Blogging VS Website

Depends on what you're trying to do. Blogs are easy to update on a regular basis and fresh content is important. If your niche is very competitive your static website will not last long as fresh new content pushes it down.

You are asking a question or want to "Grill" others

"mrsvirtualassistant" is correct. I have a website and a blog page on it.
Since I provide writing services, this blog page has been helpful because it works as the repository of my samples whenever clients want to see some.

I have a website for my magazine that incoporates blogs and articles so I can update fresh content as well as have static pages. It also functions as an autoresponder in which I can export subscribers with built in newsletter publications, ecommerce, and all the other mod cons. So I have best of both worlds.

A blog is a website.

What surprises me a little about this thread is that those posting above seem to understand, instinctively, with no difficulty or hesitation, the difference between a blog and a non-blog website.

I don't.

Most of my "main niche sites" are made from TypePad software and hosted there. They're content-rich sites which are regularly updated. The posts aren't dated, there are no "comments", most have no "categories" or other typical sidebar contents. Would you call those "blogs" or "non-blog websites"? I don't know whether or not they're "blogs", technically. (TypePad thinks they are, and sells them that way, positioning themselves in many ways as a "Wordpress competitor"). And if you looked at them, you wouldn't know whether they're blogs, either. And it doesn't actually matter.

Is "any site made with Wordpress" a blog? Presumably not, because you can make things like sales pages and squeeze pages with Wordpress, and nobody's going to call them "blogs", are they? What about a regularly updated diary site, with a couple of sidebars, made from HTML. Is that a blog, because it's a diary and it has a fresh post every day? Or is it a website, because it's made from HTML? If the software manufacturer decides to market them as "blogs", does that make them blogs?

You see what I mean, perhaps? The distinction, these days, isn't clear at all, is it?

People imagine that "Google prefers blogs" but they're actually mistaken about that: it's "regularly updated sites" that Google prefers, and blogs just happen (typically, though not always) to be "regularly updated sites".

My point is that rather discussing whether we think a "blog" or a "website" is better, we should be asking which features about blogs/websites make them "better" and for which purposes.

a blog within a website would be better i think.

A blog is good for micro niche thematic and news, and if you are using blogger, SEO will be easier.
A website is better if you are running a business

Most blogs can run like websites now or at least look LESS blog-like. All my websites are Wordpress born. You can also do a website with a section for a blog. Wish I can say more, but I'm not one to write long responses. But you have a whole bunch of good answers here!

Are you asking about technical set-up or features? I'm going to assume first that you're talking about the features of a static website vs. blog, and not about html vs. a blogging platform.

As with most general questions, the answer is "it depends". It depends on your goal of being online, who you're targeting, what you want to share, how you want to interact with people, etc. etc. Answer those and then you can think about which features you need, e.g., an ecommerce solution, forum features, simple static pages, pages that will be updated daily, etc. A blog would just be one feature.

I think that most people who browse the web won't really know the difference between "blog" and "website" unless they're internet marketers. And that doesn't seem to be too clear either, based on our answers! But if you say the word "blog" to the average person, they'll think of it as something that is more personal, interactive, informative, and regularly updated. Say the word "website" and you're referring to everything online with a url and at least one published page.

If you're talking about setting up a website using html vs. a blogging platform, that's another story entirely. Depends who's developing and maintaining it. For someone who's not very techy, like myself, I would use something like Wordpress, where you can create a lot of features with very little expertise.

But I know from my own experience working with a programmer on one of my sites that's there's a lot more you can do when you're not working within the restrictions of Wordpress. Unfortunately, I'm always going to be dependent on a programmer for any changes or updates. Not great for the long run.

So that's a long response to your question, though not necessarily the answer you were looking for!

Website then blog

Frankly speaking, I can no longer tell the difference between the two. You can easily turn a blog into a website and vice versa ain't it ...

I'm confused a little bit between website and blog. What is the difference between both of it actually? As far as I know, blog is more like personal diaries while website is more to professional looks. Correct me if I'm wrong, the only difference might be because blog is using platform while website, you have to do all the coding.

HTML sites are the best in my opinion, but so many WP plugins make it hard to give up.

There's no easy answer to it. If your wanting to pull some money in a bit easier and faster, then go for a blog. But websites can gross loads of money in the long run if you stick with it.

Blogs work best for providing content. Websites work better for sales. Just my opinion. Also, blogs work better for providing personalized/opinionated content, vs websites with a professional feel. Nowadays however, thanks to WordPress, your site can be a mix of both; you can have a professional theme with a built in blog for posts.

Why not go for both? You can have a blog apart of your website

I go for both :-)

Websites - to sell a product

Blog - to build relationship & creditability.

Hope it helps :-)

We need to allow our terminology to evolve here folks. A website is a blog and a blog is a website. There is no difference. They are just pages of content added to the Internet. Website pages have url's. Blog posts have url's. It's all the same.

I agree with lerxtjr. They are both the same. The only difference is a page that is displaying the content at the time.

Website with a blog is best.

What is the whole point of putting up the website?
What is the whole purpose of creating it?
What is the result you hope to gain with this site?

Answer these questions to yourself and you will be closer to the answer.

~Olav

Horses for courses!

Some products/services wouldn't suit a blog and others are perfectly suited.

Difficult to generalise really.

I prefer to use a blog because of how flexible they are to use. You can continue to add fresh, unique content.

I've helped many businesses improve their online results, more traditional corporate, SMB as well as indiividual entrepreneurs...in every case there is a benefit of having both static content and a more active/personalized web blog section of the site.

There is a good deal of confusion in this thread mainly because traditionally HTML web pages were used for static content, forum software (vBulletin, etc...) was used for forums and then web blogging platforms like TypePad, Wordpress and Blogger were used for web blogging.

Now we reach a time when you have HTML development platforms, Blog development platforms and Social networking platforms (Tumbler, Facebook, Squidoo, etc...)

The question becomes what platform you want to use for a given site or page within your site.

The main differences are:

1. HTML is a more open standard and though there may be more complixity, you have more flexibility in functions...though it is more specialized which means more custom work or training is required the more coplex you get

2. Blogging platform like Wordpress or TypePad - offer 3 major differences a) They have simplified the development of pages and sites into "widgets" as design modules and "plugins" as combined design/functional modules making the need to know HTML less necessary b) Blogs offer RSS (Simple Syndication) which provides a standardized way to share your content automatically after each update and c) An entire open-source community contributing templates, widgets and plugins that you can tap into to get almost any functionality or design element imaginable.

People have mentioned that blogs are easier to maintain...that's not quite accurate. With blogs your original templates, widgets and plugins have all been designed around a certain release of the underlying blog platform (WP version number as an example). However WP is constantly changing and soon you may find conflicts that make your site unusable...so you either need to go with an overall blog management theme where the theme owner offers (for a price) to keep their design elements up to date (EX Thesis) OR you are on your own and have to hire help or figure it out yourself.

3. Integrated Social Networking Platforms (Tumblr, Facebook, Squidoo, etc...) Over time there have been another range of platforms that have become available that host their sites in the cloud and allow you to create your own pages. The challenge with these is that you rely on their business to continue hosting your content (I've never been comfortable with this for my main content), the advantage being tighter tie in's with social sharing, commenting, etc...(this is definitely a good thing)

All in all...my advice would be:

1. You do want to have a mix of static and web log content on your site. You can do this by combining html pages with Wordpress OR you can do it all with WP, really up to you in terms of pro's/con's of each platform

2. Branch out and create social networking pages that augment your business and drive traffic back to your site, but don't exclusively host on these sites as you are 100% exposed to their terms of service and viability...either of which could disappear tomorrow.

Jeff

I think blogging is a good free way of starting out in the online marketing world and once your comfortable with it spend some money on a website.

Depends on what you're trying to accomplish. Although, generally, I prefer the "website" model over the blog, but include blogs on most of my business websites.

1) Many people confuse "blog" with "CMS platform" (Wordpress, for instance). Just because your site is powered by Wordpress, it doesn't mean it's a blog. A blog is a journal-like dynamic site where you post new content recurrently in a chronological order. A static Wordpress-powered site is *not* a blog.

2) OP... what kind of question is that? that's like asking "Should I travel by train or by plane?". Dont you reckon that it pretty much depends on what the purpose of your site is? Without that info, it's impossible to give you any meaningful answer.

Depends entirely on what you are out to accomplish. If you are more into writing and expressing yourself, then blog is a great vehicle to connect with and draw audience.

If you want to do online retail sales and have 10,000 products in your inventory website is the way to go. The term website is really just that, a web site. For that matter, blog is also a website, but more of a specialized website used to express yourself and to connect with your readers.

All sites on the web are websites, no? And if you want a blog in the strictest sense of the word - a web log ordered in chronological fashion - then that is probably not best suited for a business or marketing site.

BUT... Wordpress (et al) are Content Management Systems. They do all kinds of things. They allow the setup of fantastic websites that you can modify and update easily without HTML editors or FTP clients. And no, those sites don't have to look like someone playing 'dear diary'. Check out Krispy Kreme doughnuts . That is a Wordpress site running Thesis theme. Not much like a blog, eh?

The big advantage of the CMS platforms like Wordpress is that they allow you to continue to add pages with keyword focused content and greatly expand the natural search traffic to your site. The sky is the limit. You can add stores, forums, etc. and have a complete business. There is really no downside unless you need a complex database driven site. But since this is a marketing site, I'm pretty sure you can handle whatever marketing site you are wishing to do with a CMS like Wordpress.

I'm not saying this because I can't/haven't built websites from scratch. I can and have (hundreds since '99!) But CMS platforms have opened up a whole new realm to publishing on the web for those without Dreamweaver of knowledge of PHP. They have made it cheap and easy and available to all. I would guess 95% of us are better off using a CMS system.

/Clark

I think it depends on the niche you are going on. For reviews, Blog is better, but for a sales or Ecommerce website is a lot better. Also it is immature to think that blog = spammed. That isn't always the case.

"Website with a blog is the best" - Well said! . I too agree with you and managing the website with one of the best content management system will be a good idea.

I think it depends on what you really do and want you want..
If you just love posting/sharing some of your life experience and etc, you should choose blogsite for it.. Its way easier to maintain..
If you your doing some business or services, you could try having a website since its more professional to look at but its not that quite easy to maintain..

There is no difference.

A blog feeds the hunger of a topic's
audience. A website feeds the hunger of
a different topic's audience.

As long as you're in a rabid enough market, with sufficient monetization, you're going to make money. The question is...

How much?



Winston Tian

html for speed !