[X-Newbies] A question about commercial web/blog sites...

[Richard Ramsowr]

Thanks Tony you have been most helful

Rick
===========================================

--- Tony Johansen <tjoh7019 at bigpond.net.au> wrote:

> On 27/5/2006 3:58 AM, "Richard Ramsowr"
> <r.ramsowr at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> 
> > The question is which would better serve my
> clientÕs
> > need for product information - a commercial web
> site
> > or a commercial blog site?
> 
> 
> Rick,
> I have about 2 dozen web sites and blogs. Both have
> their pros and cons and
> neither has every answer but if I had to choose just
> one, in most cases the
> conventional site would be the choice. The best
> situation is having both.
> 
> Despite the passionate beliefs of many for one way
> or the other there are
> good reasons why I advise you to have both, You need
> a .com conventional web
> site (NOT flash based), and do your newsletter as a
> blog which you link to
> from a menu button on the main site. The 2 sites
> should be cross linked
> extensively, that will benefit both.
> 
> Conventional web sites on average do better with the
> search engines because
> the conventional multi page site often has better
> structure for improving
> ranking results, individual pages can be targeted in
> a focussed manner on
> just 1 to 3 keywords, and each page can have a
> different title. A blog
> embedded in a conventional site takes advantage of
> this and so does better
> than it would otherwise, and the conventional site
> itself benefits from the
> blog and also does better as well.
> 
> A relatively significant portion of the community
> seems to be unfamiliar
> with blogs and are not confident about using them.
> The big users of blogs
> are the most tech savvy on the net, and the young. A
> blog dressed up as a
> newsletter could easily do well if embedded in the
> conventional site as
> those who may feel intimidated by the 'geeky' stand
> alone 'blog' will feel
> reassured by the more familiar surroundings of the
> conventional site. Those
> of us who practically live on the web are often
> surprised when people ask
> 'what's a blog?', but there are a lot of people who
> don't use the computer
> for much more than e-mail and at work for basic
> things. Those people could
> easily be some of your potential customers. Don't
> ignore their needs for the
> sake of youth fashion unless your business is aimed
> at the 16 to 30 age
> group exclusivey, and even then I would still do
> both if it was me.
> 
> There is some evidence that blogs may be approaching
> a saturation level, and
> that there may well be an upper limit to their
> penetration of markets.
> 
> On the other hand the blog format is ideal for
> newsletters and such
> 'topical' purposes, and can be a valuable way of
> interacting with customers
> and others. There are many instances of wildly
> successful blogs. I love the
> posting/commenting structure and they are simple to
> operate and set up.
> 
> I personally like the added features of a 'paid for'
> service, especially
> TypePad for blogging, but the free Blogger.com is
> also an excellent service.
> For total customisation MovableType is great but
> needs a bit of experience.
> 
> All the best with it all
> 
> Tony
> http://www.tonyjohansen.com
> A Life Of Art
> 
> 
> 
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