There are plenty of people out there who will tell you that to run a successful website you have to blog. There are several words I could use to describe this opinion but for the sake of good manners I’ll keep them to myself. Many experts will insist that a blog is the only option for serious Internet business people whilst failing completely to realize that different businesses have different needs. Hopefully what I say over the next few minutes is going to give you the background to make your own sensible and rational decision.
Let’s get one point perfectly clear a blog is actually a website, but a website does not need to be a blog. The term blog is actually a shortened version of weblog and the whole idea was created to enable people who wanted to express short personal experiences or opinions that were often time sensitive. This is different from most websites where the content was typically quite static and the information relevant over a long period of time.
If you were talking about travel then the difference would be between a regular article in a newspaper about an upcoming festival which would be similar to a blog and compare that to a Lonely Planet guide book to New York City which would have a much longer relevance.
If you’re not sure about whether blogging is right for you think about using WordPress to create your website. It offers you the option to create your website either as a static website or as a blog site. The difference is that your main page is either static or it will contain your information as as blog posts.
There are couple of a nice little aspects to WordPress and that includes the ability to swap between being a blog or a static website. So if you start as a blog and then you change your mind that’s not a problem you don’t lose your content you simply choose a different homepage option. It also means that even if you choose to have a website with a homepage with static content you can still have a blog inside the website. A blog can be great for search engine optimization giving plenty of places to include relevant keywords.
Hope that’s clear the main point is that WordPress is very flexible and you do not have to decide absolutely at the outset whether you are going to insist on a blog or a website, or even a combination.
Do I need a blog?
This is going to be different for different people. If you have a lot of new information or content that is relatively short lived, time sensitive and/or subject to frequent change then you might want to think about having a blog and make this blog your front page. Perhaps a good example of this is if you are a musician or artist and you want to promote events, your tracks on iTunes or upcoming concerts. You can also add general opinions about the music industry, friends who have bands or anything that is going to be interesting for your audience.
In contrast, if you’re an electrician or you plan on offering a home care service then how much new content are you likely to have. Much more important is telling people who you are, what you do, how to get in touch with you and maybe even how much it costs. This type of information is typically consistent over time. Yes things like what you do and how much you charge can change but that tends to be a less frequent thing. In this case you really want to be focusing on a good quality static website.
Always remembering that you can still have a blog as part of a static website just that it will not be your front page. So in the case of somebody who does lawn care you could always put out blog posts to say accepting new referrals, or now is time to book up for the new season and even just a quick warning to people if there is a change in the rules and regulations over the use of pesticides.
Word to the wise.
Before deciding that your main home page is going to be a blog you need to take stock of what this entails and try to decide whether you really can deliver.
A blog post on a website is not like a Facebook post and is absolutely not the equivalent of a tweet. Although it doesn’t need to be a chapter of a book there does have to be some reasonable substance to the post.
As always with creating content there are many different points of view. Some people will tell you that you have to have a minimum of 300 words, that’s words not characters, others will recommend 500 words as a minimum. I’ve even seen a suggestion that blog posts of over 1000 words are much more likely to get listed in a Google search.
At the other end of the scale I’ve seen some great blog posts with little more than a great quality photograph with a quick note of when and where it was taken.
Even when it comes to writing only 300 words it takes time to make it relevant, interesting and readable. Similarly going out and finding a good quality photograph or image is rarely a 5 minute stroll.
You also have to consider how often you are going to post to your blog. Will you post daily, weekly or when you have something to say. A little old-fashioned but think about it like a daily paper. If the New York Times only published its newspaper once a month or when it felt like it would it manage to generate any reader loyalty. You have to think about your potential client, customer or audience and how often they would like to receive new and interesting information.
Understand that a blog is a significant commitment.
Answer these questions
1. Will the blog posts attract new clients, customers or audience?
2. Will the blog posts generate new income, either directly or indirectly, from new or existing clients, customers or audience?
3. Is there enough interesting information and material to enable you to regularly post on your blog?
4. Recognizing that there is a great deal of work involved in producing a good blog do I have the commitment and motivation to maintain the delivery of great content?
If you can honestly answer yes to all four of these questions then a blog might be a good option. If the answer is no to any of the questions and especially if it’s no to question number two then you have to seriously think about whether the whole idea is worth it.
Decide if the blog is your main focus or the other option is where you have a main business plus a blog. Here, you have to be honest with yourself and not get carried away with the excitement of new opportunities.
Hopefully, I’ve got you to understand that creating a blog and running a blog is time-consuming, at least if you’re going to do it properly. Therefore, if you are trying to run a business within the real world and at the same time running a blog you have to make sure that you can identify three significant pieces of information
1. How much time you are taking on each part of your business?
2. How much income is being generated from each part of your business?
3. Finally, you need to be able to attribute your expenses to the running of each part of your business
I do understand that it might be difficult to clearly attribute any one of these items to either the real world or to the Internet world but you have to try. In the case of my partner her business is entirely real world but we do recognize that we get a lot of new leads for clients from the online presence. And it is quite possible with a blog post that you might be able to generate income directly from the blog post but you also equally might get clients in the real world part of your business.
Think of an example where you are offering fashion advice. You create a blog posts recommending a certain type of makeup and you might make sales of that makeup directly from your blog post. On the other hand if you are a makeup artist then it’s possible you may get asked to do people’s makeup and they may contact you as a direct result of that blog post.
When it comes to deciding if a blog is worthwhile then I would suggest that both sources of income are relevant. But you must still understand that if you spend 50% of your work time on the blog it does mean that you only have 50% of your time available for doing real world work. So if you get a lot of referrals from your blog post do you have enough time to satisfy your client’s needs and is the money that you are earning in the real world worse or better than the money you earn directly from the blog.
I appreciate that this isn’t easy and it can be time-consuming. Nonetheless it is important. Business is all about making decisions, actually is about making smart decisions based on real information.
In another video I look at the five key pages that every website should have, and four of the five pages should also be on everybody’s blog website. You can find links on my website.
Thanks for taking the time to check out this video. You can visit my website retirement50plus.com to access resources and I’d really appreciate it if you subscribe to my YouTube channel to get notification of future videos.