I asked myself this question over a 100 times -should I develop a website or a blog for my business, or both? Starting up my new marketing consulting business, I was soliciting different quotations from web agencies to develop a website that would allow me to share basic information, continuous updates, ability to upload videos, and I needed the ability for my customers to interact with me and provide me with their feedback. Little did I know, I was actually describing a blog!
If you actually look it up, a blog is a type of a website that is managed by an individual with regular postings (commentary, video, music, images, etc …). If the telltale used to be the extension of the URL like http://johnantonios.wordpress.com – well guess what, you can register your personalized URL, like I did, and drop the extension et voila – now it’s just https://johnantonios.com! You can’t really tell them apart anymore. So now that I’ve made the two even more fused, let me try to make it easier for you!
- Up and running in less than 5 minutes – log onto wordpress.com, blogger.com, typepad.com and setup your account in minutes. Each of these services have their own pros and cons, you will have to be the judge of that. Try guessing how long it would take to have an aesthetically coherent website.
- No special software needed – forget about complex web design programs like Dreamweaver – all you need is your web browser!
- Little to No technical knowledge needed – trust me if I can do it, anybody can. Forget about complex HTML coding and other acronyms that I don’t even know of – it’s as easy as signing up for an email account with GMAIL!
- Load different content types (hassle free) – whether you want to upload a video, a music file, an image, or simply a text it’s just as easy!
- Write your content offline – Microsoft Office Word 2007 has this amazing feature – just like you open a new document, you can open a new blog post. The first time around, you need to sync Office Word 2007 with your blog provider (they have a drop down list). From there on end, you can type your blogs on Word and click the “Publish” button and you’re done!
Why Blog – strategically?
- Make your pocket happy – you don’t need to pay heaps of money to setup a decent presentable blog, in fact you don’t need any! Unless you need to register your URL – even that costs peanuts. Unless you are an expert in designing website, you will have to resort to someone or some company to do it for your and that costs money, lots of money!
- Naturally attract search engine traffic – blogs tend to be indexed much more often than traditional static websites and blogs show up 10 times more often in organic searches than static websites do. In addition, blogs already have optimized site architecture which makes it easier for search engines to navigate through.
- Two way communication – forget about static websites with one way communication – those days are over! Now you can have your customers subscribe to your blog and newsletter. You can have them share their opinion and thoughts.
- Develop loyalty – a website does not allow you to develop trust with your customers. A blog removes that wall – it will allow you to develop fans and find partners who are interested in what you have to say and offer.
Was I able to convince you why I am bias towards blog?
DISCLAIMER – there are beautiful websites out there – one of my favorites is Spades Casting – it’s an award winning website in the Middle East region. This website is flash based and limits customer feedback to inquiries about models – but it serves the purpose it was intended to perfectly and I love it!
This leads me to conclude by saying; it comes down to what you seek out of your online presence. Think About It!
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Just wasting some time on Digg and I found your article . Not normally what I like to learn about, but it was absolutely worth my time. Thanks.
I’ve got one question for you following this very informative article John. Do you think readers would take a blog seriously? Don’t you think that websites have an edge over blogs when it comes to credibility? I’m not saying blogs publish incorrect info, I just want to know your thoughts on this… A website and a blog having the same content (or subject) which one would you consider referring to first? Thanks.
I love your question Antoine. I understand what your implying about website having a corporate feel that at first glance might reflect seriousness and more credibility. However, as a marketeer, I view websites as one sided and are bound to promote the good stuff. Allowing consumers to engage with you directly on your blog gives more transparency and increases the “trust” aspect! So in a world that is growing more and more doubtful and mistrusting, I think blogs have the upper hand in answering to those fears.
As for the look and feel of a blog, we can develop it to be as professional and corporate as we would like it to be, in fact, to the naked eye, no one could tell them apart!
You are right about that John, I guess the trust aspect you’ve talked about is what matters at the end of the day. We just need advertisers and major brands to start trusting blogs a bit more and spread their ads around rather than just select the major websites and play it “the old fashioned way”. I’m pretty sure certain blogs generate more traffic then websites these days. Keep up the good work!
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I’m so glad you found my blog helpful Wesley. Let me know if I can help you in any way, I’d be more that happy to oblige 🙂 Good luck your quest!
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One of my favorite customer service quotes is “One of the deep secrets of life is that all that is really worth doing is what we do for others.” -LEWIS CAROL
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