Blogging ‘vs.’ Writing: Why the Weird Reputation?
By: Kitiara Pascoe
Tags: Entrepreneurship, Work, Freelancing, Writing, Blogging

Society changes. The way we consume changes. Products change. To adapt to the world’s changes, we must be open to them.

We have a tendency to only look at something from where we are in history right now. We base our opinions on what’s right and wrong, good and bad, on where we are currently.

But that’s a tad limited.

Technology has a huge impact on how we create and consume literature and it’s ever widening the accessibility of getting our words out there. This is how blogging has come to be — technology.

Back in the 17th century, writers put their words into pamphlets. Pamphlets guys. They had up to about 96 pages but could be shorter, maybe just ten pages.

And these were phenomenal writers. Defoe, Pepys, Swift, Hobbes…

As printing became more accessible and affordable, books and magazine came into popular consumption. Then came the internet and the demand for writing increased.

Blogging is just another medium of writers getting their words out into the world.

But it’s also much more than that.

Why the weird reputation?

Blogging has a lingering reputation for being substandard and there’s a reason why.

Before blogging, in order to have a voice online or in print, you had to be deemed worthy by editors. You had to fight for a commission, practice writing for years in your cave of darkness and Be a Proper Writer to have anything read by strangers.

Just like vanity publishing, blogging was seen to be a quagmire for those who weren’t good enough to be Real Writers, i.e. published in magazines and newspapers. The only barrier to entry in blogging is understanding how to set up a blog and hit publish. So, pretty low. As a result, there are millions of blogs filled with dull content.

But here’s the thing with dull content — nobody reads it. And if nobody reads it, Google doesn’t show it in search results. So you’ll never see it. So you don’t need to worry about it.

If you search for something and a blog pops up, you can bet it’s at least half-decent and, even if not literary genius, it’s probably pretty informative. Otherwise it wouldn’t be ranking high enough for you to ever see it. It’s hard enough for talented bloggers to rank high on Google, let alone the dross that some people churn out.

In every industry there is dross. There are plenty of bad solicitors, bad builders and bad salespeople.

Just like self-publishing books has now become a perfectly reasonable thing to do (after all, the author gets to keep far more royalties than if traditionally published), blogging is also very much legitimate.

Writing cannot be judged by the medium it’s on.

What’s the difference between blogging and just…writing?

Technically, writing is simply the act of getting words out of your head and onto the page. That’s all.

So in that sense blogging is, in part, simply a type of writing. Just like copy, technical reports, white papers and tag lines are all types of writing.

Because writers can write in so many forms, we tend towards defining ourselves as the type of writing that we create the most in.

So I’m a copywriter, a ghostwriter and an author. But I also write social media posts for clients (so a content writer) and I have a blog. So I’m also a blogger. The reason why I tend not to list myself as a blogger is because I don’t directly earn money from it, although it does indirectly earn me money (editors read it and (hopefully) give me work).

I even ghostwrite blog posts for companies, making me a blog writer as well as a blogger.

So in the sense of the written word, there is a difference between blogging and writing but only in the same way there’s a difference between the words, ‘apartment’ and ‘property’. One is merely a type of the other.

A blog is a website that gets updated with new articles on a (hopefully) regular basis. That’s it. It’s essentially a small, online magazine often run by just one person but, increasingly, more people as the blog gets more traffic and demands more content.

Wait, there’s more

Some of the weird reputation comes from the blurry line between hobby and job. In the age of online creative businesses, it can be a bit confusing as to where some people sit on the scale of hobby/job.

(I mean, HMRC even have to define the financial moment a hobby turns into a taxable income source because it’s such a grey area)

In addition, different people label themselves differently. Some only use labels that determine their professional standing, others also include their hobbies.

A blogger who doesn’t make money from their blog or any other type of writing isn’t a professional writer or a professional blogger — if we use the definition that ‘professional’ means to earn money from something.

But here’s the thing. I’m not a professional rock climber, but I still tell people I’m a rock climber. Because…well…I go rock climbing.

A writer is somebody who writes. A professional writer is somebody who gets paid to write. Whether the money comes from a blog, a magazine, a book, a business or a greeting cards company, they’re still a writer.

However, there is a difference between a blogger and a writer although it’s certainly not a mutually exclusive point.

The real difference between blogging and writing

Writing just refers to…well…writing. Blogging, however, is actually a much more complex type of pursuit — paid or not.

Whilst a ‘writer’ can be assumed to be a dab hand with words and the style of their niche, a ‘blogger’ usually isn’t just a writer.

Photo by STIL on Unsplash

Blogging is the culmination of lots of skills. It involves web design, SEO skills, photography, photo editing, content management and social media.

If I get a commission from a magazine, I just have to write an article and send it to my editor. They make it look nice, they choose the photographs, they deal with the formatting, the printing, the advertising and the publication.

If I want to post an article to my blog — sheesh, I have to do so much more! And I have to do so much more well.

There are bloggers out there who aren’t brilliant at writing. They focus on photographs, facts and information. Sometimes they don’t consider themselves writers at all. Just like I don’t consider myself a photographer even though I take and use lots of photographs on my blog.

Bloggers are under-appreciated because not all of them are writers and can be hard to define. They might not be gifted literary geniuses (neither are many ‘writers’) and they may never have written anything apart from a blog. Some might lack beautiful turns of phrase and emotion in their writing but here’s the thing, that’s not their job.

Their job is to inform and entertain their readers with authenticity and personality. Successful bloggers require tenacious marketing skills over phenomenal writing and photography skills.

They need to fundamentally understand their audience and what they want. And give it to them.

They are supreme multitaskers where plenty of incredibly talented writers lack the skills to sell a single copy of a book.

Bloggers might be exceptionally talented writers or they might not be. Writing is just one part of blogging.

So there is sort of a difference between a blogger and a writer, but there is absolutely nothing preventing you from being both.