BloggingCoach.com

What is a blog, really? And how do you explain blogging to someone?

Many people will have you believe that a blog is different from a website. However, that’s not really true. A much more accurate statement is:

All blogs are websites, but not all websites are blogs.

The Difference Between Websites and Blogs

Blogs are websites that allow you to publish your content quickly and easily, without having to know HTML or other programming languages. Many blogs list the most recent content first, so posts are listed in reverse chronological order. They also give you the ability to allow people to comment on your posts, to notify you if they write about your post (trackbacks), to let blog aggregators know when you’ve updated your blog (pinging), and to allow people to read your newest posts from their blog reader (syndication) – see the my list of blogging terminology (http://www.bloggingcoach.com/5-terms-blogger/) for definitions.

Of course, not all blogs offer these features, and many websites that don’t consider themselves “blogs” (such as newspapers and journalists), offer similar features, so the boundaries can be murky.

To me, the difference between a blog and a website is semantics. I use my website to sell my products and services. I use my blog to educate people about my products and services, but I generally don’t focus on the “hard sell” the way my website does.

Blogs are great for maintaining communication with readers, building community, and networking with peers. Websites are great for selling things and making a profit – the two go hand-in-hand in my book. Not everyone will subscribe to those particular differences, but in general, that’s what I tend to see most often.

Blogs Are Flexible

In addition, when you create a website, you usually have a good sense for what types of content you need to include to sell your products and services. You need information about each type of service you offer, details about the products people can buy, your company and contact information, and so on.

With blogs, you can pretty much write about any topic you like for the day and can focus your blog around a variety of topics. One day, you might be focused on current events while the next, you might answer a reader-submitted question. Your focus can change considerably from day-to-day.

Blogs Are Monetized Differently

With your website, you usually have a sales page that is designed to convince your readers to buy your products or call you for a free consultation or whatever else you want prospects to do. You have a handful of “money pages” – those pages that are designed to make you money by converting well – and other pages that direct people to your money pages.

With blogs, you usually don’t go for the hard sell, like you do with your website. If every blog post you wrote tried to convince someone to buy something, many people wouldn’t stick around and keep reading your blog. People love to buy but they hate to be sold, so if they feel you are pressuring them to make a purchase, they will often move on.

That doesn’t mean you can’t use your blog to drive traffic to your sales pages. You can easily include a link to your related product or service somewhere within your blog post and direct people to your sales page – but your blog post, itself, shouldn’t be a high pressure sales pitch.

If you don’t have any products of your own to promote, you can start reviewing other people’s products and using affiliate links to make money each time someone buys a product based on your recommendation. The best product reviews offer your opinion of the pros and cons of the product – people want to know how this product specifically helped you and why you are recommending it.

As you can see, there are a few subtle differences between blogs and websites. As a generalization, blogs are great for demonstrating your expertise, networking with industry experts, and building customer loyalty through interactive communication while websites are great for actually selling your products and services and promoting your company information.