What’s the difference between a website and a blog?

Over the past few years, blogs have taken over the Web by storm. More and more people are “blogging” and as a result I am frequently asked the difference between a blog and a website.

In all it’s simplicity a blog is a website. So what’s a website?
A website is a combination of a webpage which can be reached by typing in the domain name or url (i.e. www.domainname.com) in your browser. A webpage is a document that contains HTML. In order to make changes to a webpage, one can use Web editing tools such as Frontpage, Dreamweaver, GoLive, Homesite or a simple editor such as Notepad. Once updated, the page is uploaded on your server via FTP.

A blog has certain attributes that distinguishes it from a standard webpage. It allows you to create new pages on the fly simply by filling in a form. In order to do this, a blog is powered by blog software. The most popular software include Movable Type, Word Press and Text Pattern.

These packages require you to perform an installation on your server. Once installed on your server, a Web interface allows you to add entries, view past entries, view comments, create categories and more. The most wonderful thing about working with such software is that you do not need to know any HTML whatsoever.

The Bluelime Media blog, uses Movable type as does the one found on the Rococo Software website.

Too much trouble for you?
If you would like to start publishing your own blog, but don’t have Web hosting, or you are wary of installing such a software package, you may want to look at a hosted service. Some of these services include, Blogger, TypePad and LiveJournal.

All of these services are managed for you. All you have to do is sign up, choose a template and start blogging. Several of our clients use such service and we’ve helped them customize the look of their template to match the rest of their website.

Both Roost and Chakravibe blogs are powered by blogger and we’ve customized their look and added navigation to other pages of their website.

On the other hand, the Apparent Network’s website uses TypePad to power their blog.

Don’t know what’s best for you?
If you want to start blogging but are still unsure about what to use, Vinnie Garcia at Sitepoint has written a great article which compares Movable Type, Word Press and Text Pattern.