Blogging Glossary
I have committed a sin! Probably more than one over the years, but that’s not for public consumption via the blog.
In this instance the sin is I haven’t defined for you what the blogging buzz words, jargon, call it what you will are all about.
If you are an experienced blogger feel free to yawn. However, if you’re new to the blogging game please read on and take a look at this glossary.
Archives
This is the area of your blog where you store your past posts. They are normally stored in the sidebar. Spookily enough my archives are cunningly called “Archives” and you will find them towards the bottom of the sidebar over on the right. In most blogging platforms you can specify how your archives are filed and displayed. The standard is monthly and this is probably the best option for most bloggers. You will note my archives only display articles from April 2009. There’s a very good reason far that. I started this blog in April 2009 
although I am not a blogging novice.
Blog
The term “blog” is an amalgamation of “Web Log” indicating how blogs were originally used, as a “log” or diary published on the internet. Blogs now cover every subject known to man, with many different writing styles and themes for business and/or personal users, and also refers to the generic term for the technology used to create them.
Blogging
The physical act of creating blogs and writing articles (or posts).
Blogging Platform
This refers to the software used to create the blog. There are many different options on the market. Popular platforms include Wordpress (this blog uses Worpress and is my personal preference), Blogger, TypePad, Movable Type, Drupal and Joomla.
Blogger
This is an easy one… someone who blogs!
Blogosphere
An overall term given to blogs on the internet.
Blogroll
A set of links to other blogs. In essence, the specific author’s recommended reading list.
Business Blog
A business blog is usually set up with a particular business goal in mind. The purpose of a business blog is to develop relationships with a pre-defined target market.
Category
Each individual post can be categorised under one or many Categories set up in blog, allowing visitors to easily find posts on a particular topic. You can find my categories in the sidebar over on the right.
Comments
Unlike “traditional” websites, bloggers can easily interact with their readers. Readers can leave a comment about individual articles (posts) written by the author. The author can respond to comments too.
Domain
The primary address of a website or blog. The domain for this blog is http://bloggingcrew.com
Feed
This refers to an RSS feed (Really Simple Syndication) which allows you to subscribe to receive information from a specific blog you consider to be of interest. You can subscribe to my feed by clicking on the orange square located above my sponsors ads at the top of the page.
Permalink
A permalink is the permanent ‘address’ of a post on a blog which allows it to be found and referenced easily. For example, look at the ‘address’ bar in your browser right now and you will see the permalink of this aricle is http://bloggingcrew.com/2009/04/blogging-glossary/.
Ping
A blog “ping” automatically informs blog search engines and tracking services when a blog has been updated. The search engine then visits the blog to immediately record and index the new content – meaning search engines literally contain up to the minute information of what is being written about. This can be set up to ping automatically when new content has been published or you can manually “ping” them, using services such as Pingomatic or Pingoat which will inform several search engines at the same time.
Post
An article appearing on a blog.
RSS
Really Simple Syndication is a brilliant method to share information with others. See “Feed” above.
RSS Reader
A piece of software needed to receive and read RSS feed subscriptions.
Splog
A “Spam Blog” automaticaaly created and filled with a random set of words with the sole intention of creating links through to a separate “target” site.
Trackback
A trackback is used to help follow and track conversations between different blogs on a specific subject. As an example, if I commented on a post on somebody’s blog, I can include a trackback which automatically sends notification to the original author and creates a link to my post in their comments section.
URL
Stands for Uniform Resource Locator – effectively the address of the page on a website or a blog.
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