Here a blog, there a blog, everywhere a blog blog – so, what is a blog, anyway?

In general, a blog is a collection of articles appearing on a website that can be grouped according to topic, date, author and type. These articles are called “posts,” and new ones are usually added to the blog on a regular (or not!) basis.

Websites are comprised of pages and posts. Pages are pretty much static — you create them and they hold content that serves a purpose, like your About page, Services page, or Contact page. You can edit the content, but for the most part, you build them and they just sit there.

Your blog is a little different. If you have a link to your Blog on your navigation bar, and you click on it, it will show several different posts, with the most recent one at the top. When you add a new blog post, it appears at the top and the others are pushed down.

In addition to appearing on the Blog page, each post has a page of its own. You can usually get to the specific page for a post by clicking the title of the post on the main Blog page. This specific URL is called the “permalink,” and it is what you want to use when you link to a specific post from somewhere else, like Facebook or Twitter.

Let’s suppose that you have just finished writing a powerful post and you want to link to it from Facebook. Until you write another post, as long as this one is the most recent, it won’t make any difference whether you put the general blog URL (www.MySite.com/blog) or the specific URL for the post (something like www.MySite.com/powerful-post).

But in the days and weeks ahead, if you use the general blog URL, THIS post won’t be at the top if you are continually adding new content. However, if you use the permalink, the specific URL for the post, it will always be there (until you delete it).

Another characteristic about posts is that people can comment on them. Most websites are set up so that people don’t comment on your pages (not in writing, anyway!). But blog posts are different. They are intended to be engaging, to draw people into interacting. You want to encourage comments, and then make sure you respond to them in a timely manner.

One of the benefits of having a blog that you update regularly is that the Search Engines love new content. And one of the benefits to you is that it gives you a platform from which to share your thoughts and inspirations about what is relevant to your target market.

So, what is a blog? It is a powerful instrument in your marketing toolkit. If you are a regular blogger, good on you! If you have a blog but it is overgrown with weeds, go plant something good and watch it grow. And if you don’t have a blog, this is a great time to get one. Next week we’ll talk about how to do that, so stay tuned!

Kim Avery