Introduction
Blogging and Vlogging are two processes that are increasing in the developing virtual world at the speed of light. A fresher who has yet to gain a background idea about the two terms and the duties performed by them may find themselves in a confusing spot.
To be honest, it is not rocket science and can be understood with a little but valid knowledge that is accessible.
Blog vs Vlog
The main difference between a blog and a vlog is that blog is made up of a website platform where the content is shared in the form of text, while on the other hand, a vlog mainly consists of content in the form of short or long videos. A blog and a vlog are two ways by which an individual, company, firms, corporates, and others could achieve various marketing and personal endeavours.
Difference Between Blog and Vlog in Tabular Form
| Parameters of Comparison | Blog | Vlog |
| Definition | Comprises of content in text format | Comprises of content in video format |
| Origin | Expenditure is high because of the requirements for various equipments | Said to be gained attention in 2003 |
| Opportunities | YouTube, Vimeo, Dailymotion, Instagram, Twitter, etc., which are used to upload the videos | YouTube, Vimeo, Dailymotion, Instagram, Twitter, etc. which are used to upload the videos |
| Competition | Highly competitive | Intermediate |
| Expense | Does not include much expenditure | Expenditure is high because of the requirements for various equipment |
| Profits | Only if you receive traffic on your content, as the competition happens to be tough | Receives profit as the new generation finds it easy to watch rather than read |
| Prominence | Highly eminent | Highly eminent as well |
What is a blog?
According to the Oxford Dictionary, a blog is defined according to the medium it uses. For instance, if it is related to the internet, then it’s defined as “A website that allows users to reflect, share opinions and discuss various topics in the form of a journal.”
To sum it up in a simplified definition, a blog is a form of content that is highly rich in text that provides its readers with the required information. Even if a person is not aware of what a blog is and what sort of information it includes, they have come across blogs at some point or the other in their lives. For instance, the very article that you are reading is a form of a blog that is published on an online platform. Though it is stated that the existence of blogging is traced back to the 1990s, the platform of blogging received recognition and fame at the beginning of 2003.
2003 was the year when WordPress made its way on the red carpet of the internet and is owning the stage till now. With the establishment of WordPress, blogging found a backbone to survive and stand straight in the world of growing knowledge and the internet. WordPress not only supported blogs but also paved the way for budding bloggers, where several bloggers acknowledged their writing skills along with the addition of features like images, videos, and others. This provided a new identity to the blogging world.
Towards the beginning of the blogging stages, it was majorly used as a platform where individuals used it as a medium for sharing information, opinions, propaganda, views, or any other personal statement. Now, with the development of blogging, where big companies and enterprises have made their entries to market their services through blogs, it has turned into a platform that is regularly updated and managed by various content strategists.
Before diving into the pool of various types of blogs, it is mandatory to be aware of some terms which are related to the blog. Firstly, a blog post. A blog post is an independent page on an overall website that talks about a particular sub-topic of the blog section. For instance, a blog post on health and fitness. Secondly, a website is an overall presence or a platform where you can publish your blogs. For instance, the website ‘QuotesLyfe’ includes blog posts that give you information on varied topics.
There exists a variety of blogs, out of which four of them are important.
The types of blogs are:
Personal blog: As the name suggests, a personal blog is all about sharing personal opinions and thoughts that are gained through experiences and knowledge. A personal blog is the most frequently used blog as it is easy to target the right-fitting minds who can relate to what an individual offers in his blog.
Business blog: Business blogs are also known as corporate blogs and enterprise blogs. Again, as the name suggests, a business blog is run by big and small businesses where in there are blogs about the services that are offered by the prescribed businesses. They write their blog intending to attract relevant targets who would be interested in the services they offer.
Affiliate blog: The affiliate blog is an entirely market-oriented blog. In this blog, a blogger blogs in the form of reviews and product tutorials where the blogger earns from the share of the product money that is purchased by the customers.
Niche blog: The most varied form of a blog is the niche blog! It concentrates mainly on a single topic or, to say, a single specified topic. These blogs are also counted as hobby-related blogs, as the bloggers in this field are highly passionate about the topics at hand. For instance- music, food, blogging, writing, reading, cooking, aesthetics, and others.
What is a vlog?
Now that we have a grip on weblog or blog, our work of understanding a vlog is simpler. Moving on to the definition of a vlog, a vlog is a short form of a video blog. That is, a blog where the medium used is not text, unlike a blog, but over here, the medium used is a video.
A vlog and a blog can walk hand-in-hand as both of them are similar at differently varied levels. This statement could be well explained with an example. For instance, if an individual blogs about travelling, he/she is going to use a text method to cover up information related to travelling overall or by using a particular place. In the situation of vlogging, a vlogger is not going to opt for text as a medium but is going to use video as a medium to gather as well as transfer information.
A vlog is a personally filmed video by the vlogger himself or by others which includes desired pieces of equipment, of course. During a vlog, the focus or stress is on the sound that appears in the video and also on the visual scenery that is being focused on. The sole of the vlogging process is the visual and audio that are expected from a vlogger, which is then recorded and uploaded on the desired platform, such as YouTube.
If you ask me about the year that I mentioned in the above table of vlogging getting attention, then yes, it is completely correct. There may be questions taking their flight in your mind, such as ‘Then what? Before that, no one recorded videos and uploaded them?’ the answer is, they did! The only difference is that no one paid attention to allot a specified term or give recognition to personal videos that were widely recorded. It was towards the beginning of 2000 that people paid attention to it and started developing an interest in them. The term ‘Vlog’ originated in 2003, and hence the normal video creators who created videos on special niches were then recognized as vloggers.
At first, it was easy to run a vlog post, but with the growing competition, the standards of vlogging are raised too. A vlogger is expected to run the vlogs professionally with a camera and editorial techniques, which are always the prime focus, followed by the content that is served. A vlogger is expected to update the video regularly to keep his traffic flowing without losing the viewer ratio.
The statistics state that the audience spends their time more on video information rather than the information that is available in text form. We tend to search for easy ways for our jobs to be done and reading takes more time than viewing a video. Also, our brain registers more knowledge when it’s transmitted through our eyes and ears, and this purpose is served with video vlogs.
Types of vlogs
Music vlog: Music vlogs are mostly channels that are created on YouTube or any other platform that supports the uploading of videos to a huge audience. In music vlogs, the artists most likely rant about music, create music on their own, record a collaboration with other music creators, create playlists, and many other music-related activities.
Since this is a music generation where five out of four souls appear wearing headphones or earphones while walking down the streets, the music vlogs created by various artists are growing with a good and appreciated market.
Health and fitness: Health and fitness are also growing areas of interest where in the health and fitness conscious people record and share videos that revolve around the importance and uses of being fit and eating or consuming a healthy diet.
Health and fitness may be divided into two separate categories. Under the health category, all the videos related to a healthy diet and adopting to healthy lifestyle videos are created to acknowledge the ignorant generation. On the other hand, under the category of fitness, videos on various exercises and significant diet videos are created.
Academic: The category of academic is targeted highly at students and is growing drastically day by day. As said earlier, the human brain tends to register information faster by listening and watching rather than reading, and among students, it is a common trait. Students often find it difficult to spare or divide their time on reading as they have a lot on their platter, and they often shift their ways, which are easy and listening to videos while watching them is far easier than reading huge academic summaries.
And this is where academic vlogs come into the picture to save students time and life. It’s not only restricted to students as people of varied age groups adopt easy ways rather than the difficulty of reading. For instance, 40% of the readers of this article might already have searched about this topic on YouTube to prevent the headache of reading.
Lifestyle: Lifestyle video vlogs are trendy vlogs at present. Lifestyle vlogs are personal experiences that include videos of the interiors of a certain house, following of certain person’s daily life routine, and others. For instance, while surfing on YouTube, you might have come across videos such as “A day in the life of a student in Korea” or “A day in the life of a content writer”.
Fashion: Influencers who have a taste in the trending fashion sense that include designer clothes and the perfect look with the outfit create Fashion vlog videos. Fashion vlogs also include makeup tutorials that match the outfit chosen by the people.
Fashion videos are a kind of necessity nowadays as people are more into what look displays their identity and what fashion habits to acquire to fetch that look.
Gaming: Back in the day, gaming was a hobby or an activity that we played on our parents’ mobile phones, but now the activity or hobby of gaming is turned into a fully paid job. Gamers who are perfect with the moves and with the prescribed game create gaming vlogs. These vlogs are recorded while the game is being played, which serves two purposes. Firstly, the action created at present, which is recorded, gives a sense to the viewers that they itself are playing it, and secondly, the recorded video is uploaded and kept on the channel for viewers to view it as they please, which helps to learn the game better and that’s the main purpose.
Main Differences Between Blog and Vlog (In Points)
- Blogging comprises content that is in the form of written or text, while vlog content exclusively talks in the form of long or short video recordings.
- Blogs can also include other functions of content such as images, GIFs, audio recordings, and also video recordings which is not the case with vlogs.
- Blogging had its birth before vlogging.
- The major platform for blog writing is WordPress, and the major platform for vlog videos is YouTube.
Conclusion
Blogs and vlogs are both two growing as well as accepted ways of creating an identity and also earning income (only if you hit the right audience). Both are ways of creating good content and are a storehouse of knowledge. Since the differences between both the terms are many, it’s an activity that is somewhat similar in their ways.
The major difference is blogs consist of written or text content, while vlogs contain content uploaded in the form of videos. Leaving this fundamental difference, blogs and vlogs are modern activities that are accepted by the modern generation and are growing extensively with the needs of the growing world.
References
- https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/what-is-a-blog
- https://neilpatel.com/blog/vlog-successfully
