Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) About Blogging

Stop this philosophy right away and let me tell you what’s here;

When I came to know about this ruthless blogging world. Not several questions secret me through getting themselves over me, but countless!

It feels impossible to survive, while you’re encountered with questions that look a bit harder and are faced by none. Though, I was not a techie guy knowing the web well. Thus, it made easy for questions to get over me and eat most of my time. This article is specifically written for new folks (newbies) to blogging, answering most of the questions that I faced when started and those which I’ve been asked several times. It also list questions that normally are faced in blogging.

I have named these questions as frequently asked questions (FAQ) about blogging.

Let’s get in… If even a single, tiny question is missed, shoot me an email using contact form or comment freely. I’d consider updating the article with missing question.

The process of writing and publishing material (in other words “articles“) on blog regularly to update it with new information is called “blogging” (an activity). Information can be said as videos, text-based content, audio, images and infographics etc. Blogging is also present participle of verb ‘blog’. For more, you may check my previously published article on the same topic.

A set or collection or series of web pages, containing content such as text-based content, videos, infographics and images etc. is called a “website”. Generally a website is hosted on a web server. There are five types of websites according to Wikipedia.

The word blog is derived from “web log” (a type of website).

A site on the web, which is updated regularly with new information by individuals is called a “blog” (noun). The information can be in various formats such as videos, infographics, images and text-based content etc. Whereas the action of publishing an article to update the blog is a verb. Want an example? It’s quite closer to you, I mean the site you’re currently on is a blog!

Normally, blogs consist of detached identical units called “posts” (articles) scattered in reverse-chronological manner (newer to older). In other words, blogs consist of “posts” (articles) displayed in a way that the most recent post comes first while other older posts come later.

A web log (blog) is categorized as one of the types of a website. Comparison isn’t possible here, so differences aren’t possible TOO (isn’t that obvious).

Blogs are created fundamentally to convey:

• your thoughts about a specific topic
• useful information publicly to the world
• details about your business or to market a product, service or business etc.

Apparently, the birth of blogs take place so information or in other words a certain benefit could be taken from it by individual, group of people or an organization.

Blogs are based on articles (posts), articles rely on information and information means content.

Content is loved by people. As a reason, they seek for it through the usage of search engines.

Therefore, content is loved by search engines and gets indexed to make it easy for people to reach their desired information rapidly.

Search engines are loved by people and get used!

Thus, various things benefit and gets benefited itself TOO!

No. It doesn’t charge even a dime to blog or to start a blog. You may blog paying none, right away. No need of any kind of money exists. But in case you want to do more other than ONLY blogging or want to do most out of blogging, you will need to spend some pocket-money on various things.

As an example, I purchased the domain name guideplease.com and a purchase for web hosting plan was made as it was essential.

I compose article and either publish it on this blog or present as a guest post at someone else’s blog. Going through this simple action or activity it is indicated that I’m a blogger. The writing and publishing on a blog process means to “blog”, and one who blogged or blogs is called a “blogger”.

Blogger isn’t only a person who blogs. But there’s a service owned by Google named the same.

The world of blogs. The world of bloggers. Where bloggers hang out. There’s nothing such a discrete world or place! But an invisible community lies where bloggers point out their own opinions about specific topic and connections are made through.

The blogosphere is made up of all blogs and their interconnections. -Wikipedia

Contributing to someone else’s blog as a guest by supplying an article (can be said “content“) is nearly similar to blogging, but certain things here found are a bit different, it is called guest blogging. You can’t guest blog on your OWN blog, obviously you can’t!

In other words, blogging but for the blog that you don’t own can be defined as guest blogging. Guest blogging is done to cultivate definite advantages.

Blogging on something where your interest or passion flows is said as ‘niche blogging‘. Blogging particularly about something… about a topic… about your interest, passion and about ‘what interests you’ is called niche blogging. My passion is writing, blogging and interacting with like-minded people. So do I blog where my interest flows. It is made further easy to write about something which you love.

I blog because I want to be helpful. Various reasons stand out when this question revolves. In my case there’s only one reason that convince me to blog, I want to be helpful. Why YOU should start or have a blog? I can’t figure it out for you, because you’re only the one would have answer. You would like to have a blog because;

1. you want to earn a living through it
2. you want to write and become a better writer
3. you want to be connected with your friends through it
4. you want to express your opinions about a particular thing
5. you want to blog just for fun
6. you’re bored lonely and want to pass your time blogging
7. you don’t want to learn HTML or CSS and other relevant languages to create a website.

It is said. And it is. Different bloggers earn a handsome amount of money through blogging and live without 9 to 5 job! They’re now full-time bloggers and income through blogging made it happen!

Possible. You can quit your 9 to 5 boring job and enjoy blogging whole the day! You can do MUCH with blogging, but you can’t imagine what can be done .

I don’t think so. We don’t “need” to invest to blog. It doesn’t charge to blog.

But…

You’ll need some significant things in order to go further. Likewise, I mentioned above while answering question #5 about domain and hosting purchases, you will need to invest some extra bucks to expand the benefits. Take blog theme as an example, in several cases you need a premium theme because it plays an important role in attracting, captivating readers and new visitors etc.

This has been said. I “would” say the same, because I don’t want to say anything regarding this simultaneously. Other ways of earning money online live there, I didn’t test most of them so couldn’t say that ‘the blogging is best way to earn’ by any means.

Yes! Blog without content isn’t a blog, content works as a backbone. Nearly similar to any other vertebrate animal. And it’s only the reason that search engines index blogs. People love content. A reader or a visitor browse a blog for LONG just coz that blog has something useful for him.

No, it’s essential. And no one can do without it. Content can be determined as videos, infographics, images and audios etc. The better and more useful content a blog has, the brighter shining changes lie there.

At first place, it is more important to know what the high quality content is. And how it is different from just ‘content’. This will prove to be helpful in answering and letting you understand better.

There are two kinds of content based on quality. 1. high quality content 2. low quality or crappy content

As of my opinion, high quality content is said be the one that is;

1. unique
2. helpful
3. useful
4. valuable
5. explained well
6. crafted properly

That’s common. It has been usual now, that a blogger don’t know writing English content. I even didn’t know English and still studying to develop myself more into it. No one need to be a native English speaker to write content that gets loved. Yet, few things should be learnt like punctuation use, grammar rules and some solid vocabulary.

That’s what make your content shine! There is a comprehensive guide strongly required for a non-natives, sometimes it isn’t possible for me to say it all at first shot.

Ask following questions to yourself. Jot the answers down and there’s your favorite topic. The answers will be a great help in telling you YOUR blog’s topic.

1. where do you spend most of time?
2. at what you think you’re awesome?
3. what others think, you’re well-versed at?
4. where do you feel comfortable?
5. what’s your favorite hobby?
6. what’s your favorite channel?
7. what your class fellows and teachers think, you’re better at?
8. and what do you do in spare time? for example, you are given whole week to enjoy. What would you do now?

I hope, now you know at what you’re good. It’s your interest. You can’t be tired of writing what interest you, at least till you’re bored with it.

NEVER! Please, never think of copying someone else’s content. If you think, you can’t write. Then, let me tell you I TOO didn’t have the dare to write even a single line for my blog. It seemed to be the biggest problem, it seemed something I could never do, something I never want to.

Remember: trying to accomplish something that seems impossible is a bravo decision. Try writing and you’ll be realizing the difference. You’re never required to be a native English speaker to write English content.

No, the content is only the thing that search engines and readers look for in your blog. Content can be in videos, images, infographics and audios etc. It doesn’t necessarily mean text-based content. Want to know what it takes to write content that’s in English yet awesome? Just a word: observe.

Yes. There’s no limitations upon non-techies when it comes to blogging, it’s just the matter of their understanding. Every non-techie when enters the world of techies at first gets astonished to see the creation of it. But as the time goes on you will realize that techies are just people who know computing not blogging necessarily.

Find your passion, choose your blog topic. Select a blogging platform, start writing and blogging… Seems easy?

Most of the bloggers whether are;

• highly educated people
• they have done English course
• or they know English a bit and are blogging to improve their skill as well (I’m counted here).

It was told earlier that you don’t need to be native English speaker to write good content. Nothing serious needs to overcome. Just OBSERVE. That’s what will let you know, how other native English speakers make use of their language when writing.

Many people have been disagreed when it is said that blogging is a process of writing and publishing material, instead most say that it is sharing and interacting with like-minded people and etc. It EXACTLY means to write and publish on the web by definition. But definition has been changed since many obstacles are faced and the way it works NOW.

WordPress is a CMS (Content Management System), a system makes the editing, publishing and modifying content on the web easy for non-techies and for dear ordinary people. This blog (Guide Please) runs on WordPress software and manages content through this awesome system in a reliable way.

You might be confused seeing ‘blogger’ question again in the list. But there’s a difference between both the questions. Preceding question with same term was little different and there the word meant the person who blogs. Since, there’s also a service (blogging platform) with a same word so, confusion is common when understanding this word.

Both. We’re currently running this blog on WordPress and it fits our needs. I also used blogger platform, which wasn’t bad too! It would not be bad, if I say that blogger was perfect. Both perform good enough and can’t be compared as a CMS.

I use and prefer WordPress always because it gives us FULL control over our website. It depends on your needs, which one should you use. Want to control your domain entirely? Use WordPress. Want your domain name to be used solely as a blog? Blogger.com welcomes you.

You write your content. You write a lot, you’re happily satisfied with your writing and it sounds there will no problem thereafter. But as the time pass you find yourself stuck when writing or start writing your content. It is usual and even is faced by great writers. Nothing to worry about! That’s something, we can’t overcome fully or in first try.

According to Wikipedia (the encyclopedia), writer’s block is a condition, primarily associated with writing as a profession, in which an author loses the ability to produce new work.

In other simple words, the state when a writer face obstacles while writing and a kind of anxiety covers writer that leads him to writer’s block where he can’t write.

A link pointing to someone’s site is a backlink to that site. It is also called inbound link, incoming link, and link back. Probably, you still didn’t get it. Not to worry, here’s an example. I’m linking here to Facebook, hover over the previously written Facebook text and you’ll find it clickable. It’s a backlink to the world’s largest social networking site.

No need of selling. A blog generates money by various ways, here’s what you can do to earn from your blog:

1. you can put advertisement spots either direct and by using service like Google AdSense (it can be said as selling space on your blog)
2. you can charge for different services that you provide. You know web designing? create a new page, shout out about HOW you serve. Also mention your rates!
3. you can write sponsored articles (reviews), you can recommend something else useful by charging it’s master
4. etc. you also can build up your emailing list and ask others to buy what you sell

Simply, an online advertising pay-per-click service owned by Google, Inc.

It’s an endless and continuous journey. Yet, still question isn’t answered well!
How long do I have to blog to earn? Depends upon how energetic you are, how work do you do, how better could you, and how much could you do… and sometimes it’s also dependent upon the niche of your blog and upon the monetization time.

A domain name is an address without case-sensitivity, used to specify (define) the location of a website. For example, this blog (which is a website) can be found through following domain name or address:

guideplease.com

From the example, the guideplease is the domain name separated with a period from com, com part is the top level domain (TLD).

A service enable individuals, group of people or organizations to host their websites on server to make them accessible via World Wide Web. None of the websites on the web could ever be accessible without web hosting. Many companies offer such internet hosting services and cost either monthly or also annually, depends upon the client whichever he’s comfortable with.

It take me days when it comes to finding post ideas, it’s hardest thing for me to come up with interesting ideas. Despite of the fact that I have compiled already a big list of ways to find post ideas, it’s still hard because I don’t use it and think deeply. You may find the answer in my generating post ideas article. I hope, you will be satisfied after reading that.

It depends upon the subject of your post, upon the way you explain, upon the type of your readers. Ask following questions to yourself when writing content and avoid considering length:

1. is your article sloppy?
2. is it agreeable?
3. is it “tight” (edited with a knife cutting useless words aside)?
4. can you call it comprehensive?
5. does it convey message clearly?

You NEVER (ever) can build a successful blog without providing valuable and unique information. It doesn’t matter how much you supply. It matters the quality and it’s uniqueness. You can’t be noticed, if you wear the same clothes as others in a huge crowd (just suppose). Nearly similar to blogosphere, you can’t be noticed if you provide what’s being provided by many others too.

I always hope that my words are understood by others and one can get things clearly from them. So do I here too!

NOT. By definition, it’s a process of writing and publishing on the web. But it’s FAR different from what it seems by defintion.

Not by running after traffic. But by doing what readers want.

Find out, what your blog audience LOVE. And offer it differently. That’s it!

It’s TOO frequent. It’s answer is almost every time SAME. Sorry! I’m not going to write any tips, if you expect them. But would love to say something different.

Connections…

are one of the most important things, that are neglected…

Just two words: build connections.

The optimization over content on the web to improve the visibility or position of a web page or website in the search engines is called search engine optimization and is abbreviated as SEO.

Abbreviated from Permanent+Link…

is a URL pointing to a specific article entry from a blog.

Various sources and sites are there offering free images. Yet, you can be sued over $30,000 for using illegal images!

Always give proper credits, but sometimes the credits are too not acceptable! And you’ll sued for using images that aren’t for free. Always research properly before using images from any site, check their terms too. Don’t always make use of Google Images to find images for your post, this also can harm you in terms of money. You can use following sites and don’t forget to give credits that they deserve.

• Free Digital Photos
• Wikipedia Creative Commons

Learn if possible, it is highly recommended. Initially, there’s no knowledge of HTML or CSS required to blog. So, it’s not essential for bloggers. But you lose nothing if learned. Learning is better, it would be an extension to your blogging career. Moreover, the ones who have knowledge regarding these languages don’t need to hire any other web designer whenever they need or want to customize their blog design. They can do this themselves!

A silly question! And asked consistently over the years. Nobody could answer perfectly or exactly! Google AdSense is an online advertising service and pays per click on the advertisement spot. There is no exact amount on how much would you earn per click.

Don’t get it wrong, it’s not the traffic we find usually on busy noisy roads. It can also be said as web traffic. It is the data of # of visitors and pageviews etc. a website receives. For example, suppose this blog receives 100 visitors daily. We can say it as traffic of Guide Please.

The time, your audience is awake.

Dependent upon how better you are at serving quality and your niche topic. And upon your schedule. Write more, publish less and promote intelligently!

No, readers are not increased by posting a lot. Readers are readers and love the quality content rather than quantity. Want more readers? Feed readers what they look for in your blog! Seems hard? It isn’t hard for an energetic and motivational guy like you are .

Because content in blogging is the most significant thing and no one can survive without the supply of valuable content. Hence, content is King!

Eventually, here it’s concluding…

And eventually, this article is getting concluded with a wonderful motivational quote. I hope, it will motivate you, guys awesomely. By the way, in case you didn’t find your question listed or you think it lacks something else. Please notify me, through commenting or contact form.

Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time. - Thomas A. Edison