When I started this blog 6 years ago, blogging was still in its infancy. Nowadays anyone and everyone has a blog, and most commercial websites have morphed into blogs.
Static websites, where content remains the same day after day, week after week, are so 90s. If you want people to return to your website, whether to buy what you're selling or to read what you're writing, you have to have updated content.
That's why blogs have become as common as chickens on Farmville.
The problem is, with so many blogs out there, the term has been corrupted.
Here's the deal, people: A blog (from the word "weblog") refers to a website, an internet address that contains a collection of blog posts, such as the one you're reading right now. These paragraphs, written on February 7, are not a blog but a post on my blog What Do I Know?.
Sample sentence: "The blog What Do I Know is full of fascinating posts on subjects ranging from frozen shoulder to frog ringtones."
You can find other posts under the "categories" sidebar item or arranged chronologically by date.
Get it? My blog contains many posts, but there's only one blog. (Unless you count my other blog.)
(Note that the word "blog" can also be a verb, meaning to write a blog post or to continually write a series of posts on a blog. Sample sentence: "I spent the year 2010 blogging about my abscessed toenail.")
Now if I ever see another person tweet or blog about a "blog" they read when what they mean is "blog post", they'll be subjected to a six lashes with a wet noodle. Warning: I also maintain a food blog. There's no shortage of wet noodles around here.
Please pass this blog post along to people you know who might be misusing the term.
Sample sentence: "The blog What Do I Know is written by a blogger who's much too concerned that something may be wrong on the internet."
