Blogs are dead. Blogs can't have creative graphics. Blogs are for techie people or kids.
How did the use or importance of blogs suddenly become so limited?
More people are converting their traditional Web sites to blog format. And, you might be surprised to find how easy it is to convert. If you've never had a Web site before, then using blog software is probably your best bet. Here are 7 characteristics of any Web site you should strive for and a blog has all of them:
* YOU have to be able to make at least small content changes to your Web site pages without paying a designer and waiting days or even weeks for the changes to be made and it has to be easy or you won't do it
* A custom look to your Web site that has your branding in mind, rather than a free or purchased template used by 250 other sites out there
* Your site must play well with social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and Linked-in and that integration must be automated so when you add a page your social network is notified
* Simple inclusion of video and audio whether hosted by YouTube or other 3rd party
* Shopping cart and newsletter opt-in compatibility so that you can always be building your list and promoting products or services
* Search engine optimization (SEO) of every page on your Web site so that they get listed for specific keyword phrases on Google's organic search results and other search engines
* Keep it cheap
You can still get a custom Web site assembled from the ground up by paying a designer to construct the site using Dreamweaver or coding the HTML from scratch. But, even today it's a chore for a business owner to be in control of his own content with a traditional Web site. You either have to buy editing software like Contribute or advance your skills to maintain your content with Dreamweaver or HTML coding.
You could install Joomla, Drupal and other free content management systems (CMS), but there is a significant amount of time involved with setting up either. The more elaborate your site is at the start, the more it will cost in time for you or money to pay someone to get it setup using the common CMS systems available today. And, you'd better have ongoing access to someone available who's skilled in the areas of PHP and MySQL.
Every day I get more and more convinced that Wordpress blog software is the best solution for more than 75% of all business owners, authors and speakers who want to manage their own content and have all the benefits of other CMS products. The software is free and it takes about 15 minutes to learn basic functions and you'll find yourself making long stretches of time go by before calling your Web site designer for changes (my favorite)!
The greatest part of all is that blogs have evolved to become the very heart, the power station, the home base for your online social networking efforts. Doing business on the Web today is about making friends and eventually giving referrals to and getting referrals from those friends. Everything you do online can and should begin and return to your blog.
So, use these 7 objectives as your guideline for choosing the best Web site type for your business, book, or speaking career. My hunch is that you will find the Wordpress blog to be the best fit in even more ways than mentioned here. Appreciate the freedom and power of managing your own content and you might even find yourself having some fun along the way.
How did the use or importance of blogs suddenly become so limited?
More people are converting their traditional Web sites to blog format. And, you might be surprised to find how easy it is to convert. If you've never had a Web site before, then using blog software is probably your best bet. Here are 7 characteristics of any Web site you should strive for and a blog has all of them:
* YOU have to be able to make at least small content changes to your Web site pages without paying a designer and waiting days or even weeks for the changes to be made and it has to be easy or you won't do it
* A custom look to your Web site that has your branding in mind, rather than a free or purchased template used by 250 other sites out there
* Your site must play well with social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and Linked-in and that integration must be automated so when you add a page your social network is notified
* Simple inclusion of video and audio whether hosted by YouTube or other 3rd party
* Shopping cart and newsletter opt-in compatibility so that you can always be building your list and promoting products or services
* Search engine optimization (SEO) of every page on your Web site so that they get listed for specific keyword phrases on Google's organic search results and other search engines
* Keep it cheap
You can still get a custom Web site assembled from the ground up by paying a designer to construct the site using Dreamweaver or coding the HTML from scratch. But, even today it's a chore for a business owner to be in control of his own content with a traditional Web site. You either have to buy editing software like Contribute or advance your skills to maintain your content with Dreamweaver or HTML coding.
You could install Joomla, Drupal and other free content management systems (CMS), but there is a significant amount of time involved with setting up either. The more elaborate your site is at the start, the more it will cost in time for you or money to pay someone to get it setup using the common CMS systems available today. And, you'd better have ongoing access to someone available who's skilled in the areas of PHP and MySQL.
Every day I get more and more convinced that Wordpress blog software is the best solution for more than 75% of all business owners, authors and speakers who want to manage their own content and have all the benefits of other CMS products. The software is free and it takes about 15 minutes to learn basic functions and you'll find yourself making long stretches of time go by before calling your Web site designer for changes (my favorite)!
The greatest part of all is that blogs have evolved to become the very heart, the power station, the home base for your online social networking efforts. Doing business on the Web today is about making friends and eventually giving referrals to and getting referrals from those friends. Everything you do online can and should begin and return to your blog.
So, use these 7 objectives as your guideline for choosing the best Web site type for your business, book, or speaking career. My hunch is that you will find the Wordpress blog to be the best fit in even more ways than mentioned here. Appreciate the freedom and power of managing your own content and you might even find yourself having some fun along the way.
About the Author:
Get even more free tips on starting your business blog by Marty Dickinson. Look for his new book in stores everywhere titled the Web Reference All-in-One for Dummies (Wiley 2009).
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