A
blog is a type of
website that is updated regularly with new content. Most blogs contain short, informal articles called
blog posts. These posts usually contain some combination of
text,
photos,
videos, and other media. At its core, a blog is just a space on the web that you can create to record and express your
opinions,
experiences, and
interests.
If you spend much time browsing the web, you've probably read a blog post before, even if you didn't realize it at the time. Some of the most-read blogs are a bit like online magazines, as they're written by a team of people who are paid to update the blog with new posts several times a day.
However, the
majority of blogs are written by one person. As a result, the average blog is fairly
personal, reflecting the
interests and
personality of the person who writes it. This is the type of blog we'll focus on in this tutorial. The people who write blogs are called
bloggers. From what you hear on the news, you might think that bloggers are all a certain type of people— all very young, politically-inclined, and tech-savvy. Or maybe you've heard about bloggers who've written about amazing experiences or ambitious projects, then turned their blogs into best-selling books. While some bloggers do fit these descriptions, the majority of bloggers don't. In fact, there's no "average" blogger— blogs are written by people of
all ages and backgrounds, from
all walks of life.As you saw in the infographic on the last page, most bloggers consider blogging a
hobby. It can be a fairly time-consuming hobby, as many bloggers spend several hours a week writing blog posts, replying to comments, and more. So why do they do it?No matter what their
main reason for blogging is, most bloggers have at least one thing in common: they're
passionate enough about a topic to
write about it over and over again, usually for free. If there's a subject you care deeply about, you might enjoy blogging about it. When you have your own blog, you have
unlimited space and freedom to
express your opinions and discuss the things that you care about others.A blog can be about literally
anything. There are people blogging about every topic imaginable, from their political views to their pets. Think of
any interest or hobby, no matter how unusual or specialized— there's bound to be a whole community of blogs devoted to discussing it. Although it's impossible to list all of the subjects people blog about, there are certain topics that are commonly covered.