Why blogging can be better than a business website03 March 2005
In 2004, 32 million people got hooked on blogging in America alone and with the increasing number of people in the UK doing the same - blogging has moved from an online trend to a bona-fide phenomenon.
In its simplest form, blogs or weblogs are online diaries/journals. The uniqueness of a blog is that fact that it's one person's view of the world - their feelings, thoughts, likes or dislikes. With blogging becoming the next big thing, businesses are increasingly using it as a way to connect with existing customers and prospects.
There are some key benefits of using blogging for business over a company website and these are:
- They are cheap to launch and easy to maintain. Websites like Blogger.com, Livejournal and Xanga offer free blog hosting.
- Unlike spam or junk mail - they are not intrusive because customers need to click on it.
- If done properly - blogs are an informal and attractive way to share information like product updates, launches, industry news and more.
- Some of the services mentioned above offer advertising support software which allows you - not only to promote your own products via your blog - but to get revenue by hosting ads on your blog space.
- There's no one to blame but yourself if things go wrong. While with a website, you have to make sure the people who build and maintain your site are doing a good job - with a blog - it all comes down to you and the content you write. Also, if things aren't going right, you can easily change the way you blog and pick up traffic.
Before you take up blogging here are some key questions to ask yourself.
- Why should I blog?
- Who are my target readers?
- What am I going to blog about?
- Where will my blogs appear?
- Do I have the resource and time to keep my blogs going?
