"Closed"/"Open" Website - Which strategy works best for you?

So you mean a blog or a static website?

I prefer blog style sites because it gets people coming back again and again but I'm sure there are advantages of both.

It's going to boil down to what you're trying to sell to who. Some products can be successful using the "Set it and forget it" model. That type of model will usually be a product that is timeless such as example you gave with workouts, or recipes etc.. I've had success with both styles.

I've found it easier to have the "Closed" sites based around something very very specific to allow easy rankings and long term SE traffic.

"Neither of the above".

(I'm an affiliate, though, not a vendor - and I think you're probably asking as a vendor, really?)

My sites are technically blogs in that they've been made from blogging software, but they don't look like blogs and the posts aren't dated at all. The home page appears static (but might actually change a little from time to time, depending on what I'm testing - I'm always "testing"). I don't allow "comments" or have "social media buttons". I don't use pop-ups, video or any of the other things that drive large numbers of people away from websites, never to return. I also don't use squeeze pages but the primary purpose of all my websites is to collect the visitors' email addresses. All my sites are continually updated with new content (three times per month each) because I'm an article marketer and naturally publish every article on my own sites first and have them indexed there before letting anyone else publish them.

So I don't know if you classify all that as "open"/"closed", or as "blog"/"static", but that's what I do.

What are you talking about? How do these things drive people away and never to return? Actually things like comments, videos and interacting with people on social media gets them RETURNING again and again.

I don't see any sense in what you are saying.

I use open in most niches... People may buy from you but will not come back to your site if it's not updated frequently.

Cheers,

Gary

It really depends on the niche and the goal of your site. I have closed article sites and sites that i continue to update... Really it just depends on the purpose of the website in the first place.