by Brandon Cornett, CEO Blog Watch

“What is blogging?” This has become a common question lately, in large part because of all the press business blogs and corporate blogs are getting.

So what is blogging, and how does it tie into the Web as a whole? What purpose does blogging serve? Before we can answer these questions about blogging, let’s start with a quick definition of “blog.”

Wikipedia defines a blog as such:

A blog is a user-generated website where entries are made in journal style and displayed in a reverse chronological order.Blogs often provide commentary or news on a particular subject, such as food, politics, or local news; some function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of most early blogs. Source

What is Blogging?
Now we know what a blog is, we can answer the question, “What is blogging?” As you might have imagined, blogging is simply the act of using a blog. Specifically, blogging is the act of publishing content to a blog on a regular basis so that others may read it.

What kind of content? Well, that depends on the type of blog. These days, there are all kinds of blogs. Business blogs, political blogs, educational blogs, religious blogs, personal blogs … you name it. If there’s a topic embraced by more than one person, there’s probably somebody blogging about it.

This website (CEO Blog Watch) is both a blog and a website. The article you are reading right now is a regular web page. It is not part of my blog. But when you go to the home page, you will see my blog entries. You always know you’re looking at a blog when you see the dates by the posts, and you more than one post on a page.

Beneath each blog post, you will see another common element of the blog — the comment feature. On most blogs (but not all) readers can click a “comment” link under a particular blog post in order to comment on the post. This ability to interact is another thing that separates blogs from traditional, static websites.

Conclusion
I hope this article has helped answer the question, “What is blogging?” If you’re still unclear as to what blogging is, I recommend reading a few blogs on a subject you would enjoy. Just go to a major search engine like Google, and type in your subject plus the world “blogs.” For instance, if you want to find blogs about web design, you would type in “web design blogs” or “web design +blogs.” I guarantee you’ll find plenty!

Related article: What is Blogging, Part 2