Yes, I’m talking to you. Do you have your own business? Are you an expert on your particular niche? Do you have a product to sell or something to market? Are you a freelancer in any field? Do you simply want to interact with a community of like-minded people and learn about new, interesting things? Or do you just want to share your knowledge and opinions with the world?
If you answered yes to any of the above questions, you need to get a
blog. Thanks to the rise of many excellent (and free!) blogging and social media platforms (including MyTypes, hint hint), you don’t need tons of technical know-how or be a brilliant writer to start one. You just need to have something to say and willingness to learn and participate in the internet community.
Many businesses and individuals think they need websites - and it’s true that a presence on the net can be incredibly valuable in the age of Web 2.0. However, they usually also assume that they need to hire webmasters, designers, and assorted techie types to build and maintain it. This results in an expensive site that is difficult to keep timely - these sites often become quickly outdated and tend to stagnate as the costs of keeping them current outweigh the benefits. These sites are part of the “static” web, as opposed to the “live” web (encompassing the blogosphere and the social media).
The static web can be looked at as real estate - people build, design, and construct sites and give them addresses along the information superhighway, where they get traffic in the form of readers. However, the “live” web is more of a dynamic publishing system, based on chronology, syndication, and tagging. We create content that others view through browsers, feeds, and aggregators, and participate in global discussion about everything under the sun. Naturally, blogs are a major part of the live web community, and most people who think they need a website really need a blog. Why?
1. It’s relatively easy to get started - once you choose your name, set up template and get the hang of the (quite simple) technology, you’re in blogging business.
2. You can update it yourself. Instead of waiting for your webmaster to change your site, you can write new posts as often as you want and publish them yourself. You can also edit it yourself easily and quickly. Your business and your life changes constantly, so your web presence should be able to keep up.
3. You can interact within the live web and position yourself as an expert; you can share your knowledge and learn something from the other bloggers in your niche.
4. You are searchable and findable - a blog that is SEO’d (search engine optimized)and updated often will get on the radar of potential customers and clients. After all, the web is increasingly the first place people turn when they need information on, well, anything.
The static web is not completely out of date, however, you can and should still include static pages within blog (the About page, your contact page, and other flagship content can be static - or kept outside the chronology of the rest of your blog. An example of a static page would be the Blogging Terms 101 page on my header).
So what are you waiting for? Head to the main page and get started on your own blog this weekend.
You can read more on the live web vs. the static web here, and for something more recent, it’s also mentioned in this interview with Doc Searls by Shel Israel.
