Blog or website…or both?

Several of my clients have raised the question of blogging recently. Concerns run the gamut from “what should I write about?” to “what it no one reads it?” Questions that I’m sure we’ve all asked from time to time and ones which I do my best to help them resolve.

One of my clients, however, asked me about whether he should bother with a site at all and perhaps just start a blog. He’s a business coach and the nature of his work and his communication frequency and style make the idea of a blog instead of a site (at least to begin with) something worth considering.

I found the “blog vs site” question a thought-provoking one. I could see some immediate benefits to the “blog only” approach, the first being the “free is good” factor, but also the flexibility and ease-of-use that the big blogging sites WordPress, Blogger, etc give someone who may not be very technical and wants the to “play around” with ideas. Plus, you can virtually build the remaining “site” components using many of the available gadgets that integrate with these tools.

On the flip side, a web site is (in theory) lower maintenance, more fixed than dynamic. There is somewhat more flexibility with customization, less “template”, more built-in “intelligence”(optional) and application support with a custom site, though some of the blog applications are challenging that theory.

Blogs take more commitment, time to manage and moderate, but they can engage the audience quickly and get a conversation going, essential if your business is communication.

I did some digging around the web and found that there had been some discussion on the issue a couple of years ago, when blogs were really just starting to reach the world at large.

Then I hit the jackpot, an article by Darren Rowse, aka @problogger. It’s titled “Should I Change My Website Into a Blog?” and for anyone considering that question or variations of it should read his post.

1.5 Billion Internet Users…and Growing

According to the World Internet Usage Stats website, the current percentage of the world population that uses the Internet is almost 22%. The approximate world population is in the 6.5 billion range and there are almost 1.5 billion Internet users out there. I can’t think of too many changes in the history of mankind that have impacted that many people so quickly, for better or worse.

Less than a decade ago, the numbers were vastly different, with only 360 million Internet users. That means a four-fold increase in less than 10 years!

When looking at “penetration”, the total percentage of a population with Internet access, as one would expect, North America leads the pack with about 75.5% of its population “connected”. The US is followed by Oceania (South Pacific, Australia and New Zealand) with almost 60% and Europe with 48%. Asia has only a 15% penetration, below Latin America and the Middle East.

Look at the numbers, and the picture changes dramatically. Asia, lead by China, has over 578 million Internet users. North America comes third on the list with 248 million, behind Europe (384 million). If China continues to grow in business and technology as it has over the past few years, that number will double or even triple in the next few years.

What most impresses me is the sheer number of people now connected and the potential for people who could never had met before now getting together, collaborating, sharing ideas, cultures, information and friendship.

It’s mind-blowing!

Counting the number of websites is a little more difficult. This is in part because the definition of website is somewhat vague. Does a Facebook “site” count as a separate one from Facebook itself? According to Netcraft’s 2008 December survey, they saw almost 187 million web sites.

As I said, the definition of a “web site” is a little vague. According to Royal Pingdom, the number is 162 million. Pandia estimates the number of pages (not sites) at between 15 and 30 billion). ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) say in their 2008 report that there are 163 million domain names and 1.4 billion users.

Take the ratio of sites to users and you have roughly 8.5 users to every site. That’s not a big ratio.Web sites come and go, as do users, but in the past 10 years, the ratio has been dropping. In 2000 it was 9:1.

What does this all mean to us, down here? Search engine optimization, good site content, frequent updates, site promotion using everything from social media to advertising and a solid marketing plan is vital if your online presence is going to be felt.

That said, the possibilities are endless too. Never has a business playing field been so level. Sure, there are the big companies that can spend a ton in advertising to attract visitors, but there is plenty of room for the smaller player too. Collaboration and innovation is possible in a local, national and worldwide level. Success is possible with little investment, a good idea and the means to get the message out.

I those 1.5 billion users visit (we’ll say conservatively) 10 sites a day, that’s 15 billion visitors to websites around the world.

Just 1,000th of 1% of those visits means is 15,000…a day. Heck, I’ll take a tenth of that…for now!

The Internet is an ocean. Let’s go fishing.

Dave

Information courtesy of Pingom (www.pingdom.com), Netcraft (www.netcraft.com), Internet World Stats (www.internetworldstats.com), Pandia (www.Pandia.com, Yahoo (www.Yahoo.com), ICANN (www.icann.org).