Should You Full Blog? For Most Small Business People...
"Full-Blogging" Is the Wrong Choice To Build a Business
Blogging. Everyone's doing it.
And that is a financial mistake for most small businesses. Few make much money at blogging because it is usually the wrong way
to grow an online business. That's important if you want your Web
venture to be more than just a hobby ("an activity or interest pursued
for pleasure and not primarily for income")
What is blogging, exactly? Well, after you strip away all the hoopla...
Blogging is merely a different way to build a Web site. Its content is
organized by the date/time of its "posts," which are what blogs call
"Web pages" (even the word "posts" suggests time-sensitivity).
When Should You Blog?
Blogs are best used for news-oriented sites,
or sites that feature "the latest" or "the thought of the day." If you
intend to build a site that keeps visitors on the cutting edge of your
topic matter, constantly releasing the latest news and commentary on
what it all means, blogs are a good choice. This kind of direction is
not relevant for most businesses -- but if it applies to you, blogging is a good foundation.
Blogging can also be a strong "add-on" to a successful, profitable Web site.
If you want to build and maintain a "newsy" or "daily thought" element
to your Web site, for example, add a blog. It's easy to do with Site
Build It!, as we'll see. The right order, though, is to build your highly visited, profitable Web presence using SBI! first.
Many drift into the costly error of using blogging software to build their primary "Web presence." It is the wrong tool for the needs of a business Web site. Blogging software lacks what businesses do need to actually make money (which is the ultimate goal!).
Most only realize the error of the blog approach, too late, dazzled by the loud "pro-blogging noise" of those who blog about blogging.
Bloggers interlink to each other with gusto, creating what they call
"the blogosphere." They rave as if there were magic in blogging and the
"blogosphere," when in fact it all adds up to content that will soon be
degraded by the Search Engines as the "best before" date on blogging
content expires.
Professional bloggers, and professional promoters of
blogging, usually fail to mention the "dated-content treadmill" that
they so desperately run upon every day. What happens when you stop
blogging? You watch your traffic melt away. Why? Because Search Engines
know that blog posts are like newspapers... good only for wrapping fish
after a few days.
Human visitors instinctively know that, too. Most
visitors do not want to read 6 month-old news (i.e., a blog post).
Theme-Based Content Sites, however, are totally different. How?
Theme-Based Content Sites...
- contain evergreen material about a theme (the nature of the material covered) that is related to your business
- arrange the material ("content") logically, dividing the theme into appropriate categories
- organize
and present the categories and sub-categories in a clear, hierarchical
navigation pattern. For example, a Web site about "Photography Tips"
might be structured like this...
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