Blogging: Moving From Journaling to Blogging

From Journaling to Blogging, A Guide for Switching.

Since our ancient ancestors learned to write, people have been keeping journals. From pictographs on a cave wall, to hieroglyphs on a sarcaphogus, to your little sister’s diary, folks have a longing to document their lives, and express their feelings and opinions on what goes on in those lives.

With the advent of the Internet, and consumer-oriented webware, a natural step in journaling was to take it online. Over time, a certain subset of journalers began to realize that people wanted to read their opinions on certain issues. It was this sudden realization of an audience that led to blogging. What was once an ability to post individual thoughts and commentary on daily life, had changed to the ability to hold visitors in rapt attention to their words, and keep them coming back for more. Over time, the majority of these people realized that they had the biggest audience on specific topics, and were often asked to concentrate on those topics. Blogging was born.

We needed that little history lesson, so you’ll understand why many people make the switch from journaling to blogging. Why you might be suddenly thinking about switching. How you decide which is the best medium for you.

Let’s take a look at both journaling and blogging, and then we’ll talk a little about the differences. While they aren’t entirely seperate worlds, one can liken them to the differences between a teen, under hir parents rule, and an adult, out on hir own, making hir own decisions. (The use of the word “hir” is as a gender-neutral pronoun. For more information on gender-neutral pronouns, please see this FAQ.)

Journaling:

Ah, Journaling. The first resource of many, many people, and often considered the last bastion of truly free thought amongst teenagers. With sites like LiveJournal, DeadJournal, Xanga, and even MSN Spaces and Blogger, there are millions upon millions of journalers on the Internet. Journals have long been the place to express everything from your thoughts, to your daily schedule, to how pissed off you are about the break up of your latest relationship. With that last one, they have also long been the place to trash talk certain former relationships, without giving said relationship an attempt to clear their name.

Journaling provides people an easy method to get their thoughts out onto the Internet. With pre-written, pre-designed templates for displaying the journal, to easy update interfaces, to desktop software specifically designed to interact with only one or two websites. Journaling is the easy, breezy method of online communication.

Although Blogger was the first journaling system, the first well-know, and largest was LiveJournal (although LiveJournal has now been superceeded, in terms of number of members, by Blogger). LiveJournal, and sites like it (Xanga, DeadJournal, MSN Spaces, Journal Home, etc…) provide members with an easy, intuitive interface. Such sites do not normally provide the ability to add in functionality that is not already included. Although all journaling and blogging systems run off a specific back end software (be it Blogger, LiveJournal, WordPress, or others), most journaling systems restrict control in numerous methods.

The majority of journaling sites provide the following basics:

• Ability to write and edit posts
• Ability to display posts in reverse chronological order (newest first)
• Ability to control certain portions of layout and template
• Ability to comment on, and allow comments on, entries
• Ability to supply a user bio, and contact information

Some journaling systems take these basics a step further by allowing (usually paid members) the ability to fully customize their template, through a proprietary templating language. Some systems also add other gizmos such as categoris, tagging, etc… Some systems (such as Blogger and LiveJournal) come very close to offering what most hard-core blogging systems offer. Why is it, then, that we seperate journaling and blogging?

With the sole exception of blogger, if one were to visit journaling websites and randomly look at various journals, one would often notice a specific trend: These journals are primarily “personal” in nature, and have posts about the owner’s day to day life. Very rarely do these journals pick a single specific topic on which to write. Additionally, the average age for journal users is several years below the average age of blogers, for one reason. The majority of teens prefer to write about their daily life - in the hopes of either gaining friends, or finding people that find them fascinating - rather than picking a single topic about which they are passionate.

Please don’t minsunderstand. I am not saying journaling is a bad thing. Back in 1996, I started “blogging”. In actuality, I started journaling. I created my own website, and hand updated pages every day with journal entries. Eventually, I found LiveJournal, and started in with that system. From the first entry, to my most current, my LiveJournal has always been about my day to day life, with only occasional entries that concentrate on topics about which I am passionate. For an example? My first entry discussed the fact that I had found the system, it looked interesting, and I was going to go to dinner with my parents later, and eat fajitas. My latest entry discusses a particular computer problem I was having, and asked for help figuring it out. Journaling is a very valid method of communication, and I am by no means saying someone should not journal, online. I’m simply pointing out that journaling is more about general life, and less about specific, topical issues.

Blogging

Enter the realm of Blogging. With the advent of Blogger, MoveableType, WordPress, and others, the blogging revolution was born. Over time, people on journaling systems were beginning to notice that more people paid attention to certain topics, than others. These journalers rapidly realized that they would get much more readership if they got away from the standard day-to-day whatnot of journaling, and away from the primarily younger mindset that these systems offered.

Eventually, people discovered Blogger. Blogger was originally designed to be a journaling system, and today many people still use it for personal journals. However, most people noticed that it had less of a “community” feel than systems like LiveJournal and Xanga. Over time, people realized that this lack of constant community, meant that the age range of users was more clustered towards the latter teens, and twenties - giving a more mature group of readers and users. Given this environment, people felt more secure in writing about a single topic, as opposed to a general day-to-day extravaganza.

Over time, these same people started discovering that hosting their own website - and/or their own blogging system - was a viable method to making their presence known. With tools like Moveable Type and WordPress, people began to set up their own blogs, and let their writing be known.

Although Blogs and Journals are very similar - and can often be used interchangably for the same things - Blogs normally offer advanced controls that journaling systems simply don’t have. By default, the majority of blogging systems contain the same things that Journals do, and some additional abilities, such as:

• The ability to assign categories to posts, essentially a topical index
• Full control over layout and design
• The ability to add plugins that allow for even more enhanced functionality
• The ability to pretty much do anything at any time, on their own site.
• The ability to monetize, and earn money off of their sites

Blogging offered those that wanted enhanced control, and enhanced abilities, the methods they needed to customize their “journal/blog” to their topic, and audience. Blogging rapidly became the field for people who wanted targetted, topic-specific methods of information dispursal.

Switching from Journaling to Blogging

So you’ve decided you want to switch from your pre-built, constrained system journaling, to the more free-form, topic-specific blogging. Good on ya! First off, don’t get rid of your journal. Personal journaling is still a very good thing. Enjoy yourself on it! Enjoy the community! Blogging is a different world from journaling, although there are similarities.

First off, your target audience is different in blogging. In fact, in journaling, you may not have even had a target audience. If you’re intending to blog about a specific topic, then you’re most assuradely have a target audience: those people interested in your topic.

Secondly, you’re going to have much, much more control over your environment. From the layout, to the extras you can add, nothing is pre-ordained.

Finally, you’re not going to have any automattic traffic. Journaling systems foster an intense feeling of community, and often offer the ability to find journals with similar interests; in fact, most journaling systems even offer the ability to randomly find journals.

Let’s explore each of these differences, and more, a little more in depth.

Target Audience

In journaling, you likely had no target audience, or even have a built-in audience. In blogging, you’re going to have to develop a target audience. Although you don’t have to get as involved as doing demographical research, or major psycho-socio processing of your blog, you are going to have to think long and hard about the type of people you want to read your site. Do you want professionals from a certain industry? Do you want only people with money? Do you want people that are going through a certain phase of their lives? Do you want people that are only going to be readers for a short while, as they gather information to help them out on a specific topic (i.e. a do-it-yourself, home improvement blog), or do you want people who are consistently going to be interested in a topic, and often come back for more (i.e. a blog about technology, or web services, or politics, or even sex)? Once you get a sense of who you want to read, you’re ready to begin setting up your blog, and tailoring it to your audience. Having a good perspective of the kinds of people you want around will help you write better, more effective posts.

Control Over Layout

In a blog, you’ll have a lot more control over your environment. From layout to the extras, you will be able to do things you only dreamed of on a journaling system. The majority of self-contained blogging platforms (WordPress, Moveable Type, Drupal, etc…) offer full customization of the layout and look of the blog. You can make your blog look like a million other blogs, or make it so unique people stop by just to say “whoa!” Most blogging systems offered you the ability to use pre-made templates, with a few options for individual customization. Blog systems, however, allow you full and complete control over your layout, including the ability to build it entirely from scratch. Want your blog to scroll across the screen, rather than down? You can do it. Want your blog to merely list headlines, with entries popping up in other windows? Doable. Want your blog to play a song when people load it? Done and done. Want… Well, you get the idea.

Control over Extras

In journaling, you may have been able to turn on and off certain features. Some sites would allow you to list a profile on your blog, or a list of links, or a list of the most recent posts. In blogging, you’ll be able to do all of this, and more. Want to show the most recent comments on the front page? Easy. Want to automatically tag entries? Done. Want to show your latest photos in the sidebar? Simple. There are literally thousands of optional “plugins” availible for virtually every major blogging system. From administration to spam control, blogs offer a ton of features.

Developing Readers

As I mentioned before, you won’t have any automatic traffic. You’ll have to spend a little time to bring in readers. Starting with listing your blog in search engines, telling your friends about it, or even taking out a small ad on another website (if you want to spend the money). Bringing in an audience is what most bloggers concentrate on, most heavily. Usually, this is a good thing. Sometimes, however, it results in a blogger forgetting why they started blogging in the first place. Remember, regardless of how many people you have reading, it’s all about your passion for the topic.

Commenting

There are differences in commenting, as well. Most journaling systems allow comments on entries. So do most blogging systems. The biggest difference is that blogs are a major source of spam, and you’re going to have to learn to control that. You’ll have to learn what spam control features your blogging system comes with, and what extra plugins are availible to help. Additionally, you’ll have more control over the layout and display of comments within your blog.

Writing and Posting

All journaling systems have some web-based interface for posting entries to your journal. Some systems, like LiveJournal, offer downloadable programs, called clients, that allow you to update your journal from your computer - without ever opening a web browser. All blogging systems offer a web-based interface, as well (except for one, which is designed to be run from your PC). The majority of blogging systems, however, also support what is known as an API. The API allows external programs to edit and update your blog. These programs are often more advanced, and offer more features than your average journal client. From the free programs, to the ones that cost hundreds of dollars, you can find a blogging client that will allow you to do everything from update like a journal, to making your entries look like a magazine (complete with images, drop caps, and pull quotes).

In short, where you go with, and what you do with your blog is limited only by your imagination, instead of the confines of the journaling system’s programming.

Moving Forward

So, are you ready to switch? Great! Then I suggest you get out that and start looking at the most popular blogging systems availible. Of these, there are two varieties: Hosted solutions, and Site-based solutions. The two most popular hosted solutions are Blogger, and Type Pad. Of these, Blogger is free, but offers a little bit less control, and is prone to more issues (as more people use it, thus there is more load on the system). TypePad costs per month, but offer a bit more control (and features), and has slightly fewer problems.

The two most popular site-based solutions are WordPress and Moveable Type. Of these, WordPress is completely free, and is - in my opinion - a bit easier to use, customize, and manage. WordPress also has the largest base of plugins to extend its functionality. Since WordPress is free, however, there may be a few more bugs, and support is obtained via a message forum. Moveable Type costs money, a certain amount per user (MoveableType allows multiple blogs, and multiple users under a single installation, although you have to pay for this ability in a multi-user license). Moveable Type (in my opinion) is also a little less user-friendly, although the makers of it have been working on making it more friendly, in recent versions. Additionally, Moveable Type has fewer plugins availible. Since it is a paid system, support can be obtained via e-mail, and over the telephone. Moveable Type does offer a free version, although you have to dig for it, and it comes with absolutely no support (except other users). Both solutions require you to have your own website, which means paying for hosting fees (usually. Some free site providers allow installation of WordPress and Moveable Type). WordPress, however, has recently opened up WordPress.com, a free version of WordPress, that is hosted for free. Unfortunately, however, WordPress.com comes with fewer customization abilities than the self-hosted version.

There are people who swear by each, of course. The ultimate decision is up to you. I suggest you go look at each system’s website, and make up your own mind. Then, when you’ve decided which system you’re going to use, install it, and get going.

If you’re a first-time blogger, I highly suggest you check out my Amateur Blogging Series. A series that starts with selecting a blogging system, and goes on attempting to educate and instruct readers on how to maintain a blog, write for a blog, maximize their traffic, and even make money from their blog.

If you’re switching from journaling to blogging, I welcome you to the blogging ranks. I also say hi from the journaling ranks, as I will likely never leave journaling completely behind. Welcome! I hope you enjoy the experience!!

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