If you want to 'blog' for personal satisfaction - the desire to share your thoughts and experiences with others for no monetary gain, this article is not for you - just go to Blogger.com and they'll help you get started, and it's Free. But if you have even the slightest hope of 'blogging' to earn a little 'pocket money', please read the following article. I wish I had before I started!
Blogging. Everyone's doing it.
And that is a financial mistake for most small businesses. Few make much money at blogging because it is usually the wrong way to grow an online business. That's important if you want your Web venture to be more than just a hobby ("an activity or interest pursued for pleasure and not primarily for income").
What is blogging, exactly? Well, after you strip away all the hoopla...
Blogging is merely a different way to build a Web site. Its content is organized by the date/time of its "posts," which are what blogs call "Web pages" (even the word "posts" suggests time-sensitivity).
When Should You Blog?
Blogs are best used for news-oriented sites, or sites that feature "the latest" or "the thought of the day." If you intend to build a site that keeps visitors on the cutting edge of your topic matter, constantly releasing the latest news and commentary on what it all means, blogs are a good choice. But this is the wrong direction for most e-businesses.
Many still drift to blogging software to build their primary "Web presence." It is a costly error since it's the wrong tool for their needs and because blogging software lacks what they do need to actually make money (which is the ultimate goal of a business!).
Most only realize the error of the blog approach, too late, dazzled by the loud "pro-blogging noise" of those who blog about blogging. Bloggers interlink to each other with gusto, creating what they call "the blogosphere." They rave as if there were magic in blogging and the "blogosphere," when in fact it all adds up to content that will soon be degraded by the Search Engines as the "best before" date on blogging content expires.
Professional bloggers, and professional promoters of blogging, usually fail to mention the "dated-content treadmill" that they so desperately run upon every day. What happens when you stop blogging? You watch your traffic melt away. Why? Because Search Engines know that blog posts are like newspapers... good only for wrapping fish after a few days.
Human visitors instinctively know that, too. Most visitors do not want to read 6 month-old news (i.e., a blog post). Theme-Based Content Sites, however, are totally different. How?
Theme-Based Content Sites...
contain evergreen material about a theme (the nature of the material covered) that is related to your business arrange the material ("content") logically, dividing the theme into appropriate categories organize and present the categories and sub-categories in a clear, hierarchical navigation pattern. For example, a Web site about "Photography Tips" might be structured like this...
How would a blog be presented? A stream of disjointed photography tips would be organized by "date of post." And posts on any given topic (ex., "portrait lighting") would be separated by time (weeks or months apart), each covering only a certain aspect of the topic. On the other hand...
Theme-Based Content Sites develop and update the content into more complete, useful, cohesive articles, "Web pages." A content page is the fundamental unit of a Theme-Based Content Site.
Blogs merely keep adding new posts, one after another, without editing out the old and without pulling related posts together into cohesive and fresh articles. As a result, visitors ignore the old material and have trouble using a blog for anything more than the latest news or the "thought of the day."
And, according to Google, even "the current blog post" delivers a poor quality visitor. The following is a direct quote from Google Analytics 101 by Google, April 2008...
"Blogs usually have high Bounce Rates no matter what since
normal visitor behavior is to read the newest post and then leave."
What does that mean? Visitors come, read your latest post, and leave. And that is the behavior for your best, most current material. They won't sort out the rest, a dated mish-mash.
However, visitors eagerly explore Theme-Based Content Sites. Your relationship with them, and therefore doing business with them, lie in that deeper relationship.
Building this relationship is called "PREselling." It is more powerful than presenting "the latest." After all, how many commentaries on plumbing fixtures do we really need? PREselling is at the core of the C→T→P→M process that capitalizes powerfully on how people "just naturally" use the Web.
The Misleading "Promise" Of Blog Buzz
Bloggers rave how blogs are "more dynamic" and "promote conversations," but many prominent bloggers turn commenting off. In fact, most readers of blogs actually only want to follow the posts of the blogger, not the comments of fans who rave "great post, I agree." Blogging is not pushing Web sites into any great new frontier of interactivity.
Bloggers will tell you how blogs "offer RSS." Site Build It! sites have done this for years, neatly capitalizing upon this technology without all the "user drawbacks" of blogging. SBI! does much more, actually. It automatically builds all the XML files and pings all engines automatically. This is more than what the most advanced blogging software does (and if you don't understand this part, you do not have to -- that's the whole point).
Blogging is heavily covered by both online and offline media because they "get" the concept. If it's one thing that newspaper and TV (old-school, offline media) understand, it is that they themselves create time-sensitive info every day.
Why not blogging?
Bloggers, of course, form part of the online media. Many claim that blogs will replace old school media like The New York Times. But the professional media is moving online. And blogs, amateur media for the most part, don't report the news or events with trained, journalistic rigor and professionalism.
Instead, they comment on it. And they comment upon each other. The blogosphere features little original reporting, less disciplined editorializing and has indeed developed a few shining individuals who bring us flashes of brilliance (the stars).
Still, they do create a great deal of buzz, especially about themselves. This gives blogging and bloggers an amount of publicity that is disproportionate to their true significance. Previously unknown, unpublished pundits rise to celebrity status.
But for every exceptional infopreneur such as Seth Godin (small business author), Perez Hilton (covers celebrities), Scott Adams (Dilbert cartoonist and philosopher), Steve Pavlina (an original personal development writer) or Michael Arrington (covers tech developments), the massive-and-untold story of blogging is how there are 999 dormant blogs for each success.
The world only needs so many "commentators." And areas of opportunities are limited. So substantial amounts of money are earned only by a small number of the truly exceptional.
The superior opportunity (for "the 999" who make up most small business people) is to follow a surer, more logical, more value-creating model instead of hoping to catch lightning in a bottle...
What About Using Blogging Software To Build A Traditional Web Site?
Both WordPress and TypePad (blog creation software) have recognized the limiting weakness of the journalized nature of blogs. They are now enabling people to organize sites more traditionally, by categories. But this makes blog software just another way to create a Web site.
There is already so much software that makes it easy to put up a site at a decent Web host.
What's wrong with using blogging software to build a traditional Web site? The same fundamental road block that exists for any sitebuilding/Web hosting combination cold-stops the vast majority of small business people online.
They lack the knowledge and tools to build a highly trafficked Web site. And if you don't own your own free traffic online, you don't own a business.
"Getting a site (or a blog) up" has never been easier. The sheer volume of sites (over 100 million, not even including the hundreds of millions of free blogs) makes online business success harder than ever. How will you ever get noticed? Most never do. And therein lies the massive failure rate.
So despite all the "blog-buzz," the failure/abandonment rate of blogs is nearly 100%. Only incredibly talented bloggers make money. High-profile and prolific, they toil in certain niches and with certain styles that work well for blogging. For most, though, blogging is a doomed choice.
If you want to build a truly profitable online business, one that delivers high volumes of targeted traffic and that converts into multiple streams of income, there is a better way... Site Build It! ("SBI!").
Site Build It! is more than just a better way. It is the best way for any small business to succeed online, whether you want to sell your services to the world, whether you are a stay-at-home-mom who wants to build a strong second family income while raising your children at home, or whether you have an offline local business that you want to expand through a Web site.
The beauty of SBI! goes beyond its power, flexibility and unique proven track record...
Site Build It! automatically reformats your latest Web pages into a blog format (complete with letting all the blog engines know) without you lifting a finger, giving you all the benefits and none of the headaches. Two in one, essentially.
But let's suppose that you decide that you also have the time, inclination, subject matter, high originality and "fit" to add a "full blog" to your SBI! site. With SBI!, it's simple to do both.
Better still, we'll show you exactly how and when to get the most out of blogging (although you will likely find that your time is better spent not maintaining a blog). Site Build It! offers the best of all worlds, the single complete solution to your small business online needs.
To view the Site Build It! order page, click here.
The Correct Choice For Most? Theme-Based Content Sites
A Theme-Based Content Site is a concept that was first formally developed by SiteSell.com in the late 1990s. Originally published in its first edition of The Affiliate Masters Course, it employs a logically solid process called Content Traffic PREsell Monetize. The results?
35% of Site Build It! sites are in the Top 1% of all Web sites.
Significantly better, historically proven, not fad-driven. In fact, 62% of SBI! sites end up in the Top 3% trafficked sites.
SiteSell developed and refined C→T→P→M. It added tools to execute the process. Site Build It! was born.
You could try to do it yourself without Site Build It!. But even if you could, why would you want to? The tools would cost thousands of dollars and the learning curve would be long.
With Site Build It!, you achieve Top 3% results as directly and surely as possible. You get step-by-step focus, clear video help, and all the tools necessary to execute the process to perfection.
That is what Site Build It! delivers.
Site Build It! (SBI!) owners build Theme-Based Content Sites. They build traffic right into their sites from DAY 1. They build valuable sites that are searched-for-and-found by prospective new customers... with the number of visitors steadily climbing as their sites gain in relevance and reputation at the engines.
To view the Site Build It! order page, click here.
Take A 2-Month Break
Theme-Based Content Sites build more than traffic. They build traffic momentum.
Take a 2-month break from your Theme-Based Content Site. What do you think happens? Your site keeps growing in traffic. Why? Because your material is properly organized for easy consumption and provides ongoing value long after you build each page.
Site Build It! manages and distributes your content optimally. And most importantly, your visitors continue to come, to enjoy and to respond to your site in positive ways... responses that Google tracks and credits to your site.
Try that same 2-month layoff with most blogs, though. Stop all your posting (a pleasure since blogging feels like a pressured obligation, constantly nagging at you). Stop posting and watch your traffic start to dwindle. As Chris Anderson, executive editor of WIRED magazine and one of the most prominent bloggers, said (in Blogging Heroes, a book published by Wiley in late 2007)...
"A Blog Is This Beast - A Monkey On Your Back. It Wants To Be Fed Every Day, But We All Have Jobs And It's Hard To Do."
Blogging is merely a stress-and-labor-intensive way to create time-sensitive content. Most people soon burn out from the never-ending "pressure to blog." The New York Times reported, in an April 6, 2008 article headlined In Web World of 24/7 Stress, Writers Blog Till They Drop that...
"Bloggers complain of weight loss or gain, sleep disorders, exhaustion and other maladies born of the nonstop strain of producing for a news and information cycle that is as always-on as the Internet."
The article quotes Mr. Michael Arrington (the abovementioned successful tech blogger)...
"At some point, I'll have a nervous breakdown and be admitted to the hospital, or something else will happen. This is not sustainable."
The article continues with stories of young men suffering heart attacks. Surprisingly, this stress and pressure and bad health is endured for mediocre incomes. Even if you don't actually die blogging...
The abandonment rate is sky-high, partially because most bloggers never feel like they've created anything more than a series of "posts," a collection of thoughts randomly assembled according to whatever you happened to write that day.
With Theme-Based Content Sites, you create an actual, cohesive body of knowledge. That's something to be proud of. At your own pace. You create a destination that visitors enjoy exploring. It builds its own momentum over time. You build your own "brand of one."
Theme-Based Content Sites "Lock" Into The Web More Fully and Multi-Dimensionally
Google explained, in a post dated March 4, 2008 in their Public Policy Blog (a good use of blogging!), how their "information retrieval experts have added more than 200 additional signals to the algorithms that determine the relevance of websites to a user's query." 200 factors!
While bloggers focus on linking, Google actually tracks how humans respond to quality, original content. They track everything from the original Google PR to bounce rates to social media presence to... well, one can only speculate.
Unlike the blogosphere, well-executed Theme-Based Content Sites integrate into the Web steadily and deeply. Theme-Based Content Sites address the total "Web integration" picture, naturally and powerfully, without manipulation.
And Google tracks it all. Unlike blogs, real sites do not depend on intensive interlinking between each other to build their reputations in Google's eyes. Their integration into the Web is deeper and stronger, making their traffic surer and contributing to the traffic momentum.
The "Blog vs Website" Bottom Line
Blogging is for a very small percent of the population. It is an ideal medium for highly talented writers and clever thinkers with the time, inclination and skill-set to "develop a following" in certain particular sets of circumstances. On the other hand...
A Theme-Based Content Site springs from personal knowledge and passion, something we all have. It is something that anyone can do at his or her own pace. And it can be used to start an online business "from scratch," or to support and grow an existing offline business.
The Three Fatal Flaws Of Blogging
There are, of course, some highly successful blogs. Well-done, news-oriented blogs, for example. And blogs that are not really "blogs" in the usual sense but that merely use the software to build more traditional Theme-Based Content Sites. In both cases, it takes the truly exceptional to succeed without a complete step-by-step process and all the tools needed to execute flawlessly.
These successes are the exceptions that prove the rule of blog failure. There are fundamental reasons why typical blogs fail in such high numbers...
Fatal Flaw #1) Blogs Do Not Deliver Useful Information Resources
A blog is like a stack of hundreds of dated back issues of newspapers. Aside from "today's snippet," blogs are generally not useful resources for information. And information is what people search for; it's what they crave on the Web.
Blog posts are created and stored in chronological order. A good blogger will produce a post that is useful today, but who will read it in three months? Even when bloggers go to the extra effort of archiving their posts by "keyword categories," the articles are dated and not rewritten into coherent definitive articles. Usefulness plummets with time.
How does a Theme-Based Content Site differ? Instead of a stack of old newspapers, each resembles a good resource book about its theme, composed of useful, original articles ("Web pages") that cover related topics in some depth. Written in each small-business owners's unique voice, and based upon that person's experience in the field, they are useful resources that visitors return to over and over.
To summarize, Theme-Based Content Sites are evergreen, useful and usable, long-term momentum-builders. Blogs are short-term "today's snippets." The differing results are profound (skip up and re-read Google's analysis from its Google Analytics 101 course).
Humans respond to blogs and Theme-Based Content sites differently. And Google measures those reactions in hundreds of ways, rewarding your ranking accordingly. That is why Theme-Based Content sites are easier to create and build longer-lasting traffic. Continuing this analysis...
Fatal Flaw #2) Blogging Navigation And Internal Organization Is Inherently Awkward
Generally, blogs have no immediately logical organization of material by categorical tiers, sub-tiers, etc. At best, there may be a collection of "keywords" under which posts are filed. The various posts on a topic are never pulled together into cohesive articles, since they generally start as news pieces or thoughts of the day.
Theme-Based Content Sites are organized more logically. And Web pages are updated, not re-issued as new posts. These sites are easier to find and are simpler and more fruitful to explore by your "human" visitors (your pre-customers!).
And what about your "spider" visitors (the Search Engines)? Site Build It! makes it supremely easy for all engines to spider and list your pages. And critically, superior human response becomes obvious to all engines (as mentioned by Google itself above).
"Spider and human" work synergistically together to build substantially greater long-term traffic momentum. And the beauty is that all you have to do is "keep it real." This has nothing to do with "SEO" or any kind of Search Engine manipulation. The results are natural, long-lasting, and evergrowing.
Fatal Flaw #3) Blogs Do Not Meet The Natural Needs Of Most Small Business Opportunities
Some fields of business lend themselves well to blogging. For example, there is an overload of bloggers covering and commenting on even the most minute developments in the fast-moving, Web-savvy field of Internet marketing. Most of it is "noise" that will ultimately mean nothing. Nevertheless, "Net marketing" is a natural for blogging.
But the nature of your business and its related subject matter is most likely inappropriate for blogging. Your own business is almost certainly better served by a Theme-Based Content Site. Why? Because your future customers will be better served by information delivered in this manner. Theme-Based Content Sites flex to meet the goals, knowledge and circumstances of everyone...
Whether you are a dentist or asphalt sealer...
Whether you are a copywriter or java programmer...
Or perhaps you are a stay-at-home mom or pre-retiree who wants to start an online business from scratch...
Whatever your business or plans, build a Theme-Based Content Site, not a blog.
If you're serious about making money online, there really is only one way to go about it!
Thanks for visiting my blog and reading this article. I can tell you from experience that 'blogging-for-money' is a 'dog-eat-dog' business, and I think Site Build It! can give you a 'competitive edge'!
To view the Site Build It! order page, click here.
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