As you may know I am a great fan of Ken Evoy of SiteSell. His clear thinking and especially his way of transferring those ideas to the people around him is mindboggling. Ken likes to shake up things and get you to look deeper than before.
This time Ken set forth a direct attack on the blogging craze.
Blog or Build? With Site Build It!…
You Actually Do Both Automatically.
Beyond That, Is Full Blogging Right For You?Should You Full Blog? For Most Small Business People…
“Full-Blogging” Is the Wrong Choice To Build a Business
Blogging. Everyone’s doing it.
And that is a financial mistake for most small businesses. Few make much money at blogging because it is usually the wrong way to grow an online business. That’s important if you want your Web venture to be more than just a hobby (“an activity or interest pursued for pleasure and not primarily for income”).
What is blogging, exactly? Well, after you strip away all the hoopla…
Blogging is merely a different way to build a Web site. Its content is organized by the date/time of its “posts,” which are what blogs call “Web pages” (even the word “posts” suggests time-sensitivity).
The points he makes are well thought out.
Of course his statements have caused a stir in the blogging world. Rosalind Gardner got all angry and wrote what I consider to be a less well thought out response:
http://www.netprofitstoday.com/blog/blogging-is-a-massive-mistake-huh/
Andy Beard takes a much more balanced route and admits he has learned a lot from Ken and understands his point.
http://andybeard.eu/2008/04/ken-evoy-attacks-blogging-wordpress.html
I think the main point Ken is making is that for the average business a full blog is simply too much work for the actual results it will produce. Taking the long time view will make the blogging posts of little value.
Some are talking about the technical aspect of blogging vs. building. SBI is not really a technical solution it is a marketing strategy along with a handful of tools to support the growth.
For me – as a technical thinker and doer – I chose to create this one blog to link all my sites and to have a place where I can express my views on a number of things – small and large.
My recommendation:
Choose WordPress if you are willing to spend more time and cost or are willing to take on the steeper learning curve. You will have to learn about the more technical sites of hosting like upgrading the software and handling technical challenges. Outsource these things and the cost goes even higher.
Choose SBI if you want to drive your business safely to a set goal. My SBI sites are the core of my strategy of building an “online empire” (sorry if that sounds like a used phrase).
In the end it is all a matter of delivering value to your customer and making the world a little better.