Tue Aug 10, 2010 1:13 pm
I made a post in these forums a little earlier today about how you can add a Wordpress blog into your SBI! site, including how and when to do it.
It got me thinking about something I'd like to dispel. Something I've always thought was a little goofy, but I keep seeing it out there in the blogosphere. So please bear with me while I address it...
Ken is not anti-blogging.
That would be like being anti-information. Clearly...
In certain circumstances, blogging is very much the right choice.
Many bloggers think that I am anti-blogging, probably because of our "Blog Or Build" webpage. But it makes no sense to be so fiercely for or against a format, which in the end is all that blogging is... a site that is formatted chronologically.
-----SIDEBAR-----
I know that blogging software can now create regular Web
pages. So can thousands of other sitebuilders. The fact is
that most blogs are still journals. They are organized
awkwardly into categories, but they are difficult to use
as reference sites for information on a topic. Instead,
visitors read the latest post (news, opinions, etc.) and leave.
And that's not me saying this. Here is a quote from
Google Analytics 101, written by Google in April 2008...
"Blogs usually have high Bounce Rates no matter what since
normal visitor behavior is to read the newest post and then leave."
-----SIDEBAR-----
If the "Ken-is-anti-bloggingg" folks saw the 200 or so feeds I follow, all of them blogs, they'd know that I love blogs. I find them invaluable for my type of Web browsing, where I need to keep on top of the latest news and ideas from around the world, from the sharpest minds, etc.
But that does not mean that the blogging format is the best one for the typical person who wants to start an online business.
Naturally, they claim there's an agenda behind my anti-blogging stance...
"Ken hates blogs because it's good marketing." This is a FALSE-TRUE compound statement that delivers an erroneous implication...
The first half, "Ken hates blogs," is FALSE, as I've covered above.
The second half is TRUE. It's "good marketing" for us to point out the weaknesses of blogs (and when to use them and when not to) compared to SBI!. There is, of course, nothing wrong with "good marketing."
The "third half"

"Good marketing" simply takes the facts and presents them so that they are meaningful to potential clients. If we can save people much time and money by helping them choose the best way for them to build an online business, then we have created WIN-WIN marketing. And that is what this page does...
http://blogorbuild.sitesell.com/
I FOLLOW blogs and news sites, as do others, because we want to stay on the edge of what's new and important, then bring that to you. Blogs are super-useful for that.
I also FOLLOW bloggers like Seth Godin and Kevin Kelly because they are clever, insightful people, with original and provoking thoughts that I find to be of value. Blogs are great for that, too (the authors do it to build their brand).
But when I search (rather than follow), I SEARCH for information. I do not search for blogs.
Even though there are way more blogs, unless I am searching for something freshly-currently-topical, I find more "sites" than "blogs" in Google's Universal Search (which is the standard search). Google inserts blogs into Universal Search (like it inserts images) when it feels the nature of your search might want to see blogs (or images, or news, etc., etc.). You must use Google's Blog Search if you want to search for ONLY blogs, just like Image Search or any other speciality search (see the top left corner of Google for all their specialty searches) .
When you have a moment, do read...
http://blogorbuild.sitesell.com/
This site presents a good discussion about the advantages and disadvantages of blogging vs. site-building. Yes, it's also meant to promote SBI!. But the fact is that building an evergreen Theme-Based Content Site really is a better way to build an online business, for MOST (not all) than blogging. (And using SBI! to build a Theme-Based Content Site is the best way to do that.)
Blog if you plan on offering news or punditry. And, of course, the OTHER good time to blog is when you WANT to add a blog to your theme-based content site because you feel that it will enhance your offering and will build enough extra traffic to make it worth the effort (the subject of the post mentioned above). It's easy to integrate that into your SBI! site.
Otherwise, though, build a "regular" site using the concept of Content
http://ctpm.sitesell.com/
SBI! delivers the process, tools, support and guidance and constant updating to do it successfully.
--
Some folks say, "yeah but Wordpress can now build regular Web pages." That merely turns it into one of hundreds of free sitebuilders, available widely since 1997. Use yola.com or weebly.com, super little sitebuilders that are free.
Beyond "free" (Yola, Weebly, or Wordpress) SITE-building, though, you will end up paying much more in time and dollars to assemble the process, tools, support and guidance and constant updating to BUSINESS-build. NOTHING is free.
Even the detractors of SBI!, who state that you can get it all for free, turn around and promote tools and resources that cost much more than SBI! when added all together (and still fall short of what SBI! delivers).
This is important, so let me repeat. No matter which free sitebuilder people use...
Those folks who push blogging as "the way" miss the point that most people need more than free blogging software. They need detailed process, a complete set of BUSINESS-building tools, help and guidance, and constant updating across the entire range of all business-building subjects and tools. All in one spot, not gathered from a ton of places (each of which can cost more than SBI! while offering what amounts to 1 of 80 modules in SBI!).
Summary?
I'm not anti-blogging. It has its place as an excellent format for certain purposes.
If blogging does fit your particular business model, it needs to be supplemented with a ton of other information (figure out who's right and who's just selling stuff) and tools (both external tools and plugins, of which free and paid versions exist, good and bad) if you want a blog to become an online business. You'll need solid guidance in good forums, again by people without an agenda, and finally you'll need to keep up with everything.
Yes, it's possible to succeed big with blogging. It's also possible to fail with SBI!. And SBI! is not the only way to build an online business. NOTHING IS ABSOLUTE.
But, for most folks, SBI! remains the best way to build an online business by building a Theme-Based Content Site. That statement is supported by an unmatched rate of success (no other company has documented its proof of success in so many ways as we do at http://proof.sitesell.com/ ).
I hope I can put this one to rest. Ken is NOT anti-blogging. It's just that building a Theme-Based Content Site is the best way for most people to build a serious, long-term online business. I would feel that way even if we sold widgets and not SBI!.
Naturally, we promote this fact. In marketing, you do NOT hide your candle under a bushel. And we have an excellent candle.

All the best,
Ken
P.S. Then there are the folks who say, "yeah but you can build 30 blogs (or sites, for that matter) for the same single hosting fee."
These people don't understand that it takes time to build excellent authority sites in your chosen niche, sites that build traffic that you convert into income in many ways. Who has time for 30 of these? Build one until it's doing well and running under its own momentum, especially with Content 2.0 ( http://2.sitesell.com/ ). Then, if you like, start another. That's what many SBIers do.
-----SIDEBAR-----
You can build 30 sites by paraphrasing the content of others
and not looking in the mirror in the morning, but you cannot
build 30 businesses.
This practice of "splogging" was recent shut down by Google.
-----SIDEBAR-----
Web hosts let folks put up unlimited domains under one account for a simple reason... they get no traffic. Any so-called "cheap host" that starts to see significant traffic across multiple domains on the same account will be calling... for a price increase.