What’s the Difference Between a Website and a Blog?
June 5, 2008
The following is sage advice for freelance writers — or anyone — who’s thinking about getting a blog or website and/or those who are thinking about changing their web presence. If you are serious about making money online as a freelance writer, read carefully.
After my recent blog troubles, I decided to have a new blog designed and hosted on its own domain. I finally got fed up with free blog platforms. This entailed registering a new domain. Once I got to this point, however, I stopped. Why?
Do You Really Need a New Blog, or a Website?
Mainly traffic generation. As I wrote on the post, 7 Things You Must Know Before Moving Your Blog. “… after your new blog is up and running, constantly update your old blog. You probably have some search engine recognition behind it …”
I started thinking that I would essentially have to start from scratch promoting a new URL (website/blog). And, not for nothing, I already have two web presences that are working pretty well for me (this site, InkwellEditorial.com and my blog, InkwellEditorial.blogspot.com).
This is what brought me to the question, “What’s the difference between a website and a blog?”
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The Answer to What’s the Difference Between a Website and a Blog
So I started to do some research because, quite frankly, I couldn’t think of what it was. I should probably be embarrassed to admit that, but it’s the truth.
According to the post Blogs vs. Web Sites: Is There a Difference?, it basically boils down to interactivity. A blog and a website are both simply websites.
But, blogs have an interactivity about them that most websites don’t. Plugins like “Most Recent Posts;” “Most Popular Posts;” “Related Posts/Entries;” and “Last Post by This Blogger” all encourage interaction.
Websites, on the other hand, tend to be more of a portfolio, an introduction to your work (ie, samples) and business (an online company brochure, if you will).
Which Do You Need: A Blog, a Website or Both?
As each person’s needs are different, I’ll tell you how I went about deciding, then you decide for yourself.
I’m getting a new website, with a blog as a sub component. This is how this happened . . .
I changed things midstream with my blog designer. I told them that I wanted my new blog on InkwellEditorial.com, the current home of my website.
After asking a few technical questions like how it would affect transferring existing files into the new “blog design,” he wrote the following:
“That [referring to the cost and the blog design I chose] actually depends if you want your site to be more of a portfolio site or a blog site. Which will you use it for most? To blog and attract people that way? Or as a business site with a blog?”
As I’m getting a new website that will have a blog as a subdomain, the URL will probably look something like this: http://InkwellEditorial.com/InkwellBlog
The Drawback of an All-in-One Website/Blog
The drawback to this is that it means I’ll be blogging at blogger for probably another year or so until my traffic at my new blog home is where it is now (about 3,600 visitors/day).
I simply can’t afford to abandon this site which has a PR Rank of 4 and an Alexa Rank at this writing of under 500,000 (not in the top 100,000, but for a freelance writing blog — darn good numbers).
The Benefits of an All-in-One Website/Blog
Marketing: In spite of this drawback, the benefit of an all-in-one blog/website is that you have one home, one domain to drive traffic to. I run several websites and let me tell you, getting sufficient traffic to one is a full-time job. I couldn’t even fathom having yet another site to market and promote from scratch.
Passive Income Generation: My other sites bring me projects, so driving traffic to them isn’t important as far as residual income. But, InkwellEditorial.com and its accompanying blog bring me residual income in the form of ebook sales and AdSense income mostly.
Advertising: Furthermore, over the last year and a half, I’ve been approached probably 20-30 times about private advertising. I’ve never taken anyone up on it because, quite frankly, my site wasn’t set up for it. And, I always said, “When I get it redesigned, I’ll accept advertising.”
Other Opportunities: I also have several other ideas that have been waiting in the wings “until I get my site redesigned.” Now, I can move ahead with those too.
Although a website redesign wasn’t on the agenda for another year or so, the time to do it is just right — now.
The #1 Thing to Consider When Trying to Decide Whether to Get a Website or a Blog
Purpose. As I wrote in the post, Will You Ever Make Money Blogging? Answer 1 Question to Find Out, ” … the most critical component to pay attention to when you’re getting a blog designed from the ground up, so to speak, is purpose. . . . As in, what purpose does your blog serve — or would you like for it to serve. Every design decision you make should support this decision.”
Once you know what you want your web presence to do for you, it will be easy to make decisions regarding whether it should be a blog or a website.
Thinking About Moving Your Blog/Website? Learn What I Learned the Hard Way
Final Note: If you’re thinking about moving your blog or website from one platform to another, read 7 Things You Must Know Before Moving Your Blog first. Learn from my mistakes.
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