Blogs vs. Theme-Based Content Sites

Ken's Blog

Site Build It! (SBI!) owners build Theme-Based Content Sites. They  build traffic right into their sites from DAY 1 by following the Content Traffic PREsell Monetize process. They build valuable sites that are searched-and-found by prospective new customers... with the number of visitors steadily climbing as their sites gain in relevance and reputation at the Search Engines.

Let's compare that with blogging...

Blogging is merely another way to build a Web site. Its content tends to be temporal or time-sensitive (ex., news-oriented or "the latest" or "the thought of the day"). And that is blogging's first major drawback. 

Blogging is heavily covered by the media because they "get" the concept. They themselves create time-sensitive info every day. The great-untold story of blogging, however, is how 99+% of blogs lie dormant. Dead. And THAT failure rate is the second very big drawback.

As Chris Anderson, executive editor of WIRED magazine and one of the most prominent bloggers, said (in Blogging Heroes, a book published by Wiley in late 2007)...

A blog is this beast - a monkey on your back. It wants to be fed every day, but we all have jobs and it's hard to do.

Most people soon burn out from that "pressure to blog" and drop out, which is the third big problem with blogging.

That is why blogging is for a very small percent of the population -- writers with the time, inclination and skill-set to "develop a following." A Theme-Based Content Site that springs from personal knowledge and passion, on the other hand, is something that anyone can do at his or her own pace.

And that brings me to compare blogs and Theme-Based Content Sites...

1) Nature of Content   Blogs are hard to read "retrospectively" since the posts are created and stored temporarily. Even when archived by category, the articles are dated and not organized into nice, coherent subjects since they are a bunch of "thoughts of the day." (There are exceptions, talented writers like Steve Pavlina who create quality, meaty articles, organized by categories, essentially "using" blog software to build a high-quality Theme-Based Content Site. More on this in the P.S.)

Theme-Based Content Sites have a stronger, more evergreen, momentum-building approach. Humans respond to relevant quality content in so many more ways than just giving a link back to you (unasked). And Google measures those hundreds of off-page criteria, rewarding your ranking accordingly.

2) Navigation and Organization   Generally, blogs have no immediately logical organization of material by tiers, sub-tiers, etc.  If they do, the material is still not compiled into cohesive articles, but rather into short thoughts of the day.

Theme-Based Content Sites are organized more logically. Pages are updated, not re-issued. These sites are easy for humans to read/explore and the engines to spider, two key elements for building traffic momentum.

3) Limited "Natural" Markets   Subject matter is important, too. Outside of the Internet marketing field, where information changes super-fast and where there are many strong voices, and outside of news-oriented sites, there are just not that many themes that are as well suited to blogging as they are to creating solid Theme-Based Content Sites.

4) Search Engine Degradation   Blogs are temporal, and all Search Engines treat them as such (traffic degrades with inactivity more quickly). Google recently devalued much of the low-quality, "unspoken link-exchanging" that goes on in "the blogosphere."

5) Monetization   What about the monetization potential of a blog? Even as a way for infopreneurs to earn income, most people simply won't push traffic numbers to make enough money. There are simply more ways to monetize a Theme-Based Content Site. Diversification of income and steady growth, even when not creating new content for months, provides a sky's-the-limit potential.

My Bottom-Line Thoughts About Blogging?

I'm not slamming blogging, merely saying that it's vastly over-rated. It is most appropriate for the exceptional infopreneur -- people who have the time, inclination, subject matter and high originality to pull it off. It's a far more Darwinian, all-or-nothing world. I'm a big fan of Steve Pavlina, Scott Adams, and Seth Godin, but these three are all exceptional writers with creative and original ideas.

I don't consider blogging as "Web 2.0"... it's merely another way to build Web sites, with pages that tend to be shorter, time-sensitive "thoughts" and that allow visitors to comment on your content. It feels like broadcasting to me. It is not nearly "as Web 2.0" as SBI!'s Content 2.0, for example, where your visitors create genuine, high-quality content for you, for free.

For most small business people (i.e., you!), the best route is to build a Theme-Based Content Site that delivers sought-after information about a specific niche. Each topic is well-covered, based upon your own experience, rather than broken into pieces over time in a blog. This C T P M approach will serve your visitors' purposes better, will build more long-term targeted traffic, and will monetize for you far better than a blog.

All the best,

P.S. A final thought on this...  Both WordPress and TypePad have "softened" their software to enable people to create more un-blog-like sites. When you do that, of course, you basically end up with just another site-builder, a nice, usable Content Management System. The vast majority of users, one way or another, are still back at Square One -- they lack the knowledge and tools to build a highly trafficked site.

"Getting a site (or blog) up" has never been easier. But succeeding has never been harder. Despite all the "blog-buzz," the failure rate is nearly 100% -- only the incredibly talented make any significant dollars through blogging. And only SBI! provides all the tools, and the process to enable everyone to succeed.

 

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Comments

[Nikenya]

The masses are always following and chasing after the buzz.

The media house, internet marketers and the so called internet gurus love blogs, why? Because it enables them to constantly update their content and stay right in front of their target market.

These are the very same people and companies that have created the buzz about blogs and blogging.

And because we are really a generation that loves to be associated to the latest trend, we all follow suit and do what the big guys are doing without really knowing what it takes.

I believe a blog a great tool especially for some one with a site with great content that naturally blends with blogging.

[Robert Worstell]

Taking issue with your description of blogging and their use - not everyone is chasing the news and popularity bandwagon/ambulance.

Blogs can also be used for research and as promotion of other goods - even simultaneously.

Blogging is also a subset of social networking. So when used with social bookmarking, it is a key tool in setting your keyword-enabled blog post up as one of the top rankings on Google.

There is that strategy of using Google (and others') emphasis on the timely to actually build an huge impact while grabbing and holding prime search engine real estate for niche keywords - often pushing more "organic SEO" sites off in the process.

Search engines are going more social-oriented (as well as paid advertising) and so will cater to temporal/social-oriented themes. It's a tipping-point pop-oriented world, after all.

Properly optimized with good keyword research and LSI theming, a blog (when social bookmarked) can out-produce article marketing and anything else except corporate sites with huge pagerank and hundreds of thousands of pages. I've seen it done and done it.

But your profits are in targeting the Long Tail niches - and this is where dedicated bloggers shine. They do have to monetize there blogs - and that is where most fail, as you point out.

[Ken Evoy]

A couple of good comments, thank you. :-)

To Nikenya...

I agree with you that blogs can be very useful within a larger content site. One of my key points, though, is that most small business people don't have the time, inclination, ability or target market to make blogging worth the extra effort. If they do, though, Site Build It! DOES make it easy to integrate WordPress, Blogger, TypePad into their main SBI! sites, resulting in...

The best of both worlds. :-)

To Robert -- There is no evidence that Google is going more "social-oriented" -- that's a narrow view of their bigger mission. Google's logical #1 motive is to provide the most relevant, high-quality results. Their Universal Search is, of course, the best example. So...

If a search tends to be image-oriented (without specifically saying so), it blends in some image results. If a search tends to be more time-sensitive (i.e., news, "the latest," and so forth), it will blend in news and blogs along with its usual organic results. If you're looking for pizza in New York, you're not likely to get a page giving you the history of pizza.

But a site cannot be all things to all people. If you want to create a site that meets the short-term needs of what you call "the pop-oriented," then blogging is the best way to do it. But that's a uni-dimensional approach that perhaps does not think monetization all the way through. And you better be very good, and very committed, to staying constantly on top and posting regularly.

Perez Hilton, of course, would read this and say, "That guy Evoy is crazy. I'm making millions." And he is. Because he makes exceptional use of blogging. But most people, even the millions who love celeb gossip as much as he does, are NOT able to do what Perez Hilton does. And, in fact...

Most small business sites do not want to blog when writing about their fitness services or about asphalt sealing or about their favorite Caribbean island. They want to build long-term, evergreen, high-quality content that attracts steadily growing traffic. And SBI! does that better than any other system because the process and tools are all-included.

Naturally, you can ALSO integrate a blog into your SBI! site, but I don't advise that as the starting point for most small business people nor for those wanting to start a small business online.

You made an important point here, Robert...

"Properly optimized with good keyword research and LSI theming"... The point is that the intricacies of doing this are beyond the vast majority of small business people. Even power users of SBI! say, "Sure I COULD do it without SBI!, but why would I want to."

SBI! provides all the tools to succeed, as I explained above. WordPress does not. When you have all the tools and a step-by-step process, that is a powerful starting advantage. By filtering out all the noise (of trying to keep up and figuring out which tools they need and how to use them) and by eliminating the need to master tech, SEO, etc., folks build REAL businesses, ones that make money in many different ways, far more successfully.

And yes... I agree with you when you say "blogs can be very successful." It's exactly what I say above. Steve Pavlina, a huge supporter of SBI!, has proven that. He has surpassed Tony Robbins online. But he has done it, as he explains, after years of trial-and-error and figuring it out. Steve is, in addition, exceptional -- brilliant, original, creative and he has a tech background that helped him, too.

(Steve actually uses blogging software to create a Theme-Based Content Site, not the type of blog that most of us think about it. He doesn't worry about social networking because it just happens when you write amazing content. Most people do need a little "behind the scenes" tech help and that is where SBI! comes in. SBI! sites, through its built in module "Blog It!" and key articles to use social networking to maximal effect, at are no disadvantage to blogs in that respect.)

Bloggers miss a few key points because they view the world from within their own skin instead of taking a step back and making bigger conclusions...

1) It's a VERY big world out there, much more than a "tipping point, pop-oriented world." That is the NOISY subset of the world that you see. It's NOT "the world."

So you miss the bigger picture. Most people still do not know what RSS is, for example. The average person in Edinburgh or Amsterdam basically use their computers to search Google and get e-mail. The average BUSINESS person does not want to blog, nor do they need to.

2) Anecdotes do not prove a point. Our Case Studies site show how small business people of every kind use SBI! to succeed, without which they would not have been able to or would have spent years of trial-and-error getting up to speed. By themselves, although they are very detailed, they do not prove the point. We could add thousands more.

So we list hundreds of high-traffic sites on our Results page. And if you good Site Build It!, you'll see that we don't have satisfied customers, we have raving fans... and these are not the "pop-oriented what's hot today" crowd. These are the big picture of what the world is all about. After a while, any thinking person must draw the conclusions, "Wow, this SBI! must be the real thing."

So... are there blogs that outrank regular content sites for some keywords? Of course. There are a bajillion keywords our there and there are some exceptional people doing fantastic work in blogging. But, when you step back and look at the bigger picture...

Pound for pound of effort, Theme-Based Content Sites powered by SBI! will deliver more long-term, momentum-growing, PREsold traffic that monetizes in a wide variety of ways.

So yes, there are niches and circumstance and people that make blogging right for some people. I've already said that. But for most people, the correct starting point is to use SBI! to build a Theme-Based Content Site. As your traffic and "brand of one" (PREselling) grows, you integrate blogs or anything else you like to grow traffic even more (if you feel it's right for you). AND...

There are just so many excellent ways to monetize.

All the best,
Ken

P.S. After all that, the bottom line is that blogging is just another way to build a site. It's right for certain special sets of circumstances. Most small businesses need a complete process and set of tools to build a Theme-Based Content Site. Site Build It! is the only product in the world that delivers that and proves success.

And beyond that, SBI! owners can also add anything they like after that to grow their business as large as they like. Sometimes, that might even include a blog. :-)

[Allen Taylor]

As a user of both WordPress and SBI, I'll have to agree and disagree with you, Ken. On the bigger point, you are correct: Most small business owners will do well to start with a system-oriented theme-based content site like SBI - and I consider SBI the best. But they can also benefit from blogging.

The way I use a blog is a little bit different than the way most other people use it. Being a more personal medium than a static site, I can write to my target audience more directly and encourage feedback.

I also use my blog as a marketing and SEO tool. It's not all about monetizing the blog per se, but incorporating the blog into your monetization plan for your theme-based website. My blog is not incorporated into SBI or my website. It is off site as I use it to drive traffic to my website - traffic that might not find its way to my site. Since I market my blog through blog directories, which I can't do with a static content site, I reach the same audience I am targeting in a different way and can channel them to pages on my site that I'd like them to visit.

But, as you say, blogging is time-intensive and does require a commitment. That's where most bloggers don't count the cost prior to starting their blogs. For those of us who can make it work, it's a gem; for others it may be a bane. There are pros and cons to doing it either way, but for the small business owner with no technical knowledge of the Internet, coding, etc. and no resources to help them, SBI is the absolute best tool.

Caveat: I do take issue with you saying a blog is "thought of the day" and not much more. That is not true at all. I write rather lengthy essays on my blog quite often and those posts that are essays, as opposed to short and quippy, are my most read posts. A blog is much more flexible than a content site and that's one of its advantages. But we could discuss the weeds all day long and get nowhere. Bottom line, you're right on the bigger issue.

My SBI Site: www.world-class-poetry.com.

[Ken Evoy]

Hi Allen,

You have an excellent take on the issues. One thing...

I would tend to integrate a blog into your primary site rather than take the blog off-site. It makes your entire site larger in the eyes of human and engine visitors. There is no reason you cannot market that blog like any other blog, and many SBIers are already reporting excellent synergy.

And regarding "thought of the day," I did follow that up with comments on what you are doing. For example...

"There are exceptions, talented writers like Steve Pavlina who create quality, meaty articles, organized by categories, essentially "using" blog software to build a high-quality Theme-Based Content Site."

And read my P.S. on that same subject.

As you say, though, we are the same "big-picture" page. :-)

All the best,
Ken

[Joshua Heffern]

Ken, time and time again I am impressed with your insights, you devotion to helping and your clear, concise approach to delivering the information in your head.

I recently purchased an SBI site (2 actually over the holidays) and have been moving at the speed just slightly slower than your typical tortoise, but undoubtedly it will get done, and done right!

I have to admit to you that against your recommendation (I can not help myself when it comes to learning and exploring information) I have not avoided the SEO and internet marketing arenas and focused solely on SBI - hence the slow speed I've moved at in creating my site, but I have learned some incredible things in the last 90 days that will serve me very well as I continue to work on my site and e-business.

Point here it this, with all I've learned (especially in the social networking and marketing world within the internet marketing realm) your thoughts are still top of the list for me and I love your style.

Keep up the great work Ken

Joshua Heffern
Entrepeneur & Lifelong Student
theFreedomGroup@gmail.com

[Anthony Fernando]

Hi Ken,

Your post really struck a chord with me. I have a WordPress based blog that contains over 70 good quality articles relating to personal development. Over time I have built my subscriber list to over 6000.

Despite being online for over a year, the only real source of traffic to my blog is my weekly email to my list.

The organic traffic to my site is virtually zero despite the amount of content in my blog.

I also find that each article only has a brief lifespan before it is archived and rarely accessed again.

I am investigating the idea of moving my site across to SiteSell as I believe it may provide me with the tools I need to grow my organic traffic and reader base.

I will let you know what happens.

Warm Regards,

Anthony