When I decided to start a blog, I thought I knew a bit about websites. Way back in the late 90s, I…ME… actually built a website using Microsoft FrontPage for a women’s organization I belonged to. Even back then, we included affiliate programs, and promoted them, so that we could earn sustaining operations funding. I even built it so chapters throughout the state could have their own sub-site, attached to the main, without having to fund a stand-alone. While the site wasn’t fancy, it functioned as a statewide resource for all the chapters until the organization folded in the early 2010s.
I’ve overseen websites from both a marketing and a CEO viewpoint over the years, directed changes, pushed for advanced features, monitored value and payback….wrote the check to pay for it…But somewhere along the line, I lost touch with the details.
Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes
Fast forward to 2018 when I decided to start my blog. My first thought was, “I’ve done this before; I can do it again.” Little did I realize how much things had changed. Not to be a “master of the obvious” but technology has come an awful long way…like, light years. The web is so terrifically different, and changing every day. For reference, I was an original AOL’er with the little clock on my screen to manage my online time…a Windows user when the version didn’t contain the year (ahem…Windows 3.11 was my first computer!).
I know you’re saying, “Well now…isn’t she the brightest bulb in the pack?” Go ahead and get your chuckle on. My confidence quickly changed to, “How the hell am I going to do this?” What I’ve learned through this process is that my patience is way shorter than I thought, my memory is like a sieve and if I don’t write it down it’s gone, and if I was on a deserted island with my blog right this minute and had to choose between my husband and Google…I’d take Google.
So, if you’re thinking about starting a blog here’s my best shot at “What the Heck is That Guide to Blogging Terms”, the most frequently used non-techie terms you need to know right away. You’ll notice there’s nothing here about coding beyond the word “coding.” Yeah, I know my limits. Be thankful…
Blogging Terms for the Clueless
Affiliate Program – this is a program where you include links to products or companies on your blog. If someone makes a purchase through your link, you could earn a commission. It only works if they buy via your link because your link is custom to your affiliate account. When you see ads on blogs, or links within articles that take you to Amazon, World Market, Target, and other online stores, those are affiliate programs. If you buy through those links, it doesn’t cost you more, but it usually does kick back a commission of some sort to the blogger.
API – in another life, API meant Associated Press International for me. But, in computer and application programming it means Application Programming Interface. It’s a way of building programs so they function and communicate together. That’s all I know…carry on.
Boost – you’ll see this term a lot if you set up a business page on Facebook. In fact, Facebook is incessantly prodding you to Boost your posts. Essentially this means that you pay to have Facebook more publicly distribute a post you’ve made, well beyond your Facebook page followers. I know Facebook has a ton of crazy algorithms running, and who knows how they slice and dice their users to make sure it goes to the “right” people. My opinion, it has its purpose. If you’re an informal blogger like me, or don’t have a product or service with universal access, it might not make sense.
Category – here’s a tricky little sucker. In WordPress, a category is essentially a menu item on your blog. I banged my head on the wall about this one for a long time! For instance, “Recipes & Entertaining” is a category on my site…see it up on my menu? It’s essentially a way to file your posts, and in WordPress, creates your menu.
Code/Coding – it’s a gobble-dee-goop of letters, symbols and other stuff that is really the magic behind your blog. Code or coding is what tells your site to do what it does….and I haven’t a clue what else to say about it because I…am…codeless…when it comes to code. You’re on your own, my friend.
Compression – compression is like Spankx…it squishes everything together to make it smaller. Typically, photos are compressed because high quality photos are huge when it comes to space on a web server.
Domain – also known as domain name or URL. It’s the name of your blog. For example, my domain is untamedparody.com.
Favicon – this is a shortcut or icon. It’s short for “favorite icon.” Brilliant, huh? Anyway, if you look at the top of your browser, odds are you might have a couple tabs open, you’ll see that to the left of Untamed Parody, my site name, is a tiny little picture. That picture is my Favicon. Sometimes it’s a company logo. When someone bookmarks you, or pins you to their Favorites bar, your Favicon will show up!
Feed – man, I’m hungry…but I digress. See RSS below.
Footer – BA BOOM! Ya got one…it’s the BOTTOM of your site, page or post! Hallelujah…finally, something that makes sense. …WOO HOO!
Gravatar – stands for Globally Recognized Avatar. I think everyone knows what an avatar is…it’s a picture or image that represents you online or in gaming. If you have a gravatar set up, when you comment on others websites your gravatar will show up. I have my photo as my gravatar, so when I comment on sites my mugshot appears.
Google – apparently the goddess of all things search and web… No longer known as a search engine as much as it’s known as a verb, as in, “Google it.”
Google AdSense – this is an advertising program from Google (duh!). It’s free, but you need to have your blog up and running at least 6 months to qualify, according to Google. I’m sure you’ve seen ads on blogs that say “Google” or “AdSense”. Essentially what AdSense does is troll your site to pick up on your content themes, then customizes ads to your site based on those themes. These aren’t random oddballs. If you’re doing a cooking site, your Google Ads will be cooking-related. Pretty cool…
Google AdWords – this is a paid service where YOU pay Google for advertising. I know you’ve seen these, too. When you do a search on Google, sometimes you’ll see the first handful of results will have “Ad” in a little box. Or there may be a box to the right with a featured company. Those are paid ads, and you pay per click (a.k.a. cost per click). So…as you can imagine that can add up pretty quick. Typically, when people use AdWords, they set a budget, let’s say $35. When that budget is reached, you shuffle down on the results stack.
Google Analytics – this is one tool to measure the traffic on your blog. You need to have a Google account, then bury an invisible string of code on your website, typically on the home page and running in the background of your header or footer. Then, every time someone visits your blog, Google measures a bunch of stuff. It’s helpful to understand what’s working, and more importantly, what’s not on your blog.
Header – for once, a word that make sense. Header means….TOP! Bingo…you have this one mastered!
Host / Self-Host – there are two definitions of this…
- This is where the server that houses your blog lives. You can either “rent” from someone else (use their servers) or self-host by owning your own server). When you have someone else host, like BlueHost, HostGator, SiteGround (there are a ton of them), they’re responsible for the equipment side of things (the servers). You’re just paying rent, your monthly hosting fee, for your space on the server.
- The type of blog you have – hosted or self-hosted. See my explanation here
Keywords – see Tags, below.
Meta-Tag – OY VEY – this one killed me until I understood it. A meta tag is code (there’s that damn word again) that defines the content on a web page. So, for example, if you look at the top of your browser and see the address of my page you’re on right now, it should look like https://homenheels.com/what-the-heck-is-that-guide/ That’s the meta tag structure I’ve chosen for my blog – name of my blog plus the name of the post. There are lots of ways you can set this up, but you want to keep it easy to remember – both for your visitors and for you!
Monetize – this means “make money.” If someone says they want to monetize their blog, they mean they want to make money on it. Affiliate programs are one way to monetize a blog. There are a bunch of others like paid advertising, sponsorships, etc. I’ll probably be dead by the time I figure out how to make money on my blog…again reinforcing I’ll be worth more dead than alive when the time comes.
PPC/CPC – Pay Per Click/Cost Per Click – these terms are used with paid online advertising. When you buy online advertising, you pay on a cost per click basis. In return for your payment, Google in particular puts you at, or very near, the top of searches. The higher you want to be, the more per click it will cost you. CPC means every time someone clicks on your ad, you pay for it. Now, don’t freak out thinking, “Holy budget-breaker! Who has the budget for that?” The CPC is often pennies, or fractions of pennies. But…it can add up quick. So, if this is a route you’re going to go, set a budget, like $35. When the budget is hit, you shuffle back to into the pack. Google has pretty good account reps to work with. Or, find someone local who knows online advertising really well.
Platform – this is the software or application you’ll use to design and manage your blog. WordPress is the most popular blogging platform used. If you’re going the route of a hosted blog, your platform will be what’s provided by your host. Platforms are also fun, 70s throwback shoes!
Plug-in – no, it’s not attached to a cord and no, it doesn’t make pretty smells. A plug-in is a software program that gives features, functionality and customization to your blog. For instance, I use Ninja Forms plug-in to create my newsletter signup on my site.
Post – yes, it’s a racing term, but it’s also what you call the articles you publish on your blog. It’s also a verb when you Post on Facebook or Post on Instragram. HA, caught myself…was going to say Post on Twitter, but we Tweet there…just confuse everyone…
RSS – Real Simple Syndication – this simply means that as a user, rather than visiting a ton of favorite websites every day, I can tag (not a keyword; this happens to be a button or link) the RSS on my favorites and all their updates will compile into one spot. Pretty slick. RSS is an aggregator and trolls the web to find website updates. If what it finds is on my list, it pulls that content back to me automatically. I don’t have to go looking for it.
Server – a piece of equipment or a program that enables communication between computers over a network. In this instance, it’s where your website sits, waiting for someone to access it. I worked as a server at one time…until I dumped a tray of drinks on some former Green Bay Packers…
Search Engine – you know what this is…if you don’t, you’ve just made me feel really smart…sorry! Google and Bing are probably the most well-known. Who am I kidding…Google is it, man, hands down. It’s where you search for stuff on the internet.
SEO – No, this isn’t a hair band from the 80s. It stands for Search Engine Optimization. SEO is everything you do to make sure your blog is not only found, but lands as high as possible on search engines, Google in particular. That’s all I know…I haven’t fully figured this out for my blog, but hop on over to my Blogosphere board on Pinterest. There’s a ton of information there!
Side bar – a lot of times, blogs are set up in columns – left, center and right – with certain things in each area. The left and right are called “side bar”….and the center is called….”center.” (HA! Caught you again…you thought there would be a fancy name). Side bar is also where we keep the liquor, and it’s getting a workout with this blogging stuff.
Snippet – a little like a thumbnail, it’s a brief excerpt. Going back to our web search example, when you search for “beet juice”, your search engine brings back some options for you. Do you randomly click the links, or do you read a little bit of the text below each link to see if the link is what you want? Yup…you read the SNIPPET…the text below the link! Didn’t even know you had this one mastered already, did you? YAY YOU!
Speed Test – as you’re building your blog, both at the beginning and ongoing, you want check how fast it loads on desktops, iPads/tablets, and mobile phones – check them all. You don’t want it to be “draggin’ ass” or people won’t stay! Here’s a free speed test from our friends at Google.
Static – describes my hair and clothes in winter, ain’t that a pretty sight? But in blogger language it means “stay the same.” For instance, the “About” page would be a static page because you’re not constantly changing it.
Tags – what’s with not calling it what everyone knows, WordPress? This one? This is a keyword folks…a KEYWORD…how simple is that? You “TAG” your posts with keywords so that it’s more easily found. Tags are key (did you catch that?) to SEO.
Thumbnail – well, most everyone has two, they come in different shapes and sizes, sometimes they’re painted…actually thumbnail just means reduced size. For example, when you land on my blog, you’ll see my most recent posts listed. Each has a very short, introductory description of the post…that’s a thumbnail.
Traffic – the people who visit your blog. When you measure traffic, you can see when people are visiting, from where (meaning not only countries but if they came from another site link), how long they stayed on site….all kinds of cool stuff. And…there’s always pretty graphs included. And…you can see the painful truth of people not visiting your blog…double edged sword…
Widget – what a cute word…it’s not what you think. Essentially, a widget is a tiny little application that enables things to happen on your blog. Take a read on over here for more information.
I hope this was at least a little bit helpful. If not, oh well. Click on over to my Blogosphere board on Pinterest for a ton-load of information. Just be sure to come up for air every now and then.
