What is a Blog?
The word "blog" can be quite confusing when you first join because it has so many meanings. Each of the bullet points below is an example of the words used in context.
The Many Meanings of (a) Blog
Meaning #1: Website
- I started a new website this month, it's about baking pies.
- I started a new blog about baking pies this month
Meaning #2: An Article on Your Website
- *Also know as a blog post
- I wrote a new blog post today. I hope it ranks well!
- I wrote a new blog this morning on a really great keyword I found.
Meaning #3: Area on your website where your articles are listed
- *Also known as a blog roll
- Some people prefer a static home page, but I put my blog roll there.
- I looked at your website yesterday, but couldn't find your blog. You should put a link in the menu
Meaning #4: To Write an Article
- *verb
- You should be blogging at least once a week to get traffic
- I haven't blogged for two weeks. I should publish something today.
What's Your WA Blog For?
To add to the confusion, there each member is also given a Wealthy Affiliate blog! So let's take a look at what that is and what it's for.
First and foremost, your business, will be built on a website. If you remember from above, this is also called a blog, but for now, let's just call it a website. It will have it's own domain like website.com.
That is where you will be publishing articles, placing advertisements, and trying to make money online based on your niche choice. Your business website should be publishing articles about your topic, like weight loss, drones, organic gardening, baby clothes, or ergonimic gaming chairs.
Your Wealthy Affiliate blog is just for inside the community. The content can be seen in Google, but your main audience will be other WA members.
The topics you write about on your Wealthy Affiliate blog should be about you and your journey through online business. They can be helpful, inspiring, or just tracking your progress as you learn how to run your business.
It's a way to write content that is specific to online business or relevant to the community, and to share this with the WA community.
The WA blog should not be used to promote your website, advertise affiliate links, or publish content related to your niche. You should not be publishing any political, religious, or inflammatory content either.
It's not required that you use your WA blog, but it helps you get plugged into the community, which has some very practical advantages.
Can You Post Your Website Link Inside Wealthy Affiliate?
Sometimes, you may use your blog to ask for help, or to demonstrate something. Since your WA blog is about your business, is it OK to post a link to your website?
Sometimes, yes, sometimes no. It depends on your intent. The full topic is covered here (according to how I see it).
If your intent is to get traffic to your webiste, get signups to an email list, get clicks to an affiliate link, or otherwise drive traffic away from Wealthy Affiliate, then no, you should not place your a link to your website in your WA blog.
However, it is totally fine to use your blog to ask for feedback, ask questions, and get help. The point of the WA community is to be able to get help when you need it, and sometimes it's just practical to be able to see what you're talking about if an expert is going to offer help.
If you are unsure if it's OK to post a link in your blog, please see my and Kyle's comments in this post.
I hope this clears things up!
Are there any other confusing words you hear a lot that need explanation?
Recent Comments
47
Thank you, thank you, thank you Nathaniell. Great timing on writing this. Awesome wisdom.
Great post, It really is interesting how many meanings the one word has evolved to in just a few years! :)
When I got here, I thought I knew what a blog was. I had no idea what a SEO, DNS, meta, rss, footer, and a bunch of other abbreviations were. I didn't want to ask. I looked them up, eventually found out in lessons in some cases. I see it in some blogs and have no idea what they're talking about and in yours too. Some of us come in totally green. I know we can ask questions anytime, but it's still uncomfortable when it seems common knowledge to everyone else. I feel need a cheat sheet on my wrist like a QB in football.
I know that some of these terms can be confusing! When you are in WA for a while, it becomes 2nd nature and easy to forget that terms like DNS and SEO are confusing for newbies.
One of these day I should make a cheat sheet like you mentioned :)
There's hope for me yet, I think I already picked all that up from the things said throughout wa! Great post and handy for me to refer back to if I ever get confused again, which I surely will!
Great one Nathaniell as usual. Yes one word sometimes can be confusing to a new person. Thanks for clearing it up for them.
Ken
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Thanks Nathaniell for such a clear and easy explanation. I like the cheat sheet idea someone mentioned below. I'll like reading that as well. :)