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How Many Here are Primarily Bloggers?

by Trivum
8 replies
People here make money in all sorts of ways. I'm just wondering how many consider themselves a "traditional" blogger.

By that I mean the majority of the content you produce goes on a blog that's updated at least fairly frequently, and it clearly announces itself to the world as a blog -- i.e. when someone shows up on it, they know immediately that it's a "blog" and not "website."

Something else -- you use your real name, and you (mostly) write all the content yourself.
#bloggers #primarily
  • Profile picture of the author blueclcl
    I have a blog, write the content myself on the whole and also plan to offer services and sell my own products on it.

    I would say I was a traditional blogger, but not sure how others would see me.
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    • Profile picture of the author Jon Crimes
      I think I'm blogging too much at the moment but you do get into it and when it starts to make money

      Use your own name! Definitely.

      I did consider a pen name for a while because I never thought I'd be able to dominate google p1 for the surname 'Crimes'.

      Relevant and consistent content soon changed that though.

      My advice, be you....

      Cheers

      Jon
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  • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
    Banned
    Originally Posted by Trivum View Post

    I'm just wondering how many consider themselves a "traditional" blogger.
    I don't, at all. But what I do seems to fit most of your description perfectly.

    Originally Posted by Trivum View Post

    By that I mean the majority of the content you produce goes on a blog that's updated at least fairly frequently
    Yes, that describes all my sites.

    Originally Posted by Trivum View Post

    and it clearly announces itself to the world as a blog -- i.e. when someone shows up on it, they know immediately that it's a "blog" and not "website."
    I never quite know how other people look at this. Blogs are websites. I'm not sure there is any clear distinction between a "blog" and a "non-blog website", is there? Not one I understand, anyway: it seems to me that there are plenty of regularly updated, bloggy-looking sites which aren't made with "blogging software" and there are certainly millions of "static sites" made with WordPress and other things which most people regard as "blogs". So it's not surprising there's plenty of confusion, nowadays, about exactly what a "blog" is? Anyway, my sites are made with "blogging software".

    Originally Posted by Trivum View Post

    Something else -- you use your real name
    No; you caught me with that one, I admit. I do here, and on my little personal sites (such as they are) but not on my business sites. I use a name, on each one, and I have a personal description on most of them (and it's true of myself), and I have a picture on most of them (and it's been made from a photo of me, in each case), but they're actually all pen-names. The visitors and subscribers don't know that, though. So to them it's a "real name". That surely doesn't make them "not blogs"?

    Originally Posted by Trivum View Post

    and you (mostly) write all the content yourself.
    All of it. Every last word. Even the affiliate disclosures and privacy stuff - I've written it all in my own words.

    So I match your stated description (apart from the secret pen-names, granted). But I don't actually think of what I do as "traditional blogging" at all.

    Confusing subject, these days, isn't it? Far from easy to define unambiguously?
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    • Profile picture of the author Trivum
      Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post


      I never quite know how other people look at this. Blogs are websites.
      All blogs are websites, true, but not all websites are blogs.

      The Warrior Forum, for example, is a "website," but it's certainly not a blog.

      Google.com is a website, but it's not a blog.

      A "true blog" has frequently updated content that is arranged in reverse chronological order, and the dates are usually present and easily found. The posts on the blog are typically organized into categories. (Google.com, for example, doesn't do that.) Other typical characteristics -- comments (though some may shut them off, of course), easy social media sharing (via buttons), authors of posts readily identified (often with a link to their "author page"). The tone on a blog is usually more personal (i.e. not filled with corporate speak or advertising/marketing jargon).

      Those are a few things off the top of my head.

      I think confusion about this started creeping in when people started using blogging software for things that weren't blogs. An easy way to see the distinction is when you have a business site that's using WordPress for their site, and then they have a "blog" on the site too. In a typical case, it would be easy to see.

      For example, when you go to the GetResponse site, you certainly don't think you're on a blog: Email Marketing Software & Autoresponder from GetResponse

      But when you go to their blog, you clearly know you're on a blog: GetResponse Blog - Email Marketing Tips
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      • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
        Banned
        Originally Posted by Trivum View Post

        All blogs are websites, true, but not all websites are blogs.
        Yes, certainly.

        Originally Posted by Trivum View Post

        A "true blog" has frequently updated content that is arranged in reverse chronological order, and the dates are usually present and easily found. The posts on the blog are typically organized into categories.
        Well, only two of those three criteria apply to my sites. (I don't show the dates.) I don't have comments enabled. I don't have any social media buttons (I hate them). I do have a "personal tone" and the other stuff you mentioned. So I honestly have no idea whether you'd consider my sites "blogs".

        Originally Posted by Trivum View Post

        I think confusion about this started creeping in when people started using blogging software for things that weren't blogs.
        Yes, I agree.

        I completely accept the (GetResponse) examples you gave, of course. But I think there are many sites which are "ambiguous". I may be wrong but my guess is that about 50% of people would call my sites "blogs" and the other 50% not. To me, it doesn't matter, either way, as long as they show people that I have a regularly updated site, that I have expertise in and surprising information about my subject, that I gossip away informally and (I hope) amusingly about it, and that people give me their email addresses (I never say so on the sites, but that last point is what all my sites are actually there for!).
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  • Profile picture of the author funmom91
    I would say I am a traditional blogger. I blog about my life, use personal pictures, and use my real name.
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    Check out my writing portfolio and/or ask me about advertising on my lifestyle blog.

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  • Profile picture of the author Richard Kennedy
    Most of my websites are blogs, however I'm just launching my first ecommerce store which is exciting!

    I will add although they're blogs, I don't announce it as sometimes I feel calling it a blog will give people the impression I'm just compiling my ramblings.
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  • Profile picture of the author Trivum
    True, it doesn't really matter. It is what it is. But in a place like this, where so many people are definitely not doing traditional blogging, I was curious how many were.
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