BroadVision Marketing Blog

Not everyone who reads the blogs I've been writing is an expert yet. If you are a newbie, do you know if you are writing a blog that is used for a website? What does it become then?

Mike Clough in his post of June 28, 2010 (http://bestbizpractices.org/2010/06/28/is-your-blog-really-a-blog/) clarified the question by saying, “When a blog is used for website functions, it loses its value as a blog and in fact becomes just another website.”



Even though my blog is a part of my website, you will see the difference as I go on.

Mike then borrowed a table from Tom Pick who blogs over at Webbiquity. So I shall borrow from both:

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

What you see is that a website is like a store where you put out your ads and you sell things or services. This is where you promote yourself. People will visit your website when they are ready to buy, find your location or know more about your business. Then they don’t come again until they want to buy again. Unlike the little mom-and-pop store with its friendly atmosphere, your website doesn’t help build relationships with your patrons.

A blog, however, is full of interesting information for visitors and welcomes them to ask questions or leave comments whether they want to buy or not. You want to keep your blog updated with at least one or two new posts weekly to attract visitors and keep their interest. In the process you will build a community of people who will follow your blog, leave comments and give you the chance to answer back and make friends.

Blogs take more work than a website, but in the process you will generate more traffic with your blog. By using social networking techniques you can increase the number of people who come to your website because of your blog.

How do you know that you are building traffic? Search engine optimization (SEO) is making the best use of the internet. Search engines love blogs because they look over your site and see fresh new information added frequently. You can secure links to and from your blog with other sites if you are sharing content. But don’t start promoting yourself or your products and network to places like Facebook and LinkedIn or people will think you are spamming them or will treat it like it’s a website and won’t be interested in relationship building. Some business people think that they can use their blog to sell and are surprised when no one comes buying. It isn’t the purpose of the blog to close a sale. The purpose is to create good content and engage your readers.

Now you can see that you don’t want to use your blog as if it were a website, advertising and selling. You want your blog to be informational and lead people to your website when they are ready.

Is your blog bringing you traffic? Please add your comments below.

Related articles

• Answers about Blogging for Business (broadvisionmarketing.com)


• How to Write Content Your Customers Want to Read (searchenginepeople.com)