You’ve probably heard the term “vlog”, or “vlogging”, or even “vlogger”, but what do these terms mean? It can all be pretty confusing. You think you have an idea, but you aren’t sure. Then you keep forgetting to search and find out. We’ve been there.
No worries. We are here to explain it all.
You’ve probably heard some of these terms in association with cameras, digital cameras or video and you’ve probably heard these terms bandied about all over YouTube or other video sharing sites.
We should probably begin by explaining what the word “blog” means.
To understand the word vlog, we have to know what blogs are. Blogs are articles of written text that bloggers put out so that the public can read their thoughts and opinions on various topics. It could be a movie review, their daily thoughts on various subjects, recipes, diary-type entries, rants and more, all put out for public consumption. A “blog” can refer to their entire website or each post that they make. We call the creators of this content bloggers.
What does “vlog” mean?
Now that we know what a blogger is, we can more easily understand these newer terms. Vlog simply means a video blog. That’s it. It sounds complicated, but that’s all it is. A blog in video form. A vlog is the same thing as a blog but on video. When you find yourself on a vlogging site you are going to find videos instead of articles.
So what is a vlogger?
If a vlog is a video blog, then it makes sense that a vlogger would be the person creating and “starring” in their own vlogs.
When you hear someone calling themselves a vlogger, it usually means that they are serious about making this kind of content and consider themselves a professional or semi-professional. They likely depend on vlogging as a source of income, earning revenue from ads for example.
Many YouTube stars have found great success by making daily blogs. Some of them are genuinely popular household names these days. They often put out new content every day, or at least several times a week. Some people even use health blogs to get social support when they have a chronic illness.
Vlogging is simply the act of making all of this content. Now that you know what the terms mean, it probably makes a lot more sense to you.
Where to find the best vlogs and the best platforms for your own vlogs.
If you want to try your own hand at vlogging, there are several popular platforms that you can choose from.
YouTube is the most popular and that’s where you can find the most vloggers if you are interested in watching their content. It’s not all cat videos and people being hit in the crotch with baseball bats. Since YouTube is a giant in the industry, you can get a lot of eyes on your vlogs should you choose to upload there. YouTube is also easy to monetize after you reach a certain level.
Other great choices include Vimeo, Blip.TV, Daily Motion, and Zippcast.
So now you know what vlog means and we hope that this article cleared some things up for you. If you do want to start vlogging, we wish you well. The first thing you’ll need is a good digital camera.
