Legal Marketing & PR

Web Site? Blog? Both? Yes!

By Peter Boyd

The question of whether to have a web site or a blog comes up from time to time. Why not do both. Here are some simplified thoughts on the subject for discussion on the topic:

Blogging
Blogs are easy to create and maintain.
Blogs, if interesting, generate traffic and links.
If you post, and post a lot, you can increase your sites size.
Blogs that are topical rank high in search.
Good blogging takes time and dedication.
You need a good voice, good research, or a good topic to have success.
You need patience, as success may not come quickly and may be hard to measure.

Web Site
Web sites are also easy to create and maintain.
Web sites, if interesting, generate traffic and links.
Typically, once a site is built, its done for little while.
Web sites, with a content system, can also be easily updated and you can increase the sites size.
Web Sites that are topical, tend to rank high in search.
Sometimes clients DO want to be sold by marketing copy.
Sometimes clients may not want to read nitty gritty details of a specific issue (sometimes they do).

Differences
The differences seem to boil down to time, writing ability, and the goal. If your goal is to hard sell, the site should be used for that. If your goal is a soft sell through proving your ideas, the blog is a good forum for that.

I think the major deciding factor is a time element. Some busy people may not have even 15 to 30 minutes to post per week. Sad, but true. More importantly, not everyone can write. Again, sad but true. Of course, those that have time and can write, can benefit from a blog. It can improve their reputation, make them become an industry expert, and keep them abreast of their area (or at least force them too).

But with today’s software, you can actually do both and do it well. So why not have a web site and blog, all in one application?

Why Not Combine Both?
Blogging software, especially Wordpress and our own Total Control CMS [sorry for the plug], are great tools for publishing web sites AND blogs. So clients have the ability to do both, one or the other. Let the software do the work for you and you can have both. You can become an online authority for your topic area and have a firm web site for marketing purposes. Pretty nifty and exciting.

Full post as published by PaperStreet Web Design: SpeakOut on March 12, 2009 (boomark / email).