Skip to main content

Weblog, blog for the friends.

Blogging was first a way of keeping a personal online weblog. That weblog then usually described how that person had experienced his/her day.

As with any new innovation on the Internet, entrepreneurs saw the marketing potential of a weblog. Weblog eventually became blog. However, a blog has more than just marketing potential; you can use a blog to get something up and running yourself.

Website or blog?

Many people still often have trouble seeing the difference between a website and a blog. Since many companies use a combination of both, so this is not illogical. But there are 2 major differences that make for a clear distinction:

  1. Blogs are updated regularly. Whether it is a travel blog on which new adventures appear daily, a cooking blog were constantly sharing tasty recipes or a company sharing its new updates with its followers … none of it matters. Specific to a blog is that new content is added to it daily or weekly. Website will very occasionally share new updates and information, but it is not that frequent. Usually websites are very static.
  2. Blogs create engagement with the reader. Blog posts are often shared on social media. On Facebook, for example, this is a perfect way to interact with your followers or spark a discussion. Whereas you share a website just to show that you have one.

Popularity

There are several reasons why blogging has become so popular in the marketing landscape. We’ll give you five in advance:

  1. SEO. Search engines love new content, with the result that blogs do very well in (organic) searches.
  2. Up-to-date. It’s an easy way to keep your followers up to date on what exactly you’re working on, present the latest deals or offer tips. The more visitors come to your blog, the more likely they will buy something.
  3. Based on trust. With a blog, you can do more than just brag about what you all know. You give followers a chance to interact with you and each other. That way, you build a bond of trust.
  4. Income. Whether aligned with your products or services or not, blogs can generate a nice income. This can be done through advertisements or affiliate marketing, for example.
  5. Anytime, anywhere. Blogging can simply be done anytime, anywhere. At home, in the office, abroad, …

Disadvantages of blogging

Blogging is popular because it works well as a marketing tool and makes a lot of money that way. But blogging is not always rosy in that area. Before you want to start a blog with the goal of making money, keep the following points in mind:

  1. Time-consuming. Blogging takes a lot of time. If you want your blog to work optimally for SEO and elicit enough engagement, it must be updated regularly. The Internet is a graveyard for blogs that are no longer looked after.
  2. Ideas. To keep producing content, you need new ideas all the time. The good news is, you don’t necessarily have to do this yourself. You can hire writers or freelancers to do that work for you. Another option is to derive content from others or publish an alternative post (for example, a video).
  3. More than just articles. You used to get away with it; a simple article generated enough traffic and income. Today, you need email marketing, content upgrades and an engaged social network.
  4. Long-term. One of the biggest frustrations of blogging is that it is time consuming in the beginning and you get very little in return. It is something you have to build up step by step.