Will every website be a blog?
Recent discussion on the HPCA mail list has been focused on the question, 'will blogs replace websites?' Media Orchard and B.L. Ochman have also recently opined that this may be a trend to come.
I hope not.
Don't get me wrong - I do think that blogs are an incredibly useful communications tool. There really aren't many cases where I would recommend that a client not blog. However, save for a few instances, I don't think the blog is the most useful thing to lead with on a web site.
As Seth Godin recently discussed out at Blogon 2005, the problem with a blog is that the first thing you see upon visiting a blog is that days post. Not your best post. Not your most effective introduction. Just today's post. Kate Trgovac points out, if today's post isn't your best post - what are the chances of your keeping your new visitor? Do you have a hope in heck of converting them from a visitor to a customer?
Think about it. Do you want your first encounter in a restaurant to be the host welcoming you and showing to your seat, or the chef walking over and telling you the difference between fresh and spoilt meat? When you're stepping into Best Buy, do you expect to hear 'Welcome to Best Buy', or should one of the staff run over and begin to tell you about the new television from Sony? When you step into a lawyer's office for the first time, does he ask you about your particular case details or does he start off by telling you a funny story about a balif he knows?
As important as it is to have a conversation, as important as it is to build relationships through communication, it's just as important to begin with a proper introduction.
2 Comments:
The "last post is not necessarily you best post" in an interesting concept, but it assumes that everyone will visit through the front page of the site. That's not the case for well established sites with links to great articles from other sites and high search rankings for old posts.
This doesn't change the fact that blogging isn't the best choice for many web sites. Look at your goals first, then pick an apprpriate web publishing strategy.
Carrying forward the conversation metaphor, one could take a referral from an established site, or a high ranking search to be the equivilant of an introduction.
If I'm at a party and I say to a colleague, "Hey, there's Ed. He's saying some interesting about email ettiquette. You should go have a listen." that's likely all the intro my colleague needs at the moment. He'll then make the call as to whether he cares to listen to what else you have to say.
But a homepage is like the blind chance meeting. Two folks who bump into one another at the party. If someone's arriving on your homepage, there's a good chance it's their first time arriving or they've been given only the most cursory of an introduction.
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