When I tell people I blog, journaling inevitably comes up.

“Oh, you blog? I thought about blogging because I journal a lot.”

That’s usually what they say. For whatever reason, folks equate blogging with journaling and I guess I understand why.  

Both are writing practices. 

And even though they offer insight and inspiration to their intended audiences as writing practices should, there is one big difference between them – the audience. 

Journaling is for a private audience.

For the most part, this is true, but then I think about memoirs, and published diaries like the one I got my hands on recently by Anaïs Nin, the 20th century, French American author. 

Mostly private then, journaling is like standing in front of a mirror gazing intently at yourself, examining your existence, documenting your experience, expressing your emotion and writing your way to find meaning in life or grow and change as humans often do.

It may come out as art – prose, poetry, incoherent chatter, or even song lyrics.

Personal, intrapsychic, and oh so healing.  

I can say a lot of the same about blogging, especially when I started years ago in my throwback posts. I wrote in a journal-like style vaguely aware of others reading my work. As much as it was for an audience, it was a tool I used to challenge myself to grow.

Now I’m discovering how to use journaling in ways to inform my blogging. Not by sharing my innermost secrets, but by being comfortable sharing my true voice. Perhaps sprinkling insight from my journal throughout my blog posts occasionally.

While journaling is a more private writing practice, blogging again is a public one.

Blogging is like standing on a platform and using your voice to inform, influence, or inspire online readers searching the Internet for answers, instructions, shortcuts, and ideas.

A social experience, an exchange of sorts between blogger and reader.

I’ve learned over the years just because I journaled a lot, didn’t mean I was a good blogger. Blogging requires skill, a mix of art and science all of which I’m still mastering.

Technical Savvy + Creativity + Business Acumen = Art & Science of Blogging

Technical Savvy	Creativity	Business Acumen
Developing a website	Finding ways to engage the reader	Using content marketing strategies
Writing for the Web	Writing about topics that drive traffic	Finding ways to monetize your blog
Focusing on SEO (Search Engine Optimization)	Using an authentic voice to relate to the reader	Understanding legal issues
Writing a little HTML	Including multimedia	Building a brand
Leveraging social media	Leveraging social media	Leveraging social media

If you’re an aspiring blogger, I suggest you learn the mix of technical, creative, and business skills you need, which, by the way, is always changing. 

I also suggest you journal to write your way through life, exploring its complexities and making meaning of it all.

Perhaps you can mix the two – journaling and blogging like Noah Kagan, Chief Sumo at sumo.com and appsumo.com, in The Worst Night of His Life: My Experience Ayahuasca. (Why this post works? He’s a famous web entrepreneur with a huge online following. He’s also an interesting guy.)

I hope you understand now, blogging is not journaling, but they are related, sorta.

I’ve only touched the tip of this topic, I’m sure. With my new service Write at this Moment, I’ve committed to understanding the connection between the two.

And before you click away, share your thoughts in the comment section below. What’s your take on journaling v. blogging?