Is This Blogging?

I was really interested to read this comment from Pinup Style in response to our series on blog business models.

Image courtesy stock.xchng user arinas74

“I was wondering what your position is re: another blog post I found on your site stating “As Michael Stelzner said at Blogworld, “You’re not a blogger, you’re a publisher!”

Call me old fashioned, but if one has a blog, why pretend it is something else? I can understand that ‘marketing’ etc., is a driving factor for that decision…

I have also been reading a few articles around the web with people saying that it is better to ‘not’ call a given site a blog at all (even if it actually is in fact a blog).

This might also be a factor (at the very outset) in a blog’s (aka ‘not’ a blog’s) chosen business model to make money?”

This is a very interesting question, and as Pinup Style suggests, different bloggers will have different opinions on this.

Kevin Cullis, who also participated in the blog business model series, responded to the comment with the words “You’re a blogger, you’re a publisher”, for example.

I think the descriptions of “blogger” and “publisher” and “media outlet” are probably a bit arbitrary within this space. As Pinup Style says, in the self-made world of blogging, any of us can call ourselves whatever we like. But Kevin’s point is that the way you perceive what you’re doing here—as reflected in the way you describe yourself—may have quite an impact on the way you operate.

Blogging has well and truly moved into the mainstream—not only are blogs publications in their own right, but the format is also being co-opted by major news media and other publications that need a format that presents readers with a lasting chronological representation of events.

Now, you might say that next to the BBC, your blog covering events in your local art scene doesn’t look much like a “media outlet.” That’s fine. But what if you lined it up next to a business blog?

I’m talking here about the kind of blog that represents merely one part of a corporate or business website, and serves a certain purpose—perhaps taking prospects or customers inside the business with posts by various staff members. This kind of blog might merge thought leadership with corporate games snaps and videos from an industry convention or meetup.

How’s your local art blog looking now? Is it looking at all like a “publication”? Are you looking like a “blogger”? A “publisher”? A “reporter”? A “writer”? A “hyperlocal journalist”?

You might consider what you publish to your blog to be “blog posts”—a definition encompassing what others might call opinion pieces, editorial, reportage, practical guidance, and features.

There are obvious boundaries that bloggers need to consider as they blog—no matter whether they’re doing it from inside an organization or out on their own. But the fact is that at the end of the day, we’re really just people connecting with others through content that we produce or have produced for us.

Beyond that, you can call it whatever you like!