Blog is the shortened variant of the word “weblog”. This term means the website where information is provided in the form of constantly updated column. The key elements of every blog are links to posts or videos from other sites and chronological time comments and they are usually represented in the form of records in the opposite timeline. Blogs may have various topics from personal to economical and they also can be aimed to one particular item or to the wide range of items.
A lot of blogs concentrate on a certain subjects like travels, politic, home decor, or IT technologies. Some of them are more general and providing links to other sites of different orientations. And blogs are kind of personal diaries, introducing everyday situations and ideas of the author.
In general (exceptions are possible), blogs have some typical features:
- A central content region with entries, which are placed in date order, latest at the top. Usually, the articles are gathered into different divisions.
- A record of non current information.
- A place, where readers can make comments about the items.
- A catalog of links to other similar web sites, which are called a “blogroll”.
- One or several “feeds” like Atom, RSS, or RDF files.
Blogs also can have some extra characteristics apart from these.
Content is the essential purpose of all web sites. Commerce sites offer a catalog of products. Sites of Universities comprise information about their curriculum, faculties, and accommodations. Internet news sites demonstrate the ultimate events. For a personal blog, it is common to have a great number of comments, or surveys. If the content updates rarely, there is no sense to enter the site one more time.
The content of a blog comprises articles (the synonyms are “entries” or “posts”) that the writer(s) creates. Of course, there are blogs that have several writers, each is in charge for certain posts. In general, blog writers create their posts in a web-based interface, embedded into the blogging system itself. Several blogging systems also maintain the capability to employ stand-alone “weblog client” software that permits writers to create entries offline and upload them later.
Do you want an interactive website? Wouldn’t it be great if the visitors of a site could make comments, practical suggestions or leave impressions about the website or a certain post? In blogs, all these options are possible! Leaving comments is the key and one of the most interesting feature of blogs.
A lot of blogs have a means to permit readers to make comments. Moreover, there are dope methods for writers of other blogs to make comments without entering the blog! These ways are called “trackbacks” or “pingbacks”. They were made to notify author’s of other blogs whenever they cite a post from another website in their own posts. All these facts assure that online talks can be supported painlessly among different websites and website users.
Software that exposes an approach of managing your website is usually called a CMS or “Content Management System”. A lot of blogging software applications are regarded a particular type of CMS. This applications expose the features needed to create and support a blog, and can turn the internet publishing into an easy process, just like writing of an entry, giving it a heading, or arranging it into one or several classifications. Unlike some CMS software programs that suggest numerous and complicated features, an ordinary blogging tool has simple interface that provides easy and even intuitive manner of work. Nevertheless it deals with the logistics implemented in making your work decent and open to public. Otherwise speaking, you have to concentrate on what you aim to write, and the blogging tool provides the site management autonomously.
WordPress is one of the improved blogging tools and it exposes a vast set of specific features. With the help of its Administration Panels, you can easily choose options for the functionality capabilities and appearance of your weblog. Also, through Administration Panels, it is easy to create a blog article, all you need to do is just push a button, and your post will appear on the website in seconds! WordPress does its best to make your blog entries look great, the text looks readable, and the html code goes with web standards.
If you’re a first-timer, it will be necessary for you to read Getting Started with WordPress that includes both, guide on how to set up WordPress rapidly and efficiently, and guide on realizing common tasks inside WordPress, for example, making new entries or editing old ones.
Besides apprehension how blogging software like WordPress works, each blogger has to know key terms and concepts.
With the help of blog it is easy to follow the posts that were published on a website. Most of blogs have an archive based upon datelines (like yearly or monthly archive). The top page of a blog may include a calendar that is connected to daily archives by links. Also, archives can be grounded on different categories, where each category includes articles on certain subject.
Also, it is possible to archive your posts in alphabetic order or by author. The capabilities are unlimited. This quality to create and introduce posts in a composed fashion is one of the things that makes blogging a popular and widespread personal publishing instrument.
A Feed is an option of specific software that permits “Feedreaders” to enter a website automatically in search of recent content and then publish actualities about that content on other websites. This gives users an opportunity to stay informed about the most recent and hottest information published on various blogging sites. Some Feeds contain RSS (that is determined as “Really Simple Syndication” or “Rich Site Summary”), Atom or RDF files.
A blogroll is a categorized or uncategorized list of links to webpages from different websites the that the creator of a blog considered attractive or valuable. Usually, all links in a blogroll refer to other blogs on similar subjects. The icon of blogroll is usually located in a “sidebar” on the web page or situated on a special distinct web page. WordPress has an integrated Link Manager so users can manage and create blogrolls by themselves without regard to a third party.
A feed is a machine recognizable (often XML) content post that is renovated frequently. A lot of blogs post a feed (usually RSS, however Atom and RDF are also possible). Also, blogs have tools, which are called “feedreaders”. They examine determined blogs to check if they have been updated, and if they have feedreaders show the fresh posts, and provide links to them, with a fragment (or the entire contents) of posts. Every feed includes items that are posted for a time. During a feed examination, indeed the feedreader is searching for fresh items. For users convenience, all latest items are automatically detected and downloaded into one space, there is no need for you to overlook different blogs in searching of interesting information. To activate this tool, you just have to add links for needed blogs to the RSS feed. Then you will get a notification from the feedreader any time the new posts appear. Great part of blogs have the “Syndication” feeds, which are accessible for their readers.
Comments are one of the most fascinating peculiarities of blogging instruments. This peculiarity is interactive, and it permits users to leave comments about the posts, connect them to your own post, and recommend them. These functions are called pingbacks and trackbacks. In this section you will find out the information about managing and moderating of comments. Also, here you will learn how to handle with the irritative thing, which is known as comment spam (it is unwelcomed comments that appeared in your blog ).
At first, Trackbacks were invented by SixApart, which also developed the MovableType blog package. At official site of SixApart you can find the detailed introduction to trackbacks.
In general terms, TrackBack was made to assure a method of announcement between several websites: this method works easily, just like one person telling another person that he has something interesting to him. And to show this thing, first person mails a TrackBack ping to another person.
This explanation is more detailed and understandable:
- Person A posts some information in his or her blog.
- Person B wants to leave a comment on Person A’s blog. Also, person B wants his/her readers and subscribers to see her comment, and have a possibility to comment in their blogs
- Person B publishes it on his/her blog and mails a trackback to Person A’s blog
- Person A’s blog gets the trackback, and shows it as a comment to the primary article. This comment contains a link to Person B’s post
The main idea of trackbacks is that more persons who take part in the discussion (because Person A’s readers as well as Person B’s ones can follow links to different posts), and that there is a degree of identity to the trackback comments as they derived from other weblogs. However, there is no valid confirmation fulfilled on the incoming trackback, and in fact they may even be forged.
Major part of trackbacks send to Person A only a little piece (that is called a “fragment”) of what Person B had to tell about. This is behaves like a “teaser”, allowing Person A (and his subscribers) to see some of things that Person B had to tell, and promoting them all to enter Person B’s blog to see the rest (and comment it).
Usually, trackback from Person B’s blog to Person A’s one is published together with comments. This denotes that Person A has an option to edit the original contents of the trackback on his server, this implies that the concept of “identity” isn’t actually settled. (Note: Person A can edit the original contents of the trackback only on his website. And he has no option to edit the post of Person B’s at his site.)
Pingbacks were made to overcome some of the difficulties that arose during the work with trackbacks. Therefore, the official pingbackguidance is similar to the instruction of a trackback:
For example, Irvin writes an juicy post on his blog. Lerroy reads Irvin’s post and leaves a comment that is linked to Irvins’s initial article. With pingback using, Lerroy’s software can automatically inform Irvine that his article has been linked to, and Irvin’s software can then comprehence this issue on hir website.
Remote comments is the best way to understand pingbacks :
- Person A publishes some item on his weblog.
- Person B publishes on her weblog, linking to Person A’s item. After that a pingback is automatically sends to Person A and two of them have pingback enabled weblogs.
- Person A’s weblog gets the pingback and then goes to Person B’s post automatically to affirm that the pingback did, actually, arise there.
The pingback is usually showed on Person A’s blog just as a link to Person B’s article. Pingbacks are generally thought not to send any content and updates, as trackbacks. This is wrong. If you receive a pingback, you will see a fragment from the weblog in the section ‘Edit Comments’ of your digital dashboard. The question is that only some themes show these fragments from pingbacks. The embed themes of WordPress, for example, do not show pingback fragments.
Indeed, there is the only essential distinction between trackbacks and pingbacks: Trackbacks and Pingbacks employ fundamentally distinct from each other communication technologies (XML-RPC and HTTP POST, respectively). However that distinction is significant because trackbacks have turned into the aim for numerous spam attacks. The automatic process of confirmation shows an identity level, making it more complicated to forge a pingback.
Some people believe that trackbacks are superior as subscribers of Person A’s weblog can see some issues that Person B has to say, and then conclude if they want to see more articles (and surfing over the Person B’s weblog). Others believe that superior are pingbacks because they make an accessible connection between several posts.
Blog comments are usually blamed as deficient authority because any person can publish anything under any name or cover name: there is no confirmation process to guarantee that the person is who they said to be. Both Pingbacks and Trackbacks point to grant some confirmation to leaving comments in blog.
To start pingbacks and trackbacks, you have to select the following items under ‘Default article settings’ in the Discussion Settings of Administration Panels:
Attempt to notify any blogs linked to from the article.
Allow link notifications from other blogs (pingbacks and trackbacks.)
choosing one option and not the other would not be very amiable;)
Once started, pingbacks and trackbacks from other websites will arise at Administration Panels as other comments, but on the pages of your blog, moreover they will arise in accordance with your theme’s design.
Once started, pingbacks are automatically sent when you post your issues, so you have to do nothing. And if you want to send trackbacks, you have to detect the trackback URL on the post page you are connected with. If you cannot define any of them, try to identify if the website maintains pingbacks. If it does, it is better for you not to send trackbacks. Then Copy/paste the trackback URL into the Send Trackbacks Field on your Add New Post screen. If you don’t find this field, enter the screen settings and choose the Send Trackbacks option. Note that choosing this does not mail trackbacks, it only shows the field called Send Trackbacks. When you post your article, trackbacks will be mailed to the URLs you added into the field. This field will also display the state of pingbacks and trackbacks on your Edit Post screen.
If there is a person that likes to send a trackback to your WordPress weblog but their blogging software does not maintain pingbacks, they have to insert URL of your trackback into their article edit panel and permalink with “trackback” of your blog post’s will attached in the end. And if their software maintains pingbacks, the process will start automatically.
Moderation of Comment is an option that permits the site owner and creator to follow and control the comments on the various entries posts, and can aid in solving comment spam. It allows you moderate comments, and you can remove unwelcomed comments, affirm cool comments and decides about other comments.
Comment Spam is classified as ineffective comments (or pingbacks, or trackbacks) to publishes on a weblog. These are usually inappropriate to the context validity of the article. They can keep one or several links to other domains or sites. Most of spammers use Comment Spam as a facility to obtain higher page rate for their domains in Google. This can help them sell those domains with a higher price in future or to get a high ranking in searching outcomes for a current website.
Spammers are incessant; because their “job” can bring them a lot of money, that’s why they do their best to get earn it. They even create some automated tools (robots) to send quickly their spam to different weblogs. A lot of bloggers, notably newcomers, sometimes are incommoded by Comment Spam.
However, there are some ways to avoid Comment Spam. In WordPress service there are a lot of tools for dealing with Comment Spam. It’s only necessary to make an effort and Comment Spam will never disturb you again, so there is no cause to abandon blogging.
Together with categories and other types of blog postings, permalinks are the constant URLs to your personal blog posts. A permalink is a thing that any blogger can use to connect with your post (or column), or how you can submit a link to your e-mail message. The URL to your post shouldn’t modify, as other readers may link to your personal postings. Permalinks are purposed to be constant (active for a long period).
“Pretty” Permalinks is the concept that URLs are often observable to the persons who click them, and that is why they should be created in such a manner that they are reasonable, and not be loaded with inexplicable parameters. The superior permalinks are often “hackable.” This means that user is able to change the text of link in their browser to relocate to another column or listing of the blog. This is an example, of how the standard permalink to a story may seem in a standard installation of WordPress:
/index.php?p=423
How to understand what “p” means? And what did the number 423 indicates?
For reference, “pretty” permalink is well-structured and it can link to the same post, when the installation is configured to change permalinks:
/archives/2003/05/23/my-cheese-sandwich/
It is not difficult to understand that the permalink comprehendes the posting date, and the heading, just by watching at the URL. Moreover, it is possible to guess that in case of hacking the URL to be /archives/2003/05/ it would obtain a list of all the publications from May of 2003. It’s great.
Some of blogging instruments have a capability to send you posts via email straight to your weblog, and without any direct interference through the blogging instrument interface. WordPress proposes this wonderful feature. Now, only using email you may send anything in your post content at the earlier indicated emails and voila! Your article is posted!
In case, when you are utilizing Pretty Permalinks, the Post Slug is the heading of your entry inside the link. The blogging tool software can facilitate or clip your headlining into a more correspondent form for utilization as a link. A headline like “I’ll Make A Wish” may be clipped into “ill-make-a-wish”. In WordPress, it is possible to modify the Post Slug into something different as “make-a-wish” that sounds more appropriate than a wish made when sick.
In other words, excerpts are brief digest of your blog articles, with blogging instruments being able to settle these in different ways. In WordPress, Excerpts can be made on purpose, to resume the post, or created automatically by utilizing some of initial paragraphs of an article or utilizing the post up to a special point, determined by you.
Plugins are great units of programming scripts that put in extra performance capabilities to your weblog. These features are usually either increase already accessible features or put them into your website.
WordPress proposes uncomplicated and convenient ways of adding Plugins into your weblog. Plugin Page button is located at the Administration Panel. All you need to do is to upload a Plugin directly into the WordPress, and then activate it at the Plugins Management SubPanel, and then you can enjoy your plugin’s work. Not many Plugins have an easy installation process, however WordPress Plugin developers and creators make it convenient.
It is rather complicated to start a new blog and this fact scares a lot of people. A lot of beginners give up with blogging because of absence of visits and comments. You want to break ranks from all this bloggers, you desire to be one of the thousand weblogs that are really visited and have high rank. Here are some advice that can aid you to become good and popular weblogger:
- You should make posts on a regular basis, but they always have to be useful and interesting.
- Choose only several subjects that you will write about.
- It is unnecessary to put ‘vote me’ and ‘subscribe’ links all over the first page until you have some persons, which are really interested in your blog and can ignore these items.
- To provoke reader’s interest write only about understandable and plain topics wherever possible.
- Enjoying your weblog, and leave comments on other blogs (their authors will also visit your blog and leave comments on your posts).
- Keep your blog, and never forget that you have no limits in choosing its subjects. Have fun!
