The WMF Archives: Blogs vs Articles -- What's the Difference?

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Blogs vs Articles -- What's the Difference?

11:18 AM

As the blog emerged over the past decade, an entirely new format for communicating took shape. At this point I find the line between a blog and an article often blurs -- you see long blogs with many interviews, and short articles with many bloggy links.

What exactly is the difference between an article and a blog? As the two styles converge, it's an interesting question. For instance, I write online articles for Entrepreneur magazine. How are they not blogs?

Here's my take on what makes a blog a blog, as compared with an article:

Blogs:

Are short. I usually aim for 400-500 words at most, and on BNET we aim for 300 words.
Have links. They're usually focused on building traffic, so they should link to related information elsewhere.
Are informal. The writing style in blogs is usually pretty casual. The need to follow Associated Press Style rules goes out the window, you can LOL or say frak or write incomplete sentences or whatever you please.
Usually publish online and not in print publications. I'm sure somewhere there's a publication running a page of blog entries in its magazine, but the vast majority of blogs are designed to be viewed on a computer.

Articles:

Can be longer. Many online articles I write are 800 words, and publications I've done 3,000-word pieces. That just doesn't work for a blog entry.
Are better researched. I usually spend a great deal more time preparing an article.
May contain multiple interviews. I do blogs with interviews in them too, but it's rare to see a blog entry that covers a trend and has multiple experts quoted with their points of view.
Use a more formal writing style. This is a generalization, but more article clients seem to want assurance that you are familiar with AP or Chicago Style and can write to it. Articles in general tend to follow old-school journalism conventions to a greater extent than does your average blog.
Articles appear in print or online. And often, a print article will also be reprinted online by the publication. But you rarely see a blog for a company or publication turning up in a print magazine they do.

What do you think the difference between a blog and an article is? Leave a comment and let's discuss.

Photo via Flickr user creepetz

Labels: article writing, blogging, Carol Tice, interviewing

5 comments:

Pam Houghton said...: That's a good comparison. And I would agree with your observations!; April 29, 2010 1:17 PM
Sheila Siler said...: I find this very interesting. I would concur, though I've never thought about putting links in my blog, I thought it was a bit more casual and personal. Perhaps that's just the nature of my blog at this time. Overall though, I agree.; April 29, 2010 2:16 PM
Carol Tice said...: Hi Sheila --

Many bloggers have a blog specifically in order to build site traffic and increase their natural search results for keywords related to what they do, and having a lot of links greatly improves your rankings.

For instance, if you Google "Seattle freelance writer," you'll find me fourth on the first page of results. What did that? My linky blog that I update regularly. (I'm also on the Google Map result for Seattle, a great tool for coming up top in search results if you're not using!); April 29, 2010 2:29 PM
Carol Tice said...: I'd add that it also makes you seem more informed and makes your blog more convenient -- when you're able to direct people to where all your info came from, it builds credibility for what you're saying, and shows readers they can come to you and get all they need to know in one place. So I think those are reasons why linkage within blogs has become the norm.; April 29, 2010 2:30 PM
Marla Rosner said...: Thanks for carving out the distinction so crisply. I think you've got it right!; May 17, 2010 2:12 PM