Website tips

Internet (Other)
I am writing on the side of the
website only because there is no
third choice, which is a hybrid
approach of having a website with a
supporting blog for community
interaction.
When deciding on your on-line
presence the most important
consideration is what you wish to
communicate and what you wish to
achieve. If you have some kind of
work that you wish to promote, then
it is important to organize
information about yourself, your
qualifications, the work itself and
reasons why people might be
interested in it. Your website is your
on-line catalog.
The most important reasons why a
website is better are:
• Navigation: When you build a set of
pages, you can plan a navigational
structure that allows you to put up
information in a way that is easy to
consume. People come to a
destination site (a web site) to get
information about a particular thing.
Once they get there, they want to
know a bunch of things about it. So
having a page about you, a page (or
pages) with samples of your work,
some information on related sites, as
well as information on how to
purchase the work will help them get
all that information quickly. With a
website, they can link to those pages
and return there for reference. If
they forget the particular page, they
can come to your home page and
then navigate their way to the
relevant page.
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO):
While you might market your work
and point people to your site, one of
the ways that people will find out
about you is through search engines
(primarily Google). When you set up
a web site, you can have a set of
pages that clearly describe what
their intention is. Over time, you can
get related sites to link to your site,
and increase your Google rankings.
While blogs are crawled by search
engines, it is harder to optimize blogs
for your specific keywords. They will
show up lower in the rankings as a
result.
• Conversions: Marketing talk for
getting people to actually buy things.
By creating templates for your pages,
you can have a 'buy it now' link on
every page on your site. If you have a
blog, it's very difficult to have all
these elements on every single post.
Having said this, I will also say that
depending on the nature of your
work, it might make sense for you to
have a website as a catalog, and then
have a blog where you talk about
things around your work. If you have
a following, they might want to know
what you are up to, how you do
things etc. They might also want to
interact with you by way of
comments. To engage with your fans
or audience, a blog or a social
networking presence on a site such
as FaceBook or MySpace might well
complement your website, and draw
additional interest to your work.
Promote your work using an online
catalog or a web site. Draw additional
interest to the site by establishing a
blog or a social networking presence.Internet (Other)
The pat answer is: It depends on you
and your business. No, really. Blogs
and websites come with their own
pros and cons, and you'll want to
weigh them before deciding. For most
situations, however, a website is the
best bet. Here's why:
1. Websites are more flexible
Blog are easy to update and
maintain, which is part of their
appeal, but websites can have
equally sophisticated and user-
friendly content management
systems. Blogs give readers a way to
leave comments, but there's no
reason why a website can't have
similar features. Websites can be as
simple or complex as you want them
to be.
At first glance, blogs can seem just
as diverse as websites. But for the
most part, they all follow the same
format: A blog is a series of posts
listed in chronological order. The first
thing you see when you visit a blog is
the latest post. There are usually
sidebars filled with links to older
posts. Some blogs have static pages
that live outside the chronological
format, but blogs are still basically
online journals. Regardless of how
you dress the blog up, that's the
format you're stuck with.
2. Websites are less demanding
Regardless of whether you have a
blog or website, you'll want to keep it
fresh and give people a reason to
come back. Even so, it's less critical to
update a website on a regular basis.
Blogs by their very nature need fresh
content all the time. Without a new
post every day, or at least every
week, blogs get stale and musty.
You'll either have to spend a few
hours every day writing articles for
your blog, or you'll need to hire
someone else to handle that job for
you. And frankly, there are some
businesses that are very hard to
write fascinating news articles about
on a continual basis.
3. Websites are more professional
Although blogs are gaining
preeminence on the internet, a blog
will still have the feel of an online
journal. Blogs tend to be more casual
and conversational. Depending on
your business, a blog could set the
perfect tone for your web presence.
But in almost all cases, you simply
can't go wrong with a basic website.
4. You can always add a blog later
In some cases, businesses have both
a website and a blog. The two entities
can complement each other nicely.
The website usually serves as the
official store front for whatever
services or products the business
offers, while the blog is the place
where people go to read up on the
latest news about the business. So
when in doubt, go with a website
first. Once you've had your website
for a while, you'll be in a better
position to know whether or not a
blog will enhance your business.

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