Are the use of blogs the future marketing?Please respond

I have built websites and now it looks like blogs are changing everything.I would really like to get some good advice on this. I have been trying internet marketing for about six months with mixed results.I have a list of over 1000 subscribers as of this morning and growing everyday.I try to learn as much as I can from where ever I can and from who ever I can.
So any advice and information would be great,and not taken lightly.


Thanks

Billt

Not trying to be smart here, Bill.. I doubt it.

Look around and you'll see what I mean:

W 2.0 Is "The" way to go

SEO does the trick.

Craigslist will swamp you with buyers

Use Ebay to increase your sales

And so on, and so on, and so on.

I honestly don't believe there's a "Next Big Thing". Some things work well for one person, and not the next.

Try it all, and make your own decission.

Pete

Pete is so right, as usual. You have to test, test and test.

Classified work for some and not for others. Display ads work for some and not for others. Blogs and articles work at times for me other times they don't.

Bill,

There will Never be just one way of Doing Anything...

The baby internet will keep on Growing & Changing Daily...

Become a Daily Trend watcher...

Don't try and Compete in over-saturated Markets, especially internet marketing Unless you really know what you're doing and can be Different!

Keep in mind, there are a Gazillion niches to Help confuse you... And make Money...

Focus... Study and Learn from the Best... A couple Quick picks...

Power 150 - Top marketing Blogs...
http://www.sowpub.com/forum/showthread.php?p=16327

Eben Pagan/David DeAngelo... Mindset... Don't Keep Your Best Ideas Secret...
http://www.sowpub.com/forum/showthread.php?p=16426

Phil

[Dien Rice]

Originally Posted by billt

I have built websites and now it looks like blogs are changing everything.I would really like to get some good advice on this.

Hi Bill,

To my understanding, the big advantage of blogs is something called RSS. You don't need to really understand how it works - essentially, when you post to your blog, with RSS you send a "signal" to various places that there's a new message at your blog.

That means people can subscribe directly to your "feed" to get those new blog messages. However, other websites can also find out instantly that there's a new message there. That means that blog search engines (like Technorati http://www.technorati.com or Google BlogSearch http://blogsearch.google.com ) also know there's a new message at your blog. That means they can instantly check it out, and add it to their search database. So others people using those blog search engines can also find your new blog messages right away.

That's the main advantage of a blog over a "static" website. Both types of websites have their place and their uses. So I don't think blogs will make static websites obsolete. Rather, both will "live" together... along with podcasts, and the rest of the web chaos!

I hope that helps...

Best wishes, Dien

[Ankesh]

Thanks for asking Billt.

Ask 100 people who aren't geeks what blogs are. And 50 of them won't know. Most people who read blogs don't even know that they are reading blogs.

And why is that? Because defining your dot com venture as a blog or a website makes no difference to your readers. As long as you give them good content - they are happy.

There are two big advantages that blog types sites have over the usual non-blog websites:

1. Blogs are much much easier to update
2. Bloggers are a very vocal community. Many bloggers will link to you.

But thats about it. If you create a 300 page website - it'll have the same effect as a 300 page blog. Search engines will love you equally. But its harder to update a 300 page website than a 300 page blog.

So should you go with a blog format or the usual website format?

In my opinion - if you are starting a new website - go with the blog format. Specifically - WordPress. Its very very flexible. And much easier to build upon in the future. And its completely free.

Here's a list of traffic generating ideas from Seth Godin:

How to get traffic for your blog

This is a mostly satirical list, but a few of the items on that list are right on. For example, the last item: "Write stuff that people want to read and share." Even that advice is sarcastic, though...what else would you want to write?

And if you can figure out which ideas are sarcastic, just turn them around to find the truth behind the wit: "Write about a never-ending parade of different topics so you don't bore your readers." In other words, tighten the breadth of your material.

Also, you'll notice the list gives us contradictory advice. Don't write about your kids. A few lines later, write about your kids.

Here's the point: There are no rules. What matters is your audience. Find out what feeds their hunger. Find out how they like to be fed.

Michael Taylor