What's the Difference Between a Blog Post and an Article?

Some blogs are designed to give you brief, but information packed posts several times a day, or even just once a day. Others may offer long articles with detailed information, often posted less often than the alternative. Even still, there are others that combine the two, offering small and regular posts, with a "pillar" article that comes out once a week or so. No matter which style of writing suits you and your readers, quality is always the key to gaining interest in what you are writing about.

There is still some debate over how long a post must be to qualify as an article. I believe that there is some distinction between certain blog posts, and an actual article. A blog post can be any length, and still be considered a blog post. However, there are some posts that are just too short, and lack sufficient information to be considered a full fledged article. They are usually along the lines of a personal notation being shared, or a "Check this out!" type of post, or a summary of ideas put into a brief post, and even the occasional rant. I personally would not consider all of these to be articles.

I worked for Weblogs, Inc for some time, and the "articles" were to be shorter than 400 words. By visiting many of the blogs within Weblogs, Inc - you can clearly see that some people are just putting up a catchy or humorous tid-bit with a few quality links, along with a photo of some sort. Since this was the requirement of working for them, it is the minimum of what most of their bloggers adhere to. I would not consider half of what I read on Weblogs, Inc to be "articles", but rather blog posts. However, if you were to be able to read your favorite magazine online, you would definitely find true articles, written in article form, as would be true with newspapers, etc.

I truly believe there is a difference, however, I agree with you that you should not fill a post with empty words just to consider it an article. All fluff and no fill won't help your blog, nor will it interest readers. Quality posts are important, whether you write brief and to the point, or whether you have a lot to say. What's your idea of a true article? For some, I guess it's just a matter of symantics.