Blogs are not Personal Journals!

…or at least they don’t have to be.

According to Problogger’s homepage right not, most bloggers have been blogging for less than two years. At the time of me posting this, there are nearly 2800 votes on his “how long have you been blogging” poll. Of those votes, only 256 have been blogging for 2-3 years, only 184 have been blogging for 3-4 years, only 105 have been blogging for 4-5 years, and only 199 have been blogging for 5+ years.

In other words, only a quarter of all bloggers who’ve voted have less than two years of blogging experience. Blogging is new, no matter how you slice if. If you have been blogging for five or more years, chances are that you didn’t start as a professional blogger. You probably started blogging in journal format on LiveJournal or something similar. It’s only been in the last 3-4 years that people really started creating blogs around single subjects specifically for making money. Sure, there are exceptions, but few professional blogs have been around for 5+ years.

Image: sxc.hu

Why am I ranting about this? Because blogging still seems to have a negative, unprofessional connotation. “Oh, you’re a blogger.” To be honest, I rarely tell people that I’m a blogger; I tell people that I’m a freelance writer. And that frustrates me!

To be fair, people often don’t realize that half the sites they read are blogs. They consider them news sites. They equate “blog” with “personal website to rant about your life.”

Readers, do me a favor and help me end this. Tell people you’re a blogger, and make it clear that bloggers aren’t all preteens with MySpace accounts. You’re a professional blogger. Be proud of it.