We have received mails from people who would like us to explain the basic terminologies about blogging. Apparently, these are terms that are widely used without correct interpretation available.

To a lot of you who have already started blogging, you might run through it and let us know if we have missed out any terms that can be included in this list

We have categorized all the terms into different sections for better understanding. With these terms, you will definitely be in a position to start your very own blog.

Blogs and Blog sites:

Blog – It has been derived from the term ‘Web log’. It is usually maintained by an individual, with regular posts containing text matter, pictures or videos. The key feature of blogs is that readers can leave behind their comments thereby making it interactive and participative.

Blog Post – An entry written and published on a blog is called as blog post.

Blogroll – It is an individual’s favourite list of blogs that are mentioned on the sidebar of each blog.

Blogsite – It is the location of a blog on the web. Blog can have either a dedicated domain or be embedded within a web site. The latter are usually more used for corporate blogging and are part of corporate website. The most typical address of a blog will http://(yourname).wordpress.com or http://(yourname).blogspot.com

Category: – It is possible to categorize the various topics the blogger writes on. The categories if displayed on the blog help the reader select his or her favourite section

Hits – Number of users visiting a blog is referred as hits for that blog.

Permalink – It is unique URL of a single post and is used when you want to link to a post somewhere. For eg the permalink of this post is http://windchimesindia.wordpress.com/2008/09/14/blogterms/ The first part is the address of your blog. Followed by the date of the post and then the name of that particular post. You can then cut and paste it to link it with some other post or comment. Once this link is pasted in the browser window only this blog post appears from the entire blog.

Template – These are the background of your blog and present information on the blog. Any blog hosting site will offer a host of readymade templates to select from to customize as per the user’s style.

Feeds & Subscription:

Feeds – Feeds are XML-based files that keep the audiences constantly updated about new posts on the blogs. They allow people to see the blog’s content without having to go to that blog every time it is updated. Feedburner is one of the common site to get your feeds. For eg. You can subscribe to Windchimes Feeds

Subscribe – It allows readers to receive notification when there are new posts in a blog. Subscription can be through feeds or even through emails. You can try out email subscription of our blog.

Aggregator – It is also called as feed reader or news reader. An aggregator makes a collection of web feeds accessible in one spot. They can be scheduled to check for new content periodically. For eg. Google Reader helps in getting all your feeds onto a single page that makes it easier for you to view your updates.

Types of Blogs

Audio blog – A blog where the posts maily consist of audio recordings is called as Audio blog

Collaborative blog – It is also known as group blog or multiple user blog. As name suggests, multiple users can write posts on one blog.

Flog – It is contraction of two words ‘fake’ and ‘blog’. A blog that has been ghost writing by someone else is called as Flog. Some of the Bollywood celebrities have been accused of flogging.

Micro-blogging – It is a form of blogging that allows users to write brief text updates (usually 140 characters) and publish them. These messages can be submitted by a variety of means like text messaging or from that site itself. People ‘add’ other people and companies as friends when they want to learn or stay up to date with their activities. Follow our Windchimes Micro blog or tweets if you have blogging from Twitter

MoBlog – It is a contraction of two words ‘mobile’ and ‘blog’. A blog featuring posts sent mainly by mobile phone, using SMS or MMS messages is called MoBlog.

Photoblog –  As the name suggests, this is a blog where a users posts his photos and images most in a chronological order. Here is one example of picture blog post

Vlog – A blog that has mostly only videos on it

Exchanging Links:

Ping – The alert in the TrackBack system that notifies the original poster of a blog post when someone else writes an entry concerning the original post.

Tags – Tags help user in defining what they have saved so that they are easy to search later. Most social bookmark services encourage users to organize their bookmarks with informal tags.

TrackBack – A system that allows a blogger to see who has seen the original post and has written another entry concerning it. The system works by sending a ‘ping’ between the blogs, and therefore providing the alert.

Once you have familiarized yourself with these terms, you can move to our series on Essentials of a Blog. We have mentioned the basic tools and features that your blog must have before you start promoting it