This post looking at conventional websites vs blogs is by Suzanne Falter-Barns from Get Known Now.
Have Blogs Killed Conventional Websites?
It’s a question that’s been bugging me profoundly since I got into blogging over a year ago. Blogs are cheap, easy, efficient, wildly easy to find on the Net, super marketing-friendly, and just plain fun. They work rings around websites.
So are conventional websites no longer necessary? To find out, I interviewed Andy Wibbels, the original blogging evangelist and author of the excellent book, Blogwild!. Here’s the short version of what I learned.
- Websites are clunky and expensive; blogs are lean and cheap.
- You have to wait for someone to make changes to your website; your blog can be changed easily by you.
- You have to wait for someone else to set up your site; your blog can be set up by you in 15 minutes.
- You can update your blog at an airport, while you’re on the run. You have to call your webmaster … and wait … to update your site.
- You can collect email addresses, and download free reports and bonuses off of a website. Same with a blog.
- You can use a shopping cart to collect money for e-commerce of a website. Same with a blog.
- You can set up a press room with all sorts of cool links and forms on a website. Same with a blog.
- It takes three to six months for the big search engines to find you with a website. It takes two or three days with a blog.
- You can easily track stats of who has visited your regular website. Same with a blog.
- The media are more likely to find you on a blog.
- You can learn more about your audience from a blog.
- You market automatically with a blog. But not with a conventional website.
- You can make a lot more friends with a blog.
The list appears to go on and on, but you get the picture. Blogs are, quite simply, the next wave. So if you’re thinking about setting up a site, stop in your tracks and turn towards blogs instead!
Note from Darren: what would you add to the above list of comparisons between blogs and conventional websites?
Please forgive me if I happened to miss any dates, but I’m wondering just how long ago this particular book was written.
I think that “clunky” can often times be translated to mean, “slow loading”, or if Front Page is the only software you have to build pages with, I can see some “clunkiness” there too.
I’m not sure if the original author was aware, but most blogging platforms these days are actually slower than the standard html built sites, because of all of the flash elements they contain. As far as running a database in the backend? Well, php, asp, cfm and others are actually faster than most blog scripts are.
We also musn’t forget the fact that blogs more often than not, will attract all of what would be unseemly on the web. Automated sql injection attempts are rampant, site scrapers will steal your content, and automated comment bots will visit your blog much more frequently as a result of the blogging popularity the web has most recently discovered.
Then, there are all of the server resources being used as a result of all of these unwanted pests.
Sure, there are some great programs/scripts online that you can install to prevent some of these unwanted visitors, but you won’t ever be able to catch them all, or prevent the instance of being hacked by some offshore juvenile.
Automated attacks on the internet’s blogging communities has risen 500% in just the last 9 months of 2007 alone.
There never is only one side to anything internet I’m afraid, and blogging, for what it and all of the potential good it might do, in the end, still proves itself to be of the riskier ventures online.
With regard to blogging? Yes, you can do almost anything with a blog that can be done with a standard, faster loading, website.
Google has come some distance in the past few years. Changes are recorded on regular sites just as fast or faster in some cases than they are on blogs. Standard sites get about a 10 minute refresh on Google, while blogs will see a refresh in about 30 minutes. And this has been the standard for 2 or more years now.
The only reason why blogs take longer to refresh on Google, is because they contain, not only the backend database, but the front end is “very” heavily scripted, and Googlebot has to pick it’s way through all of that.
3 minutes has been the fastest turnaround I’ve seen Google do, and this was on a few of our managed sites last month.
My opinion is such that says, that if the original author knew how to build his own, then he would have already understood the fact that blogs, in fact, are slower loading, and somewhat more clunky, than standard built sites are.
Blogs surely have killed conventional websites. There is no point in having a static site anymore. It will not be of any interest. Constantly updating material is the only way to build a web presence today. But in the end I don’t see much difference between a website and a blog – as long as the page is dynamic and active.
Just a heads up: the Get Known Now link doesn’t seem to point to anything but a 404 page on Prologger. :)
[…] important. I’m just saying that it’s not the only way in. Then, I stumbled upon this blog entry, written by Darren Rowse after he’d interviewed the author of “Blogwild,” a book […]
Even though I have a blog page on my website and blog a lot, I receive very few comments. My blogs get viewed quite a bit but again I receive very few comments. One would then ask “Are my blogs boring”? Well, I have become the top blogger in Idaho for ActiveRain.com and have had 10% of all the blogs I have written Featured for their quality. I have also had many Active Rain members tell me I should write a book.
My main site offers a lot of information and receives over 60k hits per month. Dozens have signed up to use the MLS feature where they can search the entire MLS for properties. Without this site I would not be generating the leads I am and I don’t think blogging could replace it and have the same results.
I think blogs are such a great way to market one’s business but websites are still necessary. There are so many advantages to blogging, the list does go on and on!
It is true.Blog is better than website – design, update, and I can see, search engine index is very fast.
I read similar article also named Blogs Killed Conventional Websites?, and it was completely different. Personally, I agree with you more, because this article makes a little bit more sense for me
Over the past few months I have found that almost every website I have setup for clients are using WordPress. I find that it is really easy for the customers to update and once I have set it up then the client is on their own. Blogs and websites are merging!
I think it’s best to incorporate a blog into a website. Our whole site is built on WP. We get the benefits of being able to update the website whenever, as well as interact with clients!
Hello , I agree with this article, just sometimes I read so fast everything and I miss things that after read them again, I can understand it better.. ;). Your Blogs Killed Conventional Websites? Blog Stumbled up and Bookmarked, so I keep updated on every article you write from now now on offshore trusts.
ebony personal adsBlogs Killed Conventional Websites?
Are people still going to use this, its virtually obsolete now isnt it ?
Darren,
yeah, blog is a clear winner. But people still look onto websites as real authority and not the blogs.
I found this blog on Google while searching for emailing large files. I found a great offer on the net which is very relevant to this post. Check it out, you might find it very interesting.
Blogs have come to a point where they have become a bit more relevant and faster source of information.
Just follow up your instinct and people will believe you.
Once things start going right, you could be asked to bring some proof.
Just follow up your instinct and people will believe you.
I don’t feel like entering in such a consideration.
Why do you think things have always to go that way?
How could we verify the effectiveness of such a possibility?
Thanx martin, i will try to do your advice
You build a website to be a work horse and do the black and white work of your profession. You create a blog to show the color, responde quickly and show more of the you in the process. More personal and one on one. Video is the same thing..helping the brand, using other senses to create an experience that is memorable.