Contrary to popular belief, blogging is not a new idea that began solely with the Internet. Blogging originated with personal diaries and journals. Blogs have evolved from a way to express feelings and catalogue thoughts to a marketing tool that will encourage visitors to purchase products from a company. The history of online blogging begins in the 1990s and will be explored in brief after an explanation of blogging.
What is Blogging?
Blogs or Weblogs consist of an online journal community, where information may be disseminated or life’s events chronicled. Blogs are typically displayed in reverse chronological order on the website. Online discussion forums are considered to be the predecessor to blogs on the Internet. Game developers were some of the first business users to publish blogs via finger protocol. These developers provide news and interesting details about games to the fans.
History of Blogging
(Timeline Referenced by Webopedia)
• 1994: Links.net was the first online blog created by Justin Hall, a Swarthmore College student.
• 1997: The term Weblog was coined by Jorn Barger.
• 1998: Open Diary was introduced to the public.
• 1999: The term Weblog was shortened to the terminology we use today “blog.”
• 1999: Developers launch the first free blogging tool called Pitas.
• 1999: Blogger is released by Pyra.
• 2002: The first person is fired from their job for discussing the company on a weblog. Simultaneously, the term “Dooced” is coined, after Heather Armstrong used the terminology to describe her firing from her job.
• 2002:Gizmodo is launched.
• 2003: Blogger is purchased by Google from Pyra. The purchase was made after the blog reached 200,000 active users and 1 million blogger users.
• 2003: Developers learn to coordinate advertisements with the blog content with the introduction of AdSense.
• 2003: Designers launch MySpace.
• 2003:TypePad, a blogging and hosting service, is launched.
• 2004: MSN launches Spaces. Spaces incorporates MSN Messenger and Hotmail services.
• 2005: Red Blogs service was released to target the teen audience.
• 2005: Intermix Media, the owner of MySpace.com, was purchased by News Corporation for $580 million.
• 2005: Weblogs, Inc. was purchased by AOL for $25 million.
• 2005:Typepad introduced mobile blogging tools.
• 2005: Daily Dish published by Andrew Sullivan was moved to Time.com. Sullivan is paid a fee for his blogging services, while Time earns advertising revenues from the blog.
• 2005: A Business Blog Service is launched by DigitalGrit.
• 2006: User Blogs were introduced at the eBay Live! Conference.
• 2006: Google pays $900 million to be the exclusive provider of MySpace.com.
After 2006, blogging tools became freely available and widely used by the public. The most popular tools were introduced after 1999. These blogging tools include: Blogger, LiveJournal, MySpace, Open Diary, Windows Live Spaces, WordPress, Xanga, Yahoo 360 Beta, and Blog.com.
Currently, WordPress is gaining credibility in the business community for creating, publishing and editing blogs. WordPress also ensures that the blogs are optimized. Plug-ins are used to include backlinks, recommend key phrases and other optimization tools. Much of the optimization techniques are transparent to the user. This is helpful for business owners that are not well-versed in optimization techniques.
These services can be joined free of charge. Bloggers for the most part need some basic knowledge of HTML. Bloggers may now maintain their blogs from their mobile phones. In an emergency, a developer can edit and immediately publish the blog to the website. The interfaces are easy to use and maintain.
When editing via a mobile device, selecting the appropriate mobile internet providers becomes important. Internet providers with the fastest speeds will make the editing and publishing process easier from the mobile device. Compare internet providers online prior to making your final selection. A slow internet connection could impede your progress while working from your mobile device.
Blogs as a Marketing Tool
In 2011, blogs are being created to help inform customers of a company’s product or service and also to drive website traffic to the company’s website. Most visitors that land on a company’s website will more than likely enter the website through a blog. Blogs often contain relevant content that will attract customers to the website. If the content is interesting, clients will be compelled to learn more about the company’s product and possibly purchase the product.
