If you read this whole post I have something awesome to offer you! But don’t cheat and scroll to the bottom!

When I first stepped into the social media realm I noticed people were sharing links to their blogs on Twitter. First of all I had no IDEA what social media really was and I had no clue what a blog was. I knew what a website was because I took a class in high school, but I didn’t know what a blog was. Social media grew on me and I realized that anybody that was anybody online had a blog. I first started out with one blog and then another. It got to a point where I had a bunch of blogs and had NO IDEA how I was going to keep creating content for all of them.

The thing that got me most excited was my Xynga blog. I was blogging about anything and everything. The site had a cool feature that allowed you to see how much traffic was coming in. I was getting 1000′s of views per week. I could post something on my blog and within minutes to an hour I would have hundreds of views. It really didn’t matter what I posted people would come.

So What Is A Blog?

A blog is simply a website that you post articles on. The easiest way to look at it is a magazine. Each time you post an article you put a page in your magazine. Now where a magazine is limited to pictures and text a blog opens the doors to all sorts of things! You can post links, pictures, videos, and virtually anything! There are so many multimedia items that you can embed on a website now that I could write a whole post on content for a blog.

Now there are two types of blogs. The first type of blog is a free blog that is hosted on another site. The most popular are WordPress, Blogger, Tubmlr, Posterous, and the list goes on. The second type of blog is a self hosted blog. To have a self hosted blog you have to have your own domain, hosting, and then a platform to host your blog. I suggest WordPress. I have tried every blog platform there is and WordPress has proven to be the best. It is an open source platform that has so many features and themes that the possibilities and integration are endless.

So back to the question what is a blog…

The great thing about a blog is that you can make it anything you want! You can sell things, you can tell a story, you can show people what your business has to offer, or you can even promote YOU! The possibilities are endless! The main thing is that you have to set it up properly and you have to put out content that people will read. As I mentioned previously my first blog got 1000′s of hits per week, but I later learned that it didn’t matter HOW many people came. What mattered most is that you get new traffic, keep people coming back, and you get them to stay on your site and check out your AWESOME CONTENT!

So Why Do You Need A Blog?

Well to be honest with you a blog is a big responsibility! It tells people who you are, what you do, and what you have to offer. When you register a domain and start a blog you must realize that it can’t be a short term thing. If you don’t have a plan in mind you are going to do things that will be detrimental to you. First you will waist money. Then you have to look at the fact that you will be telling people that you don’t care about your work. Your blog is your online business card and tells people a lot about you! Now if you are in a business this can be even more devastating to your brand. The thing that most don’t realize is that you don’t have to put out content every day. My suggestion is that you put out content at least every other day. This will help you build an audience and it also helps out greatly with Search Engine Optimization, which will help you get long term sustainable traffic.

So you don’t own a business. You don’t have a product you are selling. You are just an average person. So Why Do You Need a Blog? Well the question is something that you have to answer yourself. The thing is a blog will help you out in life. You can use it to tell your story. You can use it to be an outlet where you escape your day to day life. You can also use it to share something you are passionate about. Blogging for me started out to be therapeutic. I am starting to get back into regular blogging and it is helping me a lot!

So now if you read all of this and you didn’t cheat I am offering something for a limited time. In order for me to build my portfolio and to help people get started in the world of blogging I am offering (1) free self hosted blog to the first 25 people who ASK for one. There are some requirements, but I will tell you all about it when you ask! Just drop me a comment below with your REAL NAME, REAL EMAIL ADDRESS, and WHAT YOU WANT THE BLOG FOR I will email you within 24 hours. Look forward to hearing from you!