Posted by: Mike Clough | June 28th, 2010

Is Your Blog Really a Blog?

blog vs. websiteWhat kind of a question is that? Of course it is a blog. What else could it possibly be? Well, a blog has a completely different function than a website. However, when a blog is used for website functions it looses it value as a blog and in fact becomes just another website.

To better illustrate my point, let’s take a look at the differences between a blog and a website. I will borrow a table from a friend of mine, Tom Pick, who blogs over at Webbiquity:

Website Blog
Static Content Updated Frequently
Formal / Professional Informal
One Way Broadcast Interactive/Dialog
Transactional Informative
Product / Services Industry / Customer Issues
Almost Mandatory Not for everyone

Web vs. Blog
Think of a website as a virtual store front where you promote and sell things. A website is a great place to advertise and self promote. This is what people expect to take place on a website. They visit a website when they wish to purchase something from you, find your location or your hours of operation. Then, they usually don’t return until they are ready to purchase again. There is little a website can do to build relationships with your prospects and customers. Because a website is pretty much static, once you set it up, you can forget it. And once a visitor sees it, they can forget it as well.

On the other hand, a blog provides interesting content for visitors and allows for interaction and commentary regardless of whether or not they are ready to buy from you. It has special features (RSS) that allow visitors to “subscribe” so they can receive updates each time you post something new to the blog that they might want to read.

A blog should have at least one or two new posts or articles each week to attract and retain the interest of visitors. This allows you to build a community of followers around your blog. Because a blog allows visitors to contribute to content by leaving comments, it creates a platform for you to build relationships with them and for them to build relationships with other visitors.

However, a blog is not the place for advertising and a lot of self-promotion or visitors will treat it as a website rather than a blog and return only when they are ready to buy. There will be little or no opportunity to build relationships as they will not be returning one or twice a week.

I’ll give you an example of how many, otherwise savvy, business people do not understand this issue. A while ago, I received a comment from someone in the advertising industry about how blogs were a waste of time. After doing some sleuthing I discovered that this person was selling Television commercials and had a blog. The blog hadn’t been updated for several months, which told me something. But, even more telling was the fact that every post promoted their business. No wonder this person felt blogging was a waste of time!  The end result was that their blog was not a blog at all but just another website. Does that make sense to you?

A blog requires a lot more time and dedication than a website. However, it is possible to generate a lot more traffic with a blog than a website. With links between the blog and website, a blog can grow the amount of traffic to your website as you grow traffic to your blog.

From a search engine optimization (SEO) standpoint, it is far easier and quicker to build traffic to a quality blog than a quality website. Why? First, search engines love blogs because fresh new content is added frequently. It is far easier to secure links to your blog from other sites (including other blogs) than to your website because you are sharing information rather than selling something. If you promote your website in online groups, you are viewed by other group members as a spammer. If you promote your latest blog article in online groups, you are viewed as sharing valuable information and you become an authority or “go to” person on those topics.

So now that we know the difference between a blog and a website lets look at the primary functions and characteristics of both.

Website:

  • Attracts visitors (potential customers) that are ready to buy
  • Describes your company/products/services
  • Promotes your company/products/services (online brochure)
  • Provides call to action and purchasing information
  • Generates revenue with e-commerce and affiliate marketing
  • Builds minimal  authority, credibility and trust
  • Offers minimal personal interaction  with visitors
  • Ineffective at building relationships for future business and referrals

Blog:

  • Builds credibility and trust for you, your company, products and services
  • Establishes you and your company as an authority relative to content
  • Generates higher traffic due to frequent blog updates
  • Higher Search Engine Optimization due to new content and links from other sites
  • Builds relationships and community by allowing visitors to interact
  • Allows for mild or subliminal limited promotion if done very carefully
  • Does not allow for blatant advertising and promotion
  • No e-commerce or affiliate marketing
  • No call for action from a sales standpoint

As you can see, while there may be some very minor overlaps in the characteristics of a blog and a website, they each have their own distinct functions. As I mentioned earlier, a website is almost mandatory while a blog is not for everyone. After you have developed a quality website, then you can evaluate the merits of a blog for your situation.

A business with a blog that is used properly has a huge leg up on a business without a blog. However, you must be able, one way or another, to meet at least minimum requirements for the blog to become successful and increase traffic to your website and dollars to your bottom line.

Minimum Blog Requirements

  • Knowledge about the topics addressed in blog content
  • Ability to write well (or hire an editor)
  • The time to write (3-4 hours per article)
  • The time to share (promote) your blog with others
  • Commitment and determination (it takes time to build a following and see results)

If you decide to add a blog, I recommend the following:

  1. Make sure you update the content on your blog at least once or twice a week with material that your audience will want to read. Quality content and frequency are essential if you want to reap the benefits of Search Engine Optimization, establishing yourself as an authority, building community and relationships.
  2. Be sure to install an RSS feed plug-in (Google’s Feedburner is great) on your blog so visitors can receive automatic notifications when you post updated material.
  3. Be sure to install a Twitter plug-in (TweetMeme is good) on your blog so your visitors can retweet (RT) the new material when you post it.
  4. When visitors comment on material you have posted be sure to respond as soon as possible. Try to keep conversations going by responding to comments. Be sure to thank those who comment, acknowledging the value of their remarks and adding additional information or interesting anecdotes.
  5. Make sure you track and measure blog traffic (Google’s free Analytics is good) so you know how many visitors you have on any given day and where they are coming from.

So, if you have a blog, but are trying to promote your business with it like the well meaning individual in the television commercial business, I recommend that you start using it like a blog and save your promotion for your website. If you have a website and feel that a blog is right for your business (and, for many small businesses it is!), you will need to dedicate yourself to creating high value content and updating it at least twice a week.

If you are thinking of blogging and you are on LinkedIn, you may wish to consider joining “The Blog Zone” group. This group is devoted to up and coming bloggers. Most bloggers find it very useful.

Hopefully, I have shed some light on the differences between websites vs. blogs. In summary, almost everyone with a real business needs a website. Blogs bring additional benefits to those who have the resources to meet minimum the requirements in terms of time, commitment and writing skills. These days, cost is not a serious factor to consider as you can have either or both for very little expense ($10/month).

Those who enjoyed this article also enjoyed:
Is Small Business Blogging Really Effective?
Web 2.0 Blogging for Business
The Elements of a Web 2.0 Website

If you would like to contact me, you can do so by visiting my LinkedIn page or emailing me at mike.clough@bestbizpractices.org.

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Posted by: Mike Clough

Posted in Branding,Entrepreneurship,Marketing & Sales,Online Marketing,Social Media,Web 2.0 Online Marketing | Tags: , , , , ,

Responses

Mike I appreciate the post. I have a few additions I would offer:

1. The ideal blog length is 200-300, should it truly take 3-4 hours?

2. What about SEO, titles and the like. Example, 70 Characters is the ideal length of a blog title and the beginning of the title should front loaded with your keywords you are trying to “get found” for.

3. Social Media Integration. I’m surprised you’ve settled into the two most popular ones. It’s important to take some time and make sure bloggers find a social media community where there is less noise and have the highest probability of being interested in what you are writing in addition to the mainstream folks.

4. The contrast between a blog vs a website. A blog is one aspect of a website and if a website is built for lead generation, it to should have many of the same qualities you associated with a blog.

Again, this is a good post, provocative and reinforces the importance of blogging.

By: Teicko Huber on June 28th, 2010
at 7:58 pm

Hi Mike,

I liked your post and have a couple of comments.

When I got started with blogging, like many others, I was focused on self-promotion and you’re right to point out that overt self promotion in the blog is counter-productive.

The Blog is really about sharing the quality of your ideas to build mind-share…if your ideas are worth sharing then you will build followers…and they will link through to your Website static pages and landing pages.

What I also find interesting is the fear of blogging, I have met a number of prospective clients that are afraid of either giving away too much to competition in a blog or making mistakes in blogging….making it too technical or too marketing oriented. My advice, feel the fear and blog anyway…your competitors probably are and if you are not blogging then you are at a competitive disadvantage.

All the best,

Mark

By: Mark Gibson on June 29th, 2010
at 1:03 am

Thank you for this post.

How do you effectively direct people from the blog to your website?

Is a short line at the end of a blog post too much self-promotion? For example, after a post on the benefits of exercise, is it appropriate to write “to structure your own personal exercise program, visit (website link here).

Thanks,

Libby

By: Libby on June 29th, 2010
at 8:00 am

Teicko, thanks for reading the article and taking the time to comment with your opinions.

I have often heard that the ideal post length is 200-300 words. Ideal for what? I find it very frustrating when I am searching for information and I have to wade through many short posts that only skim the surface of a topic and do not give me the real information I seek. On the other hand, I have had to read through very long posts (2,500+ words) to find the nuggets I sought. This too is frustrating. The ideal length in my opinion is how ever long it takes to publish something of real value to the readers… some readers wish to link to… something readers wish to share… something that makes readers want to subscribe to your blog.

How long is that? Well of course that depends on the topic. Good writers tend to embellish because that is what makes them good writers. Any novel could be shortened by taking out all of the embellishment. But then it wouldn’t be a good novel. If you can cover the topic in 200-300 words (just your comment was 170 words), that is great but I believe the most important thing is the quality and value of what you write rather than the length.

Mark, thanks for reading and commenting. I too have heard from clients that fear social media in general (including blogging) that their competition may hear what they are doing. I think that is silly. If a competitors wants to find out what you are doing there are many ways to accomplish it. And even if they know what you are doing, it doesn’t mean they can emulate it. I have often said that if I were document step by step what I was doing and gave it to my competition, they could not implement it, because it is not their vision… they are copying my vision. And unless it is your own, most of the factors necessary to pull it off (e.g. full-understanding of destination, the culture, other moving parts that effect implementation, etc.) will not be present and they will fail. Besides, I don’t view my competitors as my enemies. I have been friends with many of my competitors and we have worked together for common objectives.

Libby, thank you for reading and commenting. I see no problem with what you want to add to a blog post if the rest of what you have written is valuable information that people want to read. If you look at the last sentence in all of my posts, it is dedicated to self promotion. But it is just one sentence after a fact filled article and it is not a hard sale or close. So I see nothing wrong with what you wish to do. On top of that, you should have an obvious link to your website so it is easy for people to visit when they desire to do so. However, if every time I came to your blog to read something you had written, there were pop-up ads, etc. I would stop coming to your blog. That is what your website is for (well, maybe not pop-up ads). Does that make sense?

By: Mike Clough on June 29th, 2010
at 9:05 am

Great post. I somewhat disagree about not being able to build authority with a static website. It all depends on how you build your site. If you just build a few pages, then yes, you won’t build authority. However, i have static websites with well over a 100 articles, and the average time on my site is about 15-20 minutes.

That being said, I agree with what you say about blogging. Honestly, I don’t even waste much time with promoting my sites separately any more. i outsource some link building, but 90% of my traffic is funneled through my blog.

Also, length is relative to what your customers need. I have seen some blogs that the short posts are only 1000 words long, while others consider a 500 word post too much.

It all comes down to knowing your target customer, and giving them what they want. If your target is looking for quick information, or you want to focus more on reader generated content, then short posts are great.

However, if your readers don’t mind sitting a spell, then go for a longer post. Personally, I have a mixture. I don’t limit my writing to a word count. I also don’t write for search engines, I write for my readers. If you use social media and leverage other blogs by guest posting properly, then what traffic the search engines give you is just an added bonus. Take what they give you, but you don’t really need them.

Focus on writing to your readers. Cover your topic well, and try to engage them in the conversation. This way, everyone wins.

Personally, I mix a little soft promotion about every once in a while, but for a hard sell promotion, I put that on my website, and funnel traffic to it through my blog.

Thanks for the great post. Found you through BlogZone on LinkedIn

By: James Pruitt on June 30th, 2010
at 8:48 am

Thank you James for your comment. I agree. I couldn’t have said it better myself. :-)

By: Mike Clough on July 1st, 2010
at 6:36 pm

Mike,

Thanks for the informative post (including the links).

On the self-promotion issues, I think there is a place for this on a blog. Obviously, if every post is a sales pitch, you’ll never gain a readership, but if you build a community, accomplishment announcements are generally appreciated. I’ve done videos of foals born on the property (I’m a breeder, among other things), provided book excerpts for the Horse Sense and Cents ™ series and offered updates on authors and books coming into the mix. Interestingly, these seem to be the posts that get the most comments. Of course, it depends on how you do it, but I think you can provide readers with updates on business matters (with a nudge to refer/buy) without being labeled a self-promoter.

By: Nanette Levin on July 3rd, 2010
at 9:23 pm

Well Nanette, what you described sounds more informational than promotional to me.

I wondered where you have been. I haven’t seen a comment from you in quite a while. I was beginning to think you no longer enjoyed what I wrote. :-)

By: Mike Clough on July 3rd, 2010
at 9:38 pm

Maybe. I still think you can sell on a blog without offending. Of course, I tune out immediately, as I imagine most people do, if the blog posts are presented as sales-pitches.

You seem to have enough people commenting these days :-).

By: Nanette Levin on July 4th, 2010
at 2:31 pm

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