good at so you don’t have trouble and boredom in managing a blog in the long term. As much as possible you also master the topic. You don’t have to be an expert or a master, at least you understand the topic.
  • Popular Topics: Also consider the popularity of the blog topic. So, the chances of getting a lot of readers are getting bigger. You can try using Google Trends to find out the trend.
  • Profitable Topic: Some topics often get a bigger profit opportunity. For example, getting advertisements, and being able to sell products, and ebooks, to affiliates. Some topics that are quite profitable for example, beauty, technology, business, and many more.

Buy the Right Hosting Service

After choosing a niche and blogging platform, you need to buy hosting first. Hosting is a place to store blog files so that they can be accessed online.

There are several types of hosting that you can use, namely:

  • Shared hosting: the most affordable and easy-to-use type of hosting;
  • Cloud hosting: a type of hosting with large resources and ease of use;
  • VPS hosting: a type of hosting with large capacity and can be managed independently by requiring technical skills;
  • WordPress hosting: same as shared hosting, but specifically for WordPress users.

Define Domain Name

After choosing to host, you also need a domain as an address to access your blog. For example, the News Business Insider domain name is newsbusinessinsider.com

The benefits of choosing this domain name can only be obtained if you use WordPress.org. It’s different if you use WordPress.com, then your domain name has a default domain extension, for example, [yourblog].wordpress. com or yourblog.blogspot.com.

Well, choosing a domain name also can’t be original, you know. Because the domain name will be the branding of your blog. So, make sure your blog name is short and easy to spell. No need to use a combination of numbers and hyphens, so that your blog is easier to remember.

Prepare the Content You Want to Create

Now that your blog is ready to use, you just have to upload the article content on the blog according to the niche.

If you want to create content that is interesting and has the potential to be visited by many people, your first step is to do keyword research first. This step is done to find keywords that are commonly searched by many people on Google.

Keyword research can be done using keyword research tools, such as Ahrefs, Semrush, Ubersuggest, and also Google Trends. How to use the keyword tool is also very easy. Just enter the keywords you want to research.

With this keyword tool, you can see the amount of search volume and the level of competition with other websites for that keyword.

The higher the volume, the greater the chance that your blog content will be sought after by people. However, usually keywords with large volumes have a high level of competition as well. For that, you also need to look for LSI keywords or their derivative keywords.

For example, the main keyword is “how to create a blog”. The LSI is “how to create a blog for beginners”, “how to create a WordPress blog” and so on.

After finding the right keywords, all you have to do is write the article. A detailed explanation for creating interesting and SEO-friendly content can be found in the following article → How to Create SEO Friendly Articles.

So, Already Understand the Definition of a Blog, and are Ready to Create a Blog?

That was a complete explanation of what a blog is. Starting from the understanding of blogs, blog history, structure, functions, and types, to how to make them.

A blog is an online medium that is easy for everyone to use for a specific purpose, whether it’s a personal journal, portfolio, or business marketing.

Creating a blog has also become easier. You can use the provided platforms such as WordPress or Blogger. Don’t forget to also choose hosting and domain so that your blog looks more professional.

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