How Flawed Is the Blogging Model?

The best way to assess the severity of a problem is to assess its solutions. Many bloggers who use blogs to create niche sites turn off the "archive by date" indicator and the date of the post. For software that was originally supposed to deliver a time-sensitive journal, it surely seems to be "kludging" its way to "look" like a website.

SBI!, though, was designed from the ground up, to enable its users to "build them right." No kludging necessary. So SBI! owners do not post a bunch of disjointed, undated posts about a topic. They create one, excellent article about that topic, which they periodically update. Take this "thought experiment"...

Pretend you are visiting a site in search of information about incorporating an offshore company in Anguilla. One has an excellent, up-to-date, comprehensive article. The other has a mish-mash of new laws, commentary, older posts, and so forth, some scattered under "offshore" as a keyword and some under "legal."

Which site earns your loyalty?
Google knows the answer.

Theme-Based Content Sites "Lock" Into the Web More Fully and Multi-Dimensionally

Google explained, in a post dated March 4, 2008 in their Public Policy Blog (a good use of blogging!), how their "information retrieval experts have added more than 200 additional signals to the algorithms that determine the relevance of websites to a user's query." 200 factors!

While bloggers focus on linking, Google actually tracks how humans respond to quality, original content. They track everything from the original Google PR to bounce rates to social media presence to... well, one can only speculate.

Unlike the blogosphere, well-executed Theme-Based Content Sites integrate into the Web steadily and deeply. Theme-Based Content Sites address the total "Web integration" picture, naturally and powerfully, without manipulation.

And Google tracks it all. Unlike blogs, real sites do not depend on intensive interlinking between each other to build their reputations in Google's eyes. Their integration into the Web is deeper and stronger, making their traffic surer and contributing to the traffic momentum.


And Now... SBI!'s Content 2.0 Accelerates That Momentum

Site Build It! sites have natural traffic momentum. And now its recently released Content 2.0 ("C2") module, which enables your site to grow totally through the efforts of visitors (bringing "Web 2.0" to the small business person), pushes that to an even higher, still-natural, level of traffic momentum.
It leaves blogging far behind. Blogging is not really Web 2.0. It is closer to broadcasting (or "narrow-casting"). There is no true user-created content and little interactivity ("commenting") at most blogs.

Blogging is "weak Web 2.0" when compared to SBI!'s C2, where your visitors create genuine, high-quality content for you in a variety of ways. Click here for more information about SBI!'s Content 2.0.

The traffic momentum of true user-generated content and viral spread is pronounced.

The "Blog or Build" Bottom Line
Blogging is for a very small percent of the population. It is an ideal medium for highly talented writers and clever thinkers with the time, inclination and skill-set to "develop a following" in certain particular sets of circumstances. On the other hand...

A Theme-Based Content Site springs from personal knowledge and passion, something we all have. It is something that anyone can do at his or her own pace. And it can be used to start an online business "from scratch," or to support and grow an existing offline business.

The Three Fatal Flaws of Blogging
There are, of course, some highly successful blogs. Well-done, news-oriented blogs, for example. And blogs that are not really "blogs" in the usual sense but that merely use the software to build more traditional Theme-Based Content Sites. In both cases, it takes the truly exceptional to succeed without a complete step-by-step process and all the tools needed to execute flawlessly.

These successes are the exceptions that prove the rule of blog failure. There are fundamental reasons why typical blogs fail in such high numbers...

Fatal Flaw #1) Blogs Do Not Deliver Useful Information Resources
A blog is like a stack of hundreds of dated back issues of newspapers. Aside from "today's snippet," blogs are generally not useful resources for information. And information is what people search for; it's what they crave on the Web.

Blog posts are created and stored in chronological order. A good blogger will produce a post that is useful today, but who will read it in three months? Even when bloggers go to the extra effort of archiving their posts by "keyword categories," the articles are dated and not rewritten into coherent definitive articles. Usefulness plummets with time.

How does a Theme-Based Content Site differ?
Instead of a stack of old newspapers, each resembles a good resource book about its theme, composed of useful, original articles ("Web pages") that cover related topics in some depth.

Written in each small-business owners's unique voice, and based upon that person's experience in the field, they are useful resources that visitors return to over and over.

To summarize, Theme-Based Content Sites are evergreen, useful and usable, long-term momentum-builders. Blogs are short-term "today's snippets." The differing results are profound (skip up and re-read Google's analysis from its Google Analytics 101 course).

The Blogging Exceptions That Prove the Rule
There are talented writers who use blogging software to create high quality, full articles about various topics related to a theme. As explained above, they use blogging software to create Theme-Based Content Sites. But there is a more effective and cost-and-time efficient way to do that... Site Build It!!

Humans respond to blogs and Theme-Based Content sites differently. And Google measures those reactions in hundreds of ways, rewarding your ranking accordingly. That is why Theme-Based Content sites are easier to create and build longer-lasting traffic. Continuing this analysis...

Fatal Flaw #2) Blogging Navigation and Internal Organization Are Inherently Awkward
Generally, blogs have no immediately logical organization of material by categorical tiers, sub-tiers, etc. At best, there may be a collection of "keywords" under which posts are filed. The various posts on a topic are never pulled together into cohesive articles, since they generally start as news pieces or thoughts of the day.

Theme-Based Content Sites are organized more logically. And Web pages are updated, not re-issued as new posts. These sites are easier to find and are simpler and more fruitful to explore by your "human" visitors (your pre-customers!).

And what about your "spider" visitors (the Search Engines)? Site Build It! makes it supremely easy for all engines to spider and list your pages. And critically, superior human response becomes obvious to all engines (as mentioned by Google itself above).

"Spider and human" work synergistically together to build substantially greater long-term traffic momentum. And the beauty is that all you have to do is "keep it real." This has nothing to do with "SEO" or any kind of Search Engine manipulation. The results are natural, long-lasting, and evergrowing.

Fatal Flaw #3) Blogs Do Not Meet the Natural Needs of Most Small Business Opportunities
Some fields of business lend themselves well to blogging. For example, there is an overload of bloggers covering and commenting on even the most minute developments in the fast-moving, Web-savvy field of Internet marketing. Most of it is "noise" that will ultimately mean nothing.

Nevertheless, "Net marketing" is a natural for blogging.
But the nature of your business and its related subject matter is most likely inappropriate for blogging. Your own business is almost certainly better served by a Theme-Based Content Site.

Why? Because your future customers will be better served by information delivered in this manner. Theme-Based Content Sites flex to meet the goals, knowledge and circumstances of everyone...

Whether you are a dentist or asphalt sealer...

Whether you are a copywriter or java programmer...

Or perhaps you are a stay-at-home mom or pre-retiree who wants to start an online business from scratch...

Whatever your business or plans, build a Theme-Based Content Site, not a blog.

Here's how to get off to a great start, to understand how and why only this approach builds a profitable online business, no matter what that business may be...