What Are Blogs All About?
Overview of this week's e-Newsletter
This week I'm going to focus on the subject of blogs. A blog is a type of online journal. I am going to go over what blogs are, some example of excellent blogs, why you might need a blog, and I'll provide a few examples of blogs created by us.

What Are Blogs And Where Did They Come From?
Defining what a blog is and where the word came from.
A blog is simply a website or web page(s) that display entries like an online journal or diary in reverse chronological order (entries most recent to least recent). The subject or topic of the blog can cover a variety of things or be specific and specialized to one topic. In ways you can compare it to a newsletter that gets posted only to your website.

The word blog actually originated from two words; web and log. It was shortened to weblog. Then the "we" was dropped and the result is a new word "blog".

Most blogs are in a calendar type format and can contain more then just text. A blog can have photos, video, and other media embedded into it.

Great Examples of Blogs!
Some great blog examples.
Below I have include some examples of good solid blogs. I have also added some comments on why I feel these are great examples of blogs.

googleblog.blogspot.com - This is the Official Google Blog. There blog is a great example of embedding images and video right into the postings/entries.

blog.inc.com - This is one of the top business blogs as reviewed by Forbes. What sets this blog apart from others is that they have fresh postings (in other words frequently new entries in their blog), as well the content is interesting and not too lengthy.

Blogs Built By Us!
Some examples of blogs we built.
Contrary to what you might think blogs are rather easy to get set up on a website. Some of the blogs created by use where created or designed in less then a few days.

1. blog.thepromoshop.com - We helped design this blog to match the style and design of their current website (www.thepromoshop.com). The design and implementation was completed in a few hours.
   
   
2. www.awsphysicians.com - For this blog we programmed entries to show up on the home page of their website www.awsphysicians.com as well as their actual blog page www.awsphysicians.com/blog/index.asp
   
   
3. atlantadentalcenter.com/wordpress/ - Another custom designed blog. The total time for customizing and setting up this blog was only a 2 days.
   

Why Have A Blog!
Why you might need a blog.
There are many reasons to have a blog on your website. One of the best reason is that it will keep your website fresh. This freshness factor is good for 2 reasons.

One, your website viewers will be coming back more often to your website to read your new blog entries. Which is good for you and your business.

Another reason is that the more recent content is on your website the better your site will score with search engines, thus making you appear high in search results. Not only is freshness a factor for search engines but also the pure fact you have more content on your website will make your site rank better in the eyes of the search engines.

Final Words
Ending comments
Well I hope that helps you understand what blogs are and provides you with some good examples. If you want to check out more blogs or learn more about them, just Google the word "blogs" and your sure to find more.

And as always, look for next week's newsletter where we hope to provide you with more useful tips and advice. If you have any suggestions about topics you would like to hear more about please send us an email with your thoughts.