This is a blog post by Mike Clough at http://www.bestbizpractices.org I thought it was very interesting, I hope Mike doesn’t mind me ‘re blogging’ his post.

What 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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