Do you need a Website or a Blog?

Which one is the best for you a website, or a blog? If that is a question you have let me share some experiences with you that might help. Let’s start with a website. Personal websites are a great way to present your talents, skills, and training to the internet world; kind of like a personal electronic resume interested people can read 24-7 and interact with, if you have setup your website for that purpose. Whether you’re a carpenter, mechanic, technician, or in between job nurse, a personal website is one of the posting your job skill qualifications to more employers. A lot of my friends are musicians and their personal websites have not only helped them get gigs, but also helped them promote their other musical skills, like song writing, or musicianship.

There are places on the internet like LinkedIn that can be helpful if you’re job shopping, but even places like LinkedIn offer you the link space to show your own business or personal website. If you’re an organization, or part of an organization, a website can help you spread the word about your organization in ways that to me are more helpful than phone calls, or flyers, and allow interested people to interact with you instantly night or day, weekday or weekend, to grow your membership, or donations.

E-Commerce websites allow you to both advertise and sell products, so if you produce your own product, or sell the products from others an e-commerce website can help you keep track of sales, and run a successful online store. If what you plan to sell is your service (information, technical repair, insurance, medical, holistic, or other service) your website can serve as your online interactive business card. In many cases and online business card that let people who visit your website, see, and hear your message.

A Blog is usually more text and expression related so if you enjoy writing, especially about something you are passionate about perhaps a blog will serve you best. In my case the word passionate translates to simply knowing a little something about the person, place, or thing I plan to write about. Usually the more I research or come to know about my chosen subject the more passionate about my writing I become. When it comes to blogging it’s about sharing what you know and feel about something with your readers. Example: when it comes to writing I usually think in terms of writing a letter to a friend; what I mean is if I discover something, or find something interesting about writing, gardening, or some other interest of mine, my next step is usually to think in terms of sharing that information in a letter that becomes my blog post to a friend (you, the reader).

 

The real trick for a first time blogger is how not to convince yourself that you really have nothing to write about. You may not always be in the mood to write, I know that’s true for me, but what seems to count most in blogging, besides dispensing all sorts of useful information, is your own personal experience with people, places, and things.  Sure everyone can do and experience the same things, but what was your own personal experience? What stood out most to you?

Whether you enjoy working with your hands, sewing, cooking, or planting a garden don’t be afraid to share that passion or information about the effect it has on you, or how it makes you feel. Especially if what you are passionate about stimulates feelings you don’t mind sharing. You might be surprised how some topic you consider boring generates an interest in others. Naturally I can only sight what works for me when it comes to writing down my thoughts; something I’m still working on. With regard to blogging, I will say this, if you are an author (published, self-published, or unpublished) you should have your own blog. Blogging is a great way to keep in touch with your readers, and keep your followers up-to-date about you, your writing projects, appearances, and new releases.

For those in which the desire to write is already in your DNA, having your own blog had even been responsible for the selling of a few more of your books, articles, and short stories than usual. That’s just one of at least a hundred good examples I can think of for having your own blog. You should know your needs when it comes the website vs a blog question, and there are web designers and blog designers out there ready to help you focus on your internet goals.

Since I first became involved with the internet over ten years ago I have watched internet capabilities grow in leaps and bounds from personal computers and dot-coms in the early days, to laptops and Y-Fi growing the amount of people with access to the internet, followed by tablets you can take anywhere and now cellphones with all the operational perks of the old comic book hero Dick Tracy’s wrist radio, so what will it be, website, or blog?