5 Benefits of a Blog That Looks Like A Website
June 21, 2008
There are many, many benefits of using a blog to promote the work that you do, but there are downsides too. Blogs can look unfamiliar to those who aren’t regular blog readers (or writers) themselves. They might turn away if they are looking for the information you provide but expecting a conventional website.
The good news is that blogs don’t need to look unfamiliar: it’s perfectly possible to integrate them into a site so the whole thing looks and feels like a conventional website to the casual or first-time visitor.
I’ve just set up a new site for Absorbing Writing - workshops I run in Sardinia - and it brought home to me the benefits of combining a blog with a website, giving you the best of both worlds.
Here are 5 of the reasons why.
1. All the information is on the front page
I’ve used the Essence Theme from iThemes, which creates a visually appealing front page. Everything a first time visitor needs is here, including drop down pages to highlight each of the workshops we’re running.
2. It works for all readers
The home page with tabbed menu at the top is a conventional lay out, and one that’s very easy to navigate. No ’special knowledge’ of blogs and how they work is required. (Blog savvy readers meanwhile can easily find the page with news, articles and updates because they know that’s what they’re looking for.)
3. The news is to the side
We needed a place to provide news, articles and updates - and that’s where the blog comes into its own - but that’s not the primary purpose for the site. It’s not likely to be the first thing our visitors and clients are looking for. This blog that looks like a website allows you to put the blog to the side, with pride of place going to the most important information: the services that you’re offering.
4. There’s an easy way to post updates
Once the site is up and running it’s easy to add updates. It runs like a blog which means you just write the article, hit publish and your new, up to the minute information is there for all to see. Easy, simple, no extra cost and entirely within your own control.
5. There’s room for visitors to connect
Some readers and visitors just want to get the information and go again (and that’s the benefit of having a traditional looking site). But others will want to comment, to sign up for updates, to be prompted to come back when there’s some new information or a new product on offer. Setting up the site with blog software makes that a doddle: things like an RSS feed and comment functions come ready made with the system, and provide an easy way for visitors to provide feedback and ask questions.
Stand alone blogs work for some purposes - but don’t or can’t meet every business need. A website without a blog will limit what you can do: it becomes out of date very quickly, and chances are you’ll find it tricky (or expensive) to keep it fresh, topical, interesting and relevant. Combining the two together and you’ve got an extremely heady mix… and the best of both worlds.
How about you? Do you enjoy reading, visiting or maybe writing at a blog, a static website, or a combination of both?
Want to create your own web presence for your small business, group, or coaching practice?
Powerful Web Content provides you with not just the site but the training, skills and support so you can manage and update you site with confidence.
Find out more about getting started with a blog based website.
How Flickr Photos Add Power To Your Content
June 6, 2008
They say a picture’s worth 1,000 words. Adding photos and images to your written text will make your content more appealing, engaging, and easy to read.
But there’s something else you can do to make those pictures more interesting, powerful and engaging. To make for a more irresistible point of connection with your readers. To help make your story vivid, personal and real. It’s simple: use your own photos.
Start Taking Your Own Photos
Now if you’re like most people you might be protesting at this point that your pictures aren’t good enough, you don’t know how to use a digital camera, etc etc (excuses excuses). Get a camera and give it a go: it’s a lot easier than you think. Modern technology makes it easy to point and shoot (and edit later).
Share Your Photos On Flickr
Flickr, the photo sharing site, makes it easier again. You can upload photos, share with them friends and colleagues, and then learn from their feedback and comments. You can watch how they do things and pick up tips, try out new things, experiment with a different way of taking photos.
Help People Find You
There are many other benefits to sharing your (public, not private and personal) photos online. You can tag your photos by area, topic, issue, idea. People who are searching a photo on that might find you, your group or your business through your flickr stream… before they get anywhere near your website or your blog.
Photos Add Colour And Share Your Story
Adding photos to your blog, website or social media sites adds colour and depth to your content. It helps to bring it life: makes it more personal, human, vivid, real. It provides an entry point, a point of connection for your readers and customers: something that makes you different, that helps you stand out from the crowd.
Let me say it again: your photos don’t have to be great. I know mine aren’t, but they’re good enough, and they’re getting better as I share and practice through participation and sharing of my material on flickr. Here’s a collage I made from pictures I took in central Edinburgh: different views of the nearby Union Canal.
There’s nothing special about them but they help to fix my business or my story, at a place, a point in time. It helps you to get some idea of the things I find interesting (reflections, over and again; the wildlife on the water). It helps to make me ‘real’: more than just a website, but a person who’s creating it. Adding some of her self to the content.
And that’s what gives it the power.
Do you need to add some more power to your web presence? Work with Powerful Web Content to analyse what’s missing and identify how you can ramp up your content with pictures, stories, and an authentic, powerful voice (your own).