Why Choose a Blog? Blogs vs. Web Pages

As a web developer and technology guru, I’ve watched the latest web trends over the years very closely. Gone are the days of “web pages” and slave labour HTML coding. If you want to get noticed and convey your message to your customers/readers, there’s no other way to do it than to have a blog.

What’s the difference between a blog and a web page?

Quite simply put, a blog (or web blog) is a time lined formatted way to post information in a relaxed internet environment. A web page is more “static” and doesn’t give the visitor a feeling of liveliness or interactivity.

Top 5 Reasons Why Blogs are Preferred Today

1. They’re search engine friendly. Google and Yahoo! pick up a blog’s content in sometimes seconds after it’s posted live. With automatic sitemap generation and constant pings, blogs are very easy to attract traffic to. Tweaking your blog to be search engine optimized (SEO) highly guarantees your site stays among the top search results for your preferred search term.
2. Speaking freely on a personal level is what visitors want to see. It’s human nature to feel wanted and spoken to a personal level, even behind a screen. A blog creates a sense of community.
3. Constant updates portray an image of importance. There’s a reason blogs use a date/time stamp in each post. Visitors want fresh content now, not later and they want to know when the content was posted to get a sense of relativity.
4. Multiple plugins and themes are available instantly. With popular blogging platforms, such as WordPress, a blogger can enhance the visitor experience visually and technologically almost immediately.
5. It’s the easiest thing online. Blogging today couldn’t be easier. Blogging platforms are publisher friendly and easier to use than ever. Forget the hassle of managing back end coding and focus your time on what matters most – the content.

So, when do you use a web page?

I can only think of one reason anyone would be using a web page today. If the content you’re providing doesn’t get dated and could still be relevant one year from now, there’s no reason why a basic web page wouldn’t suffice. Let’s say you run a small plumbing business for example. The only thing you want your web page to do is provide your location/address and operating hours. Setting up one page of internet real estate to display this isn’t something that involves a blog. In this case, a web page created in Dreamweaver or (dare I say it) – Notepad, would be fine.

Even if you’re creating a sales page for a product you have for sale, a standard one page site would be acceptable.

What about informational portals based on a blogging platform?

News websites for example, follow a similar format to a blog, but in a format where providing static information is also needed. Take CNN.com as a case study – their site displays current headlines, videos, photo galleries, market statistics and more. Within that nicely displayed site is a platform which enables editors to post updates and stories without breaking the format of the site. This is the same platform in which a blog would run on, known as an informational portal. For the record, CNN.com also has a separate section of their site where anchors sound off on their own personal blogs.

If you don’t have a blog, you’re missing out.

How can I set up a blog?

• Decide what you want to blog about and what the purpose of the blog is. Is it to voice your personal opinions? Sell an affiliate product? Share your knowledge on a subject? Once you’ve decided on your topic, you can…
• Buy a domain name and web hosting package from HostGator.
• Install WordPress, which comes free with all HostGator accounts or can be downloaded directly from WordPress’ site.
• If spending a couple bucks for a domain name and hosting isn’t your thing, set up a free blog at Blogger.com. However, you have much more control by using WordPress and I highly recommend you don’t use Blogger.

Where can I learn more about blogging?

Blogging guru Darren Rowse form Australia, aka ProBlogger, is by far the most educated person on the world of blogging. His site contains thousands of posts to help you out and get your blog up and ready. He even lists many ways on how you can make money from your blog.

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