Blog or Website which is better for my business?

Blogging Oct 15, 2022

You must have a blog beside your website

If you're already running a website, adding a blog can enhance your online presence by providing fresh content for your customers and readers regularly. This can help keep your business active, even during slower months.

Blogging is also a cost-effective way for small business owners with limited web design knowledge and budgets to establish a professional and attractive web presence. Many designers charge less for customizing a blog design and installing it than they would for creating a traditional HTML or flash website.

As blogging became more popular among businesses, I initially hesitated to adopt it. Many of my competitors were replacing their traditional websites with well-designed blogs, while others kept their existing websites but added links to their company's new blogs. I wanted to learn more about blogging before deciding whether it was right for my business, so I didn't make any changes to my website format.

I experimented with various blogging platforms on a personal level to understand the hype around them. I set up a personal blog on Blogger and later a weight loss blog on Typepad. After trying out the major blogging platforms, I realized that using a blog platform to power my business website, instead of my current HTML design, could be very beneficial.

Not only could I make my blogs look and feel professional with little design knowledge, but I could also easily add text and photos to them on my own. This was something I would not have been able to do with my traditional website.

While these factors alone would have convinced me to switch my existing website to a blog, the deciding factor came when I needed to update my site to promote an upcoming concert. My website designer wouldn't be available to complete the update until after the concert, so I started researching how to create my blog on my domain, so I wouldn't have to rely on a web designer.

Information and independence, that's what I was looking for

Being able to take charge of how, and when, information was posted on my new blog site immediately increased my sales, site traffic, and general interest in my domain. Clients no longer felt that the site would always contain the same, stale information. They knew that to catch my latest promotions they would have to subscribe to my blog or bookmark my site to return to it often to avoid missing anything important.

I invested a great deal of time in setting up my initial blog posts and interacting with my clients. In many cases, my posts for the entire week were prepared by Monday and published on the blog at set intervals throughout the week. Every time someone commented on a blog post I did my best to respond to, or acknowledge these comments. Even if it was just to say ‘thank you for commenting’.

Allowing users to comment on your blog posts can increase your company's business and reputation tremendously. Many prospective clients make their decision to buy a product or use a service based solely on testimonials and reviews left by other customers. Since comments often offer feedback on your products and services, they can sometimes be more effective than the most expensive, well-thought-out, advertising campaigns.

These comments can also serve as an unofficial Frequently Asked Questions section. Often surfers are more likely to read the comments on posts that relate to a question or problem they may be experiencing than they are to visit your site's FAQ. By making it possible for clients to post comments publicly, and answer comments publicly, you might keep someone else from asking the same question. This will cut down on the number of emails you have to answer and phone calls you might otherwise receive.

Also, answering these comments and communicating with the comment makers (saying thank you) shows readers and clients how you and your company treat customers. I can not tell you how many times a client, or potential client, has posted a comment to one of my blogs telling me that they found an answer to a question they were planning to ask by reading comments left by other users.

On a few occasions, clients of competitors have left comments saying that they were searching on the internet for a resolution to their issue with another site, and found the answer thanks to my blog. This is extremely gratifying and tells me that my blog is providing more information than those of my competitors.

Please keep in mind that if you are allowing readers to comment on blog posts you need to take steps to monitor the content of these posts. While there is software available to help prevent comment spam there are always times when some spam will slip through the cracks. Manually monitoring comments will avoid embarrassing situations of inappropriate comments being published on your blogs.

Conclusion

If you are someone that has an existing site, establishing and maintaining a blog is going to drastically increase your traffic to that site. Many blog readers are attracted to a blog site by one, or more, posts on a specific subject. Once the reader is at that blog post they will more than likely explore other products and services they might not have otherwise shown an interest in.

If there is a link to your previously established traditional site in your blog, chances are readers will visit that site as well which increases its traffic. This also creates an opportunity for free publicity and advertising.

Many blog readers are often trying to find news and content for their blog sites. Your existing traditional site might be just what they were looking for. There have been many times when I have been checking my backlinks and found out that the blog of one of my readers, or past clients, has a link to my blog promoting a certain interesting post or product.

Even if you do not have a specific product to sell, or a message to spread, it doesn’t mean that you can’t earn revenue from blogging. Many profitable blog owners are those who started their blogs to use as a personal diaries and began doing little things to earn income. First, add ads to the blog and then do other things to capitalize on traffic and make a profit.