When I first started getting interested in blogs and perhaps starting my own blog, I was overwhelmed by some of the terminology associated with blogging.  Like many things in the online world, there can be a steep learning curve in the beginning stages of becoming familiar with new technology.  While blogging has been around for some time now, 10 to 15 years depending on how you define the first instance of “blogging,” many people are still learning about it still today.  So in an attempt to help you understand some of the terminology associated with the blogging phenomenom, I have compiled a list of blogging words and phrases that are frequently used.

• Affiliate Marketing - The process which a company or business rewards a user, or affiliate, for directing a new or potential customer to performing a certain action.
• Archives - A collection of all the posts made on a blog, usually categorized by a time period or topic.
• Blog - An abbreviation of the term ‘Weblog.’
• Blog Carnival - A blog that creates posts on a regular basis that contains permalinks to other blog posts that cover a specific topic.
• Blog Search Engine - Search engines that are dedicated solely to searching the content of the blogosphere, and recheck blogs for new content after being pinged. 
• Blogger - A person who creates content or posts on a blog.
• Blogging - The act of posting on a blog.
• Blogosphere - The entire realm of blogs across the entire internet.  All blogs, regardless of topic, put together make up the blogosphere.
• Blogrolls - A collection of links to other blogs originating on a single blog, usually found in the sidebar or footer of the blog.
• Categories - A group of posts relating to one specific topic or category.
• Comments - Remarks left by a reader(s) of a blog on a specific post.
• Comment Moderation - The act of overseeing remarks left by readers of a blog to determine if the remarks are spam or relate to the content of the post the remarks were left for.
• Comment Spam - Remarks completely unrelated to the content of the blog post they are intended for.
• Dashboard - The interface displaying tools, controls, and functions of a blog when a blog owner logs into their Admin Panel.
• Dynamic - A page that is recreated by new content from a database without intervention from manual coding, as opposed to static.
• Feeds - A file containing the content of a post or group of posts that has been stripped of everything but the text, and is displayed on another site or browser.  Feeds are used by readers to quickly and easily be updated on any new content that has been posted to a blog.
• Feed Aggregator - A tool used by viewers/readers of a blog to retrieve and display content from a feed.
• Footer - The very bottom portion of a blog, usually containing navigation links and copyright information of the blog.  Is usually always visible on the very bottom of every page of the blog.
• Header - The top part of a blog, usually containing the blogs title, links to other pages of the blog, and is usually always visible at the top of all pages of the blog.
• Index Page - The main page of a blog or website.
• Moblog - A blog or blog post created from a mobile device or phone.
• Permalinks - A URL or address at which a post or article is permanently stored.
• Pingback - A type of notification option that, once enabled, is sent to a blog owner that alerts the owner another blog has posted a link to their blog.
• Plugins - A small file that once installed, adds new functions and usability to a blog, either for the author or the reader, or both. 
• Podcasting - Multimedia content that is distributed online by a feed for playback on a mobile device or a PC.
• Posts - Single articles or entries that make up the content of a blog.
• Scrape - The act of stealing content from another site or blog without giving credit to the original source.  This technique is commonly used by SPAM blogs.
• SEO - Accronymn for Search Engine Optimization, which is a method of improving search engine, such as Google, Yahoo, or MSN, results of a blog or website.
• Sidebar - A column found on either side, or sometimes both sides, of the main blog content area/page, and is usually found on the side of all the pages of the blog.
• Slug - The name or title of a blog post, often becoming part of the permalink or URL.
• Social Networking - The act of building online relationships with others who share the same interests via an online networking service.  Examples may include Facebook, MySpace, and MyBlogLog.
• Static - A page that’s content stays the same regardless of requests from different users or databases.
• Subscribe - The action of telling a feed aggregator to retrieve a feed on a regular, timely basis.
• Tags - Keyword(s) associated with a post or page on a blog allowing for the post or page to be put into a collective of similar posts or pages. Aids the easiblity of the post or page to be more readily searchable on the blog, or by an outside blog searching service.
• Technorati - An example of a Blog Search Engine.
• Themes - A file, or skin, that changes the look and presentation of the content on a blog.
• Trackback - A type of notification option that is sent to a blog owner that another blogger has mentioned them or a specific post the blogger made.  With a trackback, no link to the originating blog has been made as with a pingback.
• Traffic - The number of visitors a blog or site receives in a given time period.
• Weblog - An online dated journal or diary where a user/author creates entries in chronological order on a specific topic.
• Widgets - Small applications, or plugins, that are installed in a blog’s sidebar for increased usability and function of the blog.

I know there will be terms that I have forgotten to include.  Please leave a comment to have a new definition added and to help keep this list up to date.  Please note I did not include some of the slang that is used in referring to types of bloggers or spam comments or things of that nature.  While there are even more colorful slang terms for them also, I will leave that for another possible future post some other day.