Do I Build A Blog Or A Website?-By Trish Jones, the Blogging queen

Amongst online marketers, there definitely tends to be a blog camp and a website camp and for speed of getting online, the voice over the tannoy is definitely "get a blog."
But why ?


First of all, I need to make this ultra clear … a blog IS a website. It's a "dynamic" website and today's blogs enable you to have pages to promote events, products and services and in fact, it can sometimes be difficult to tell some blogs and websites apart.

For those of you who may not know what a blog is, it's short for web log, and is a frequently updated website consisting of blog posts, or entries (more often than not, dated entries) that are arranged in reverse chronological order. So when a reader comes to your blog, they see your most recent article or post first.

The advantage of a blog is that blogs allows you to post written text, audio and video and have it online within minutes, unlike traditional static websites which can take hours to update and cost you each time - unless you're familiar with building or editing web sites.

Some months ago, I put up a new website for one of my new services. I was using a template (something I rarely do) and, it came with very clear step-by-step instructions. I hit some snags, which I eventually resolved, but the one thing that drove me crazy was sitting at my PC for hours writing content for the site since I couldn't upload it to the server without ensuring everything pre written.

For me, this is the one of the biggest advantages of having a blog … you get the site up, write your first post (I always recommend 5 to start with though) and you are ready to do business online and invite the search engines to come visit you.

This brings me to another Big plus of having a blog …

Optimizing Your Site For The Search Engines is Much Easier With a Blog.

I don't care what you've been told. If you know nothing about search engine optimization, it takes longer for the search engine spiders to visit your blog to index it and, you have to be a little more knowledgeable about SEO.

Conversely, each time you publish a blog post, you do what is called "pinging" the update services. In other words, you automatically notify the search engines (sometimes indirectly) that there is new content on your site so "come and take a look!" This gives the search engines occasion to come and visit your site to index it.

Also, blogs show up 10 times more often in organic searches than static websites do.

On a tight budget?

Then a blog is something you should definitely consider. Blogs are cheaper to build than static websites and even if you get your neighbor to build you a site for free, you will still need a budget to maintain the site and keep the site updated. Also, there is no "pinging" with static websites so you have to do much more of what is called "on page" and "off page" search engine optimization than is necessary with a blog if you want your site to show up in the natural search engine results.

And don't think just because you paid thousands of dollars to have a website built that you're going to get people flocking to your site.

In fact, I'm going to dare say that most designers have no clue whatsoever about search engine optimization. Their strategy is to make your site look good … "build it and they will come." And, I'm not exaggerating here … I had one designer tell me this! But, I'm not using that example as a generalization … just do a Google search for web designers and take a look at their offerings and you'll find that most of them will sell on "look good" rather than "get found."

One more benefit (though there are many more) … bloggers establish credibility much faster than static website owners because blogs by their very nature build a stronger and more vibrant knowledge base and following of readers due to the frequently updated content. Sure you can do this by adding articles to your static site but it comes down to ease - it's easier to add new posts and pages to a blog than it is to a website.

So, should you never build a website?

The answer is that you should combine the two. If you have an existing website, don't go and tear it down - unless it really is badly built and making you no money - add a blog to it instead.

If you don't have a website and you're just beginning online, I highly recommend a blog first and then build mini websites (websites with 1-10 pages) to sell your products and services.

If you use a blog software like the one I use for my blogs, you really do get the best of both worlds because not only can you add pages, you can write a page and save it as a sales letter template, giving you an instant sales page for the product or service you want to promote.

The power of doing it this way is that you're not creating mini sites in isolation making it harder to get search engine recognition. This page now benefits because you can "deep" link back to this page from the blog, increasing it's search engine potential.

I'm biased towards blogs because I've experienced much better results with them and, I've worked with clients who have had real difficulty getting traffic to a website, build them a blog and they start getting traffic. It's no wonder even the top Internet Marketers are using blogs to promote their new products now a days ... that powerful, but beyond the scope of this article.

To get you started with your own blog, you can get free instant access to my Jump Start Blogging guide when you visit http://www.jumpstartyourblog.com. I also show you how to get your first 100 subscribers and make your first $1000 with your blog.