I often get asked by friends and other professional organizers
1) what is the difference between a blog and a website?
2) why do I do both a blog and a website?
There are many differences, but I suppose only people who have created and maintained a website themselves really get just how different the two are. For me, my website is a basic brochure of what I do. I update it often, but it is much more cumbersome to update than my blog.
In thinking more about it, one list can actually answer both questions. Here are a few of the differences between blogs and websites...that also explain why I love to do both!
- Blogs are far more personal than the usual website, you can really get to know a lot about a person and actually make connections and friendships via a blog.
- Blogs are easier to update regularly than a website, I use my "Quickpost" often. All is have to do is click, type, and post. That makes it much easier to provide helpful tips and neat ideas to inspire and inform people about Neat Living, organizing, what professional organizers do, how to recycle, and more.
- Blogs categorize, date, and format everything for you. They even create your links and cross links for you so you don't have to manually interlink everything.
- Blogs allow people to comment and interact with you.
- Blogs have services so that people can easily subscribe and updates by email.
- Blogs make it easy to share your favorite books, websites and other resources.
- Blogs have RSS feeds which I don't fully understand, but I know they help publicize your blog and make it possible for people to subscribe.
- Blogs make web publishing so easy and accessible to great minds that might not ever bother to share their share their wisdom. (Yeah, it allows morons on the web too...but they are easy to ignore : )
Bottom line, if you have something to share, and are thinking about blogging, start by reading lots of other blogs to see what they talk about and how they do it. Then, when you are inspiried and ready to contribute, jump in and try it. Many people start with a free blog just to try it. Just be warned that you don't get easy, guaranteed service with a free blog. That's why I moved to Typepad.
Blogging get's easier with practice and there are lots of resources to help you learn. Here are some of the best resources I've found on blogging.
I've been gathering organizing blogs for a friend, and ran across yours, which is definitely one of the ones I'll be recommending. It's terrific!
I wanted to pass on this resource (Note that it's a PDF: http://weblogg-ed.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/05/RSSFAQ4.pdf) about RSS feeds, because feeds arefar more than a way to promote your site.
As a professional organizer you should know that feeds provide a more efficient way to keep track of a subject or a group of sites on the internet. Imagine, for example, getting a list every day of blog posts from your (other) favorite organizer blogs, so that you can keep up to date on new techniques, gather ideas, or share what you've done with someone struggling with a particular problem. You can have that list delivered to your email box, or to a special page you visit to read.
Mark
Posted by: mark | May 14, 2006 at 08:48 AM