What do people mean when they talk about blogging? It depends on whom you ask. To some, it’s an online diary of sorts, while to others it’s a way to earn money from your writing or to build up your personal brand so that you can get picked up by other sources of income. Most commonly, it’s seen as just another medium for delivering one’s thoughts and ideas to the masses—just like TV or magazines, but in written form instead of video or print.
Blogging is both a way to share one's thoughts and experiences with the world, and also make some extra money for themselves. Some blog for fun, while others blog for profit.
Overview of blogging
In recent years, blogging has become one of, if not the most effective ways to communicate and share content. But just what is blogging, anyway? The short answer is that it’s a way to publish your thoughts on a website. The slightly longer answer involves how you publish your thoughts (and everything else) and where you do it. A successful blogger needs to master three main areas: writing well, technical know-how and building an audience.
What blogging means today
There was a time when blogging was just for tech geeks and internet junkies. In those days, bloggers were mostly men, writing about laptops and gadgets. While that may have been interesting enough to get a few loyal followers, it certainly wasn’t going to change anyone’s life or establish its own industry.
Examples of bloggers
Stewart Brand and Kevin Kelly are considered to be two of the earliest bloggers, while Tom Peters is often referred to as one of the godfathers of blogging. Arianna Huffington, who founded The Huffington Post (now a traditional news site), is one well-known example of a professional blogger; Chris Brogan, who writes as New Marketing Labs, and Gary Vaynerchuk are two other popular examples. [ref] In recent years professional blogger has come to mean someone who does it for money.
Influencer marketing
In recent years, brands have begun to turn to influencers—individuals with large social media followings and fan bases. The idea is that these influencers are able to connect with their audiences on a more personal level and effectively convey a brand’s message. These days, it seems as though every single celebrity has his or her own line of merchandise; many A-listers also have active Twitter accounts with millions of followers.
Tools you need to be a blogger
Even if you’re not a professional blogger, it’s likely that at some point you’ll want to share your ideas and opinions online. If you do decide to go pro, however, you’ll quickly find that professional blogging is much more than just a cheap WordPress theme and a collection of Lorem ipsum filler text. In fact, if you want to be successful as a blogger—and establish an actual audience—you need certain tools.
The future of blogging
Technology is changing blogging every day, with new tools and platforms cropping up each year. As a blogger, it’s crucial to stay on top of these changes so you can continue to connect with your audience and grow your business. We broke down some of today’s biggest changes for bloggers here. But, one big change we didn’t mention is where and how people are finding content; Google has continued its rise as an advertising juggernaut, even as users discover more content via social media sites like Facebook and Instagram. These developments suggest that blogs are likely to become an increasingly important digital medium—which means that becoming a successful blogger may be about more than creating quality posts; it will require time spent understanding and monitoring trends across multiple media channel.
Blogging has changed over the years - and it will keep changing as technology advances. As a blogger, staying up-to-date on all of these advancements is essential to making sure you are connected with your audience and growing your blog in the right way.
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