Alphablogs

“A blog – that’s just people talking about random events in their lives”.

Sometimes, that’s true. But blogs are so much more:

• an easy, quick and inexpensive way to create a web site – your presence on the internet
• an inexpensive, quick and easy way to supplement an already existing web site
• a communication tool that opens a two-way, interactive channel between you and your customers
• a quick and easy means for storing and sharing information, be it words, images, audio, or video
• a way to learn more about customer interest
• an effective and trackable means to drive traffic to your business

Let me tell you a little bit about the first one.

Setting up your first web entry on blog platforms such as Blogger or Wordpress is just about as easy and quick as setting up an email address and writing your first email. And if you don’t need your own domain name, it will cost you nothing.

You may have heard of no-cost web sites at places such as Free Websites , Tripod or Angelfire. However, using a blogging system still makes much more sense. Why?

One, because free blogging software often does not have advertising. Free website hosting always comes with advertising. Often, it will advertise your competition.

Two, even the best web site builders (and some of them are quite good – I like Tripod) are much clumsier to navigate than a site like Blogger. My not very internet-savvy 10-year old just started a site on Blogger; that would have never been possible with a web site.

Now you’re probably wondering how you can use your blog as a web site.

It’s quite simple.

First of all, a blog is a web site. Its “back end” technology and, how should I say, “web philosophy” is a little different than old-fashioned, so-called static websites but that doesn’t really need to concern you. (We at alphablogs don’t worry about that, either).

Second, you can simply treat every “page” of your web site as a blog entry. One might be an “About” entry, another one could feature client testimonials, another could feature your services.  And another “page” could hold all your blog posts.

Our alphablog site is a good example of this.

Now we’re not saying that using blogs as web sites is the perfect solution for everyone. However, it’s a great, inexpensive and flexible solution for most small businesses or many other businesses that are not focused on e-commerce (i.e. businesses that sell mostly via the web).