blogging is like journaling, or having a site in which you post about (topic of choice) as often as you like. Pinging is what you do to announce to various blog-related sites that your blog has been updated. There are tools that will ping for you. Depending on which blogging software you use, sometimes the ping is automatic or sometimes you have to get a plugin to ping. Pinging is great because it helps get your blog noticed a lot faster.