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• Nick Barney, Technology Writer

What is a blog?

A blog, short for weblog, is a frequently updated web page used for personal commentary or business content. Blogs are often interactive and include sections at the bottom of individual blog posts where readers can leave comments.
Most are written in a conversational style to reflect the voice and personal views of the blogger. Some businesses use blogs to connect with target audiences and sell products.
Blogs were originally called weblogs, which were websites that consisted of a series of entries arranged in reverse chronological order, so the newest posts appeared at the top. They were frequently updated with new information about various topics.
Today's blogs are more likely to be a personal online journal or commentary related to a business that's frequently updated and intended for general public consumption. Blogs are still often defined by their format, consisting of a series of entries posted to a single page in reverse chronological order. Many blogs are collaborative and include multiple authors often writing on a single theme such as Engadget, a tech blog with multiple authors.
A blog is usually devoted to a subject of interest to a target audience -- such as fashion, politics or information technology. Blogs can be thought of as providing ongoing commentary on a theme. They're intended to engage with a community interested in a topic and the personality or products of the blogger or sponsoring business. Bloggers often pick unique domain names that reflect the topic at hand, such as Not Another Cooking Show, a food blog.
Bloggers control their content and don't have to rely on other outlets to publish their views and connect with an audience. Monetization strategies let bloggers make money from their writing and sometimes build entire careers.
TECHTARGET
Successful tech blogs often follow similar structures, listing content in reverse chronological order.

What is a blog used for?

The first blog sites were essentially online personal diaries or journals. They became popular for their regular content updates, personal point of view, aggregation of interesting links, and the opportunity to engage in the comments section with the blogger and their audience.
Blogs have come a long way from their early days as online journals, though it's still a popular reason people create a blog. They've also become an important way for buyers to gather information about the products and services they're researching.
According to Gartner, most customers do much of their buying research online, spending only 5% of their time with sales reps. Responding to that trend, blogging has become an effective way for organizations to create authoritative content attractive to buyers conducting their own research. Most business blogs end by advertising their product in hopes readers are ready to buy after reading and learning from the blog.
Blogs are a popular medium for connecting to audiences and have many uses for individual and business bloggers.
Some other reasons people start blogs include the following:

• Share views and connect with an audience. Blogs provide many writers and thought leaders with an outlet to share information and their views with a wide audience. Instead of relying on publications to publish their content or write about their business, individuals and businesses communicate directly with their audience. Blogging is an effective way to raise awareness about a subject or product and to build an online community around it.
• Build a business and sell products. Blogging is a popular practice for businesses trying to gain credibility in their industries, build high search engine rankings, connect with a target audience and identify sales leads. Using search engine optimization (SEO) strategies, blog content can turn a business blog into an authority on a technology or market. In this way, a business can reach a wide audience that regularly visits or links to its website and buys its products.
• Raise awareness. Blogs are an effective way to raise awareness about issues and causes, and to influence public and government opinion. Many nonprofit organizations use blogs to build social and political campaigns that inform audiences about a topic and keep them engaged in that topic's development.

Blogs are an important part of business marketing. They often feature in the first layer of the sales funnel and help lead a customer through the four steps of the funnel to more engagement with a business.

What is a blog post?

A blog post is the piece of content in a blog. Posts are frequently updated and often organized in reverse chronological order with the newest blog post appearing at the top.
Each post covers a subtopic of the blog and links back to the blog itself. For instance, blog site Engadget focuses primarily on technology news and reviews of consumer electronics. Each blog post covers a specific piece of electronic or technology news. But posts on the site also cover topics adjacent to electronics, such as movies and other forms of entertainment that overlap with the tech space. For example, one post looks at a movie dramatization of the popular video game chain GameStop.
Bloggers use their posts to attract audiences and rank high on search engine results. Business blog posts are often used at the beginning of the sales funnel that describes a product buyer's journey. They serve as an audience's introduction to a business and its products. Bloggers can use these posts to build content around more keywords and topical trends that audiences are searching for and turn those visitors into customers.
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