Definition of Blog: Types, Functions, and Examples

This article will discuss the meaning of blogs, types, functions, along with examples.

Blogs are very popular multifunctional online media, because according to a survey, 77% of internet users definitely read blogs.

It's no wonder that in 2020 there are as many as 600 million active blogs around the world.

Definition of Blog: Types, Functions, and Examples

Then what is a blog? Are you interested in creating a blog?

If you are interested in creating a blog, for a full explanation, see the discussion below.

Definition of blogs

The definition of a blog is a website or site in the form of online media that contains content in the form of videos, photos and articles that are managed by someone with bloggers or several authors at one time.

Topics discussed on blogs usually focus on certain fields, for example finance, health, culinary, lifestyle, technology, beauty, and others.

There are many successful bloggers in the blogging world in Indonesia, namely Sugeng Riyadi, Iwan Banaran, Trinity, and many more.

Blogs can be managed individually and can also be used for business purposes.

For example as branding, publication, and product promotion.

So it's no wonder that 55% of masks in Indonesia prioritize blogging for their focused marketing strategy.

The difference between blogs and websites

Blogs

The definition of a blog is a type of website or site that contains article content in the form of opinions, information, knowledge, or experiences that are dynamic and the content needs to be added and updated regularly.

So it can be said that a blog is the soul to determine the success of a blog itself because if it is not updated regularly, it is possible that the blog will die and be difficult for readers to find.

In terms of ownership, blogs are owned by individuals or business companies or institutions for promotional purposes and marketing strategies.

Website

Website is an online page that can be accessed using the internet via a certain domain address.

Websites generally contain information about products or services, because of this, websites are usually static both in terms of design and their content is not updated too often.

Meanwhile, in terms of ownership, the website is used for organizational needs, online shops, institutions, schools, businesses, and so on.

Blog structure

After discussing the meaning of a blog, then we will discuss the structure of a blog in general.

Blogs have a variety of appearance and structure, but the block structure generally consists of the following parts:

Header: contains the title description and blog menu.
Navbar: Contains a menu for selecting and exploring content on the blog.
Main blog: Contains the title, date, author's name, comments column, images, videos, and the like.
Side bar: Contains popular articles, ad widgets and other additional information.
Footer: Contains author information, contact, subscription form, and email address.

A little additional information that according to research from socialmediatoday, content on blogs that add images will be read by 94% more visitors than those that don't use any images at all.

Benefits and functions of blogs

1. As a means of publication

As already mentioned in the definition of a blog, you can also channel your hobby of writing through a blog as a means of expressing your creativity freely.

You can write about your life story, your writings, or opinions that you have.

Especially if you are a business owner, a blog can be a means for press releases on activities in your business, your customers can also find out that the business you are running still exists, this method can also help you save on publication costs through other online media.

2. As an online portfolio media

An online portfolio is one of the most important things a professional can publish online.

This day aims to make it easier for your clients to access information about your personality or skills or experience.

Through a blog, you can create an online portfolio that you have to your heart's content. It can contain your writings, projects you've worked on, photos, designs, and so on.

You can also customize the blog that you have with an attractive theme and design, not only that, you can also earn money through blogs.

3. As a media branding

Blogs can also be used as a powerful media branding tool, especially for those of you who are professionals.

Writing articles on certain topics through blogs will make you more widely known as an expert or expert, this can help potential customers of your business not to doubt the expertise you have.

By using a blog, you can build your company or business branding by providing information about useful niches for your business consumers.

It is recommended to write articles on one particular topic that you are good at to increase credibility in the eyes of your business customers.

4. As a promotional medium

Blogs can also be used to promote products or services from the business you run.

About 70% of people prefer to learn about business products through articles rather than advertisements, the way you can write articles about the benefits is tutorials on the products you sell.

Another example. You can also write articles about the benefits, functions, types, and how to care for the products you sell while promoting these products.

Types of blogs

1. Personal blogs

At the beginning of its appearance, blogs were used for personal purposes, such as online daily journals to record one's personal experiences.

Because writing a personal blog is not at all bound by certain rules, it's free.

You can write and determine what kind of content you want to write to your heart's content, you can write about stories about vacation experiences, food recipes, matters of romance, study tips, and so on.

Even though it is personal, many people have found success from cultivating this type of personal blog, for example trinitytraveler.

2. Professional blogs

Professionals usually have a certain special topic to show the professionalism of an owner.

If you are an expert in the field of SEO or digital marketing, you can create a blog with content according to topics you are good at or expertise that can attract many visitors to your blog, for example Danirahmat.com, which writes in the field of finance.

3. Business blogs

Business blogs are generally used to promote products, collect leads, and bring as many visitors to your business website as possible.

If you have an online store that sells women's sandals, you can create content about women's sandals on how to care for good sandals, how to choose sandals that are suitable for personality, and so on.

The fun thing is, if your blog content about women's sandals can appear on the first page of Google, it will be much easier for potential buyers to find the business you manage.

Your business will also look credible and have the opportunity to get more consumers, for example, niagahoster.

Things needed to create a blog

Determine the blog creation platform, here are some of the best blogs that you can make references for easy blogging.

WordPress.org
WordPress.com
Bloggers

1. Choose a blog niche

The definition of a niche blog is a special theme or topic that will be discussed on your blog, this means that the content you display will have the same theme, for example a culinary or beauty theme.

In fact, you can create a blog without specifying a theme or mixing it up, but by applying one theme or niche blog, you can be focused and it's easier to create content on your blog.

This will also make you better known as an expert and make it easier to get monetization from ads posted on your blog.

Here are some steps to choose the right blog niche and suitable for you.

Choose a topic that you are good at
Choose a popular topic, you can use the help of Google Trends.
Choose a profitable topic, such as beauty, technology or business.

2. Purchase the right hosting service

After knowing the meaning of a blog and how to choose the right blog niche and platform, you also need to buy hosting before starting to create a blog.

What is hosting? Hosting is a place to store blog files that you have so that they can be accessed online and easily.

Here are some types of hosting that you can use.

Shared hosting: It's most affordable and easy to use.
Cloud hosting: Has great resources and is easy to use.
WordPress hosting: Almost the same as shared hosting, but only specifically for WordPress users.
VPS hosting: Has a large capacity and can be managed independently.

3. Determine the domain name

You need a domain name as an address so that visitors can access your blog, for example www.apaasih.co.id.

The advantage of choosing a domain name if you use wordpress.org will be different if you use wordpress.com.

If you use a domain name with a document extension from wordpress.com, your domain name will look like this; apasih.wordpress.com or apasih.blogspot.com.

You can use a unique domain extension to make it easier to remember, such as:

.site
.website
.tech
.xyz
.net
.online
.id
.com
And many more.

You have to choose the right domain name so it's easy for visitors to spell and remember, no need to use a combination of numbers and hyphens.

4. Prepare the content to be created

If you are at the fifth stage, that means your blog is ready and all you have to do is upload article content according to the niche you have chosen.

If you intend to create content that is interesting and has the potential to be visited by many visitors, you need to do keyword research first.

Keyword research is conducted to find the most searched keywords on Google by using keyword research tools such as:

Google Trends
Ahrefs
Semrush
Ubersuggest

How to use keyword research tools is very easy, you only need to enter the keywords you want to reset, then the keyword tools will show the amount of search volume and the level of competition with other websites for these keywords.

The higher the search volume of the keywords you choose, the greater the chance that many people will search for your blog content.

But usually keywords with large volumes have a high level of competition too, for that you need to find their derivative keywords.

For example the main keyword is "how to create a blog", then the derivative keywords are "how to create a blog for beginners" or "how to create a blog on WordPess", and so on.

After you find the right keywords for your blog, all you have to do is write articles according to these keywords.

Conclusion

Thus the explanation of the article about the meaning of the blog includes an explanation of the types, examples and functions.

Do you understand the meaning of a blog? We hope that after reading this article you will understand the information you need about the meaning of blogs and other information.

Thank you for reading the understanding blog article this time, see you again in the next article.