WebRev Blog

In Part 1 we discussed how a "blog" differs from a website," (at least in usage) and some good reasons to opt for a blog, or add a blogging component to your website.  Today, we're going to discuss reasons why some webmasters really should NOT try to blog.

1) Blogging may not be a good idea if you really have no time or interest in blogging.  If you are not going to update your blog regularly, it will have no more benefit to you than a static website, and it will just appear to be a failed experiment to the people who visit your website looking for information about you.  If you really don't have time to blog, you're better off setting up a really good static website with contact information, so that people can find you on the web under your name or the name of your business, and just leave it at that.  You're unlikely to attract search engine traffic under any search term other than your name, but at least when people find you, they will see a good representation of your and/or your business.

2) Blogging may be unnecessary if other social networking efforts are working better for you.  If you have been very successful and enjoy using a social network like Twitter or Facebook, you may find that is a better option for you.  Those profiles rank higher in the search engines than most websites or blogs, anyway, and in some cases, adding a blog might just dilute your effort.  The adage, "If it isn't broke, don't fix it," just might apply here.  If you're doing a very good job elsewhere, and that's working for you, keep doing it.  Your webpage can still just be a very good point of contact for potential clients or customers wanting more information.  Just be careful that you don't use Twitter or Facebook as an excuse not to blog and your blog as an excuse not to Twitter or Facebook, and end up not doing anything. 

3) Blogging may be futile if you're in a highly-saturated industry online, and really don't have anything unique to add to the discussion.  I've seen blogs and websites that did nothing, really, except aggregate content from other blogs and websites, and regurgitate them into a feed.  This type of blog can easily be flagged as a "splog" (spam blog) by the search engines, and running one of these can do more harm than good - particularly if you include ads on your site.  This particularly applies to local businesses in popular industries that want to have a website.  Unless you have an idea for a blog that will provide fresh, relevant content to you your ONLINE customers, attempting to run a blog that simply duplicates already existing content can be a waste of time.

4)  Please don't start a blog on your business website if you just want to "express yourself."  Unless your target audience is your family (and even most of them probably will only pretend to be reading after awhile, anyway), the web is not a good place to keep a personal journal of self discovery.  Yes, I know in Part 1 I said that a blog is a good way to "humanize" your business.  But this should be done selectively, and with great care.  Sharing a personal story anecdotally, or including a funny photo (not a humiliating one, just a "funny" one), or including a personal opinion from an expert's perspective on industry news is a great way to "personalize" a business blog.  Sharing your daily progress in overcoming an addiction to corn chips while going through a divorce and dealing with a troubled teenager may not be.  Even if you have an exceptional sense of humor, and can make your daily life entertaining enough for others to want to read, it is likely your soon-to-be ex-spouse's family and your troubled teen may not appreciate the over-share.  And your customers want to see you as "human," but not necessarily "pathetic."

So, there are some very good reasons to blog and not to blog.  Do you have others you would like to share?

While website and blogging software has developed to the point that there is technically very little difference between a "website" and a "weblog (or blog)," there are still some understood differences in the usage of each (see A "Website" or a "Blog"?). 

Probably the most simple way to think of the difference is that a "website" tends to be a one-way communication tool - a point of contact your customer or client can use to get information about your business, and in some cases to make purchases, whereas a "blog" tends to be more of a two-way, social networking tool, used to develop a relationship with your readers (who may be peers, or clients, or customers).  Blog posts are generally easier to integrate with other social networking sites, because they can be easily linked or cross-posted to or from those sites.

You may decide to have a website OR a blog, or you may decide to integrate a blogging component into your website, as Tim Short has done, here at  WebRevelation. 

There are some very good reasons to have a blog, which we will cover today.  There are also some very good reasons NOT to have a blog, which we will cover in Part 2 on Monday.

Here are some great reasons TO incorporate blogging into your repertoire:

1) Regular, relevant blog posts can help your blog become more searchable on the search engines.  Search engines such as Google place a higher value on more recent content, and also content that has links to and from other highly-ranked websites.  So if your website includes a blog with fresh content, you are likely to rank much higher on the search engines than you would if you simply had a static website.

2)  A blog usually has more "personality" than a website.  Websites tend to be more "official," appealing to the broadest audience possible in just a few short pages.  Adding a blogging component, however, gives you the opportunity to comment on current events, share select bits of your personal life that might be of interest to your readers, and help "humanize" your online communication.

3) A blog, can attract additional traffic and encourage return readership.  If updated regularly with interesting, relevant-to-the-industry content, readers will subscribe your blog in their daily feed readers, and come back more often than they would visit a static website. 

4) A blog can help you establish and develop your expertise in your field.  In order to update your blog regularly, you'll need to keep up on your own reading in your field, and you will also have the opportunity to become a go-to place for information in your niche industry.

 So there are some good reasons to have a blog.  In the next segment we'll discuss reasons why having a blog might NOT be a good idea for some webmasters.