What is a Blog, Blogging & Blogger? Definition, Meaning & Examples

You must have heard the term “blog” or “weblog” and you're probably thinking “what is a blog and what's it all about?” Let's make this clear, when I was in college, a lot of people talked about “blogs” and “blogging”, but I never knew exactly what it was. I had absolutely no idea…

Fortunately, I've now published and managed many different blogs, so I can truly say I know what blogging is (check out my free blogging course if you want help starting one).Before I give you an in-depth explanation of blogs and blogging, let's see other definitions for that:
Definition of a blog according to Wikipedia…

According to Harvard Law School website…

… but enough of those “geeky” words. Just read my simple and easy to understand definition below.

You've probably read blogs more than once, to be honest, you're actually reading one now.
But let's get back to the point. What exactly is a blog?

So what is a blog?

A blog is very similar to a website. I would say that a blog is a diary/journal that is (mostly) maintained by one person – blogger. Usually, blogs are being updated quite often (once a day, once a week, once a month). Blogs can be private, but most of them are available on the internet for others to see.
Blogs have certain topics. My blog's topic is “blogging” and “how to start one” – I'm helping beginners to start a blog, get more visitors and much more… BUT, it can also have several other topics. Bloggers are usually passionate about a specific topic thus they'll create one.

Blog posts are the fundamental of a blog. Every blog on the internet consists of different blog posts written by the blogger. Blog posts can contain content (obviously!), videos, images, bullet-points, different headings and so on.
Blogs (and blog posts) can be shared on social networks (Twitter, FaceBook, Google+) and people can leave comments under the blog posts in order to start meaningful conversations.
Blogs can have a LOT of visitors. When your blog has enough posts and it starts to become popular, you'll start receiving traffic from other sites, social networks and even from search engines.

Definitions that are tied with a blog

Blog definition (n.)

An online journal/diary that is available on the Internet.

Blogger definition (n.)

An individual who is the blog owner. The person who keeps the blog alive (posting new posts, sharing the latest news, information, case studies, opinions, etc…)

Blog post meaning (n.)

An article or writing that is inside the blog. For example, the article you are currently reading is a “blog post” that is written for my blog.

Blog meaning (v.)

To start a blog, to keep a blog, to find a blog – I'm going to find a blog about health and fitness.

Blogging meaning (v.)

The action of maintaining/writing a blog – While blogging, I'm able to share information that I feel is important, helpful or interesting for others.

What do professional bloggers think about the blog meaning?

To make this post more compelling, I talked to 9 very popular bloggers who are doing well and asked them one simple question:
“What is a blog? Please explain it in 3-5 sentences”
As you will see, the answers are not the same as those produced by editors on Wikipedia or Harvard Law School.
… anyhow, here are the answers:

What is blogging? The history and trends

Unofficially, the first blog ever was made by Justin Hall (links.net) in 1994. At that time, no-one actually knew the word “blog” or “weblog”. Actually, Justin's web property was more or less of a simple website, but it looked like a blog. He posted regularly (still doing it!) about the “stuff” he found on the internet and it was sort of “personal diary”.

The term “weblog” was first (officially) announced in 1997 by Jorn Barger. In 1999, weblog was shortened to blog. At this point, some folks (who had computers and internet access) started blogging, still, it wasn't popular at all…
Then came WordPress (in 2003) and it changed a lot… Why so? WordPress started to offer FREE blogging platform. A lot of people have found it useful (including me) since it's really easy to install, maintain and use. More than 75% of the blogs are using WordPress blogging platform.
Let's see the search trends on Google about blogs, blogging and WordPress:
“What is a blog?” vs “How to start a blog” –

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“WordPress” vs “Blogger” (most popular blogging platforms)

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What can we say about that graph? For me, it seems that blogs are still quite popular and thousands of blogs are being published on daily basis.
Currently, in 2019, there are more than 500,000,000 blogs on the internet!

Why do people blog?

Blogs are made and used for many different reasons. I'll explain that to you shortly. But in the meantime, you can actually have a look at my recent blog post that I wrote: Why you should start a blog.

1. To express themselves
2. To delivery valuable information and news to other people on the internet
3. To make money (Yes, some people are making a lot of money with blogging)
4. Self-promotion
5. To connect with like-minded people
6. To gain knowledge
7. To find a better job
8. To improve writing skills
9. etc…

Your turn...

So what is a blog? Do you now understand what they are, or is there still something confusing? Leave a comment below and I'll explain it to you once again! 🙂
By the way, if you really liked the idea of a blog and you want to start one, feel free to head over to my homepage where I explain how to set up a blog on your own. There's no need for technical programming or HTML, so everyone can have a blog:)