Free Articles - Businesses, Articles Vs Blogs

Introduction

The Director of PanoConsulting, Nicholas Swift wrote this article on the 16th September 2007. This article serves as an introduction into the article versus blog debate and is not intended as a definitive guide. Nicholas begins by discussing why it may be beneficial for businesses to write articles or maintain a blog for there business. He then breaks down articles and blogs individually before moving onto whether you should choose an article or a blog. Finally, Nicholas concludes the article with information on how PanoConsulting can help you should you feel that an article or a blog maybe right for your business.

Why write articles or a blog?

Writing articles or maintaining a blog for your business can be a good idea as not many businesses do it and it can give visitors to your website the impression that you are dedicated to your business since you have taken the time to either write articles or maintain a blog. They also provide visitors to your website with more information and can keep visitors coming back to your website which in turn, increases the likelihood of them purchasing a product or service from your business in the future.

Articles

Articles should be written less frequent than blog entries and therefore should be researched and have more substance to them than blog posts. If the detail in an article has been written cohesively, been researched efficiently, and is aimed at your target market then the article will contain valuable content to the reader. In turn, a well-written article with valuable content will increase the reader’s perception of professionalism that your business has which will make them more confident in buying a product or service from your business. In terms of the delivery format for an article then a PDF (Portable Document Format) file is ideal as they can be easily saved and printed as required. Alternatively for ultimate professional, you could have them printed out and mail them or make them available to your target audience.

Blogs

Blogs need to be updated on a regular basis so they are kept up-to-date. For example, if you write a blog post every day for the first month and then don’t write another one for a couple of weeks then it will give readers the impression that you no longer care about your blog. Therefore, there opinion of your business will be lowered and they will begin to stay away from your website. Blogs are also written a lot more informal than articles, which brings with it its own potential pitfalls in that you need to be careful what you write. Ensure you have your facts straight and have not slandered anybody or opened yourself up to criticism although, some say that controversy sells! Another point to mention about blogs is that whenever a good blog entry is written, other blogs link to that entry, that is the way the blogosphere tends to function. What this means is that as you have all these other blogs linking to your website then your search engine ranking will improve which in turn will drive more visitors to your website.

Which should I choose?

At PanoConsulting, we would say that the question that you need to ask yourself in order to work out whether an article or a blog is right for your business is this; who are your businesses target audience? If they are local people say in Tavistock and you are selling cheap products then a blog is probably best as it affords you a more personal touch with local people. However, if your target audience is national and/or you are selling expensive products then articles are probably best for your business as written correctly, they make you business appear knowledgeable and professional. In any event, talk to us at PanoConsulting and let us help you decide. Whatever your eventual decision we can be of assistance in some way whether it be by developing a bespoke blog website, printing out articles, or the sourcing of statistics we can help.

How can I find out more?

Contact Nicholas Swift on freephone 0800 756 9999, mobile number 07813 025134 or mail@panoconsulting.co.uk to discuss how PanoConsulting can help you decide between articles or a blog.