How to Recognize a Blog

Chances are if you've ever been on the Internet, you've seen a Blog. Even if you don't know what a blog looks like, you may have happened across one before; there are no guidelines or rules for how a blog has to look. Once you get a little practice and become familiar with some of the common blog elements, anyone can identify a blog right of the bat.

Regardless of the blog's author, readers, content or style, every blog shares a few key elements in common:

Updates:  Some blogs are updated daily, some only a few times a week.  There is no set schedule and many bloggers simply write when they either have time, or have something to say.

Posts: Every time a blogger makes an update to the content of the blog, they are making a post, which is added to the blog.  The entries are posted in the order of which is most recent.

Permalinks:  Every post that gets made is placed on your blog's main page and on another page with only that post on it.  This Permalink page contains only that post, and its comments.  Permalink is short for "Permanent link", and these links are a big reason why blogs do so well:  every post adds a new page to your website and is another chance for your blog to appear in search results.

Chronological Order:  While we're talking about Posts and Entries, lets talk about order:  every time a post is made, it gets put right at the top of the blog's main page.  The next entry posted shows up at the top and the older post moves down, keeping your blog current and up to date.

Comments:  Most blogs allow readers to leave comments in response to the blog post.  Comments are what really differentiate a blog from most websites - they encourage conversation and debate.  Many websites for newspapers, magazines and even Youtube have all begun to use comments as a way to drive user interaction.

Archives:  As blogs are often updated very frequently, many bloggers opt to sort older posts into date-based archive, so users can find older articles easily and more quickly

Categories: Posts can often be sorted by subject, or Categories.  Also known as Tags, they allow a blogger to write about a variety of topics and have readers still find information they might want to find easily.  

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