Welcome to the wonderful world of blogging. Ready to jump into the deep-end, are you? Not just yet. If you’re new to the “blogosphere”, there are a few things you ought to know about…

We’ve written 4 posts on how you can start your blogging career. The content is geared towards those individuals who are looking to wet their feet.

Blogging is a cheap, fun hobby; if you can play the ‘game’, it can prove to be a lucrative business.

Define a blog

Wikipedia defines a blog as “a website, usually maintained by an individual, with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse chronological order.”

Blogs tend to be updated on a regular basis. Blogging is a commitment and not a one-off effort. The art of blogging encompasses a collective group of skills not limited to creative writing, marketing, and artistic design.

What does a blog consist of?

Essentially, a blog can consist of anything you want it to be and more. Many authors develop an entire community around their blog. For example, most blogs provide visitors the with the opportunity to leave comments and even criticism.

As has been mentioned, most blogs consist of mostly text while many blogs have accompanying photographs, videos, audio and even other media types.

A blog and its content centers around a theme or “niche”. Niches can vary from politics, technology news, to even break-through medicine. The choice of niche of your own blog is up to you; however, the successful “choice” of a niche will often correspond to the failure or success of your blog.

What is professional blogging?

Professional blogging centers around developing a wider audience or even an online community. Probloggers are motivated by the potential to earn money. Making money “professionally blogging” (also dubbed “problogging”) is made possible by those individuals which visit your site.

“Yes, but how do I make the money?”, I hear you ask. Money is earned through advertisements, referrals, and even by selling items directly on your blog.

So just how much money can you earn? The sky is the limit - I kid you not. Darren Rowse of ProBlogger now earns a six figure income from his blog alone. In fact Darren is a full-time blogger by profession; he is not the only “lucky” one.

Bottom line, professional blogging is an excellent hobby requiring commitment in addition to a variety of skills including marketing and creative writing. A blog consists of a variety of content/media types and pertains to a theme of your choice.

Next in the installment, “What tools does a blogger require?“