What is a blog? Are there different types of blog? Can I start a blog? Do blogs really make money? How can I make money from a blog? These are typical questions, asked every day. A weblog, or simply a blog, is a website that publishes, or features articles, which are called blog posts, posts, or entries, written by an individual, or a group that make use of any, or a combination of the following:

•  Straight texts
•  Photographs or images (photoblog)
•  Video (videoblog)
•  Audio files (audioblog)
•  Hyperlinks

Usually presented and arranged in reverse chronological order, blogs are essentially used for the following purposes:

•  Online journal, or a web diary
•  Content management system
•  Online publishing platform

A typical blog, has the following components:

•  Post date -the date and time of the blog entry

•  Category - the category that the blog belongs to

•  Title - the title of the blog

•  Main body - the main content of the blog

•  RSS and trackback - links the blog back from other sites

•  Comments - commentaries that are added by readers

•  Permalinks - the URL of the full article

•  Other optional items - calendar, archives, blogrolls, and add-ons or plug-ins

A blog can also have a footer, usually found at the bottom of the blog, that shows the post date, the author, the category, and the stats, or the number of comments, or trackbacks received.

There are numerous types of blogs. Some of them are of the following:

1. Political blog - on news, politics, activism, and other issue based blogs, such as campaigning.

2. Personal blog - also known as an online diary, that may include an individual’s day-to-day experience, complaints, poems, and illicit thoughts, and communications between friends.

3. Topical blog - with focus either on a particular niche, function, or position, that is usually technical in nature, or local information.

4. Health blog - on specific health issues. A medical blog, is a major category of health blogs, that feature medical news, from health care professionals and/or actual patient cases.

5. Literary blog - also known as litblog.

6. Travel blog - with focus on a traveller’s stories, on a particular journey.

7. Research blog - on academic issues, such as research notes.

8. Legal blog - on law, technical areas and legal affairs; also known as ‘blawgs’.

9. Media blog - focus on falsehoods, or inconsistencies in mass media; usually exclusive for a newspaper, or a television network.

10. Religious blog - on religious topics

11. Educational blog - on educational applications, usually written by students and teachers.

12. Collaborative, or collective blog - a specific topic, written by a group of people.

13. Directory blog - contains a collection of numerous web sites.

14. Business blog - used by entrepreneurs and corporate employees, to promote their businesses, or talk about their work.

15. Personification blog - focus on non-human being, or objects, such as dogs.

16. Spam blogs - used for promoting affiliated websites; also known as ’splogs’.

Blogging is typically done on a regular, basis, almost daily. The term “blogging” refers to the act of authoring, maintaining, or adding an article, to an existing blog, while the term “blogger” refers to a person, or a group, who keeps a blog.

Today, more than 3 million blogs can be found in the Internet. This figure is continuously growing, as the availability of various blog software, tools, and other applications make it easier, for just about anyone, to update, or maintain the blog, even those with little, or no technical background. Because of this trend, bloggers can now be categorized into 4 main types:

•  Personal bloggers - people who focus on a diary, or on any topic that an individual feels strongly about.

•  Business bloggers - people who focus on promoting products and services.

•  Organizational bloggers - people who focus on internal, or external communication, in an organization, or a community.

•  Professional bloggers - people who are hired, or paid to do blogging.

Problogging (professional blogging) refers to blogging for a profit. Probloggers (professional bloggers) are people who make money from blogging (as an individual blog publisher or a hired blogger).

Below are just some of the many money-making opportunities, for probloggers:

• Advertising programs
• RSS advertising
• Sponsorship
• Affiliate Programs
• Digital assets
• Blog network writing gigs
• Business blog writing gigs
• Non blogging writing gigs
• Donations
• Flipping blogs
• Merchandising
• Consulting and speaking

The following are a few things that you need to consider, if you want to be successful in problogging:

1. Be patient. Problogging requires a lot of time and effort, not to mention a long-term vision.

2. Know your audience. Targeting a specific audience, or group is a key to building a readership.

3. Be an ‘expert’. Focus on a specific niche topic and strive to be the “go-to” blogger, on that topic.

4. Diversify. Experiment with various add and affiliate programs, that enable you to make money online (aside from blogging).

5. Do not bore your readers. Focus on the layout. White spaces, line spacings, and bigger fonts, make a blog welcoming to read.

Certainly, it is possible to earn money from blogs. One just needs to take risks and have the passion, and the right attitude, in order to be a successful problogger.

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Derek Robson is an up and coming, South African, internet marketer, with a vision of empowering all fellow South Africans and non U.S folk, to have equal opportunity and success, on the internet. He is a syndicated article writer. He and his wife Sally, have started a string of sites, resources, courses and articles, as part of Dersalsites. For daily postings and articles, on Internet marketing, South African business, list building, affiliate marketing, the law of attraction, rugby and general topics, check his blogsite, at: http://dersalsites.com/southafricanbusiness  

To remain informed of our progress, in trying to find satisfactory alternatives, by newsletter and mail and to get recommended tools and lessons and to start your journey to wealth, sign up here. It’s free. Click this link: http://www.dersalsites.com/newsletter/  We will even throw in some free software for you, when you join.

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Clint has stated a website on fitness and bodybuilding. Check his blogsite at http://dersalsites.com/clintstrainingblog/

For all you need to know about blogging, article writing, submission and feeds, visit our site at: http://dersalsites.com/blogging/

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