For the purpose to explain what blogs, blogging, bloggers is all about, let's strip out all the technical jargon first.
If you don't know what a blog is, or a seasoned professional, after reading the information you will walk away knowing whether blogs are really for you.
A Blog is nothing but a web page that is a personal diary on any topic. Web users write to the blog, and the results are displayed in reverse for easy access. If you have something you want to write about, type in the words, click the submit button, and within a matter of seconds you're publishing content to a web log.
There are bloggers that have their own customized look with all kinds of pictures, links, and video where all you have to do is point, click and read. Each blog is different and has its own personality. Even the larger business blogs has its own personal tone built in.
According to the majority of professional journalist, "bloggers think they are journalist now. Everyone has a commentary, and gathering facts make it more difficult." Nothing could be further from the truth where numerous copyright and false statement cases against top level management positions of large corporations have been terminated.
While blogging can be entertaining and a great learning resource, there's a limit on what you can say, how you say it, and where you say it that can be detrimental to your job or business. If you plan on using blogs for personal or business reasons, write on the facts and learn how to react to any post where it involves your credibility.
Having your own blog, on the other hand can be a very useful tool, especially when executing a link strategy. Always register your own domain name for your blog!
What is RSS?
RSS (Real Simple Syndication) is a scripting language made up from XML. RSS is valuable with blogs in dual cases, a) the subscription to live posts, b) search engines.
Search engines spider blogs, then read it like a link exchange on fire! When you submit your blog to ping engines, and everytime you post to your blog, that ping engine notifies search engines you now have live content. The search engine's most craved appetite is NEW content. That is the key why blogs evolved - for their superior exposure
What is a trackback?
A trackback is a coded link which sends information to other blogs. For example, you are reading a post on another blog, you decide to go back to your blog and post a relevant commentary on that particular topic, in your post you paste the other blog's trackback URL for that topic.
By doing this simple procedure, you instantly notify search engines you have posted response to someone else's content. In other words, a text exchange! This method increases traffic, popularity, and most importantly, at that very instance, two sites posting live new content. This creates higher ranking and validating each others content.
Abe Cherian is the founder and Project Manager for Multiple Stream
Media, a company that helps businesses and online entrepreneurs generate exponential results from their advertising and marketing.