Is There Any Advantage To Use A Weblog Over Posting Articles On My Site?

One of my clients, Meredith of Llamajama, asked if there is any advantage to using a weblog over posting articles on her site.

My short answer: Yes!

The purpose of posting articles on your site is to increase your “virtual real estate” (VRE) which means you add more pages and information to your site, for the search engines spiders to eat, which means you’ll have more links in the search engine results when potential customers search for information.

While this method is effective in building your ranking in the search engines and providing information to your clients, it doesn’t allow you to build relationships with your customers the way that a weblog will.

Building relationships with your customers is an important method of “pre-selling” them. For example, if your potential customers know that they can go to your site for up-to-date information on using cloth diapers and the cloth diaper industry in general, who do you think will first in their minds for purchasing cloth diapers? You!

Of course, blogging is a bit more complicated than just setting up a weblog and posting. You have to decide on a specific topic, figure out what software you will use, and generate traffic to your site. And, of course, encourage people to participate.

I just downloaded a product called Blogging Starter Pack, created by my friend Lynette Chandler. This product contains all the answers to those questions, and more:

• How do I start?
• How do I setup a blog under my domain name?
• Is it worth it to pay for a hosted blog?
• Is it possible to make my blog look like my website?
• How do I use my blog to promote my products?

You can learn more about the Blogging Starter Pack at her site, or you can take her free email course, Unleash The Selling Power of Your Blog.

You can also read Lynette’s blog.

Are you blogging? Has blogging helped increase your product sales?