Sean Jackson and Katy KatzTo blog or not to blog, that is the question … we’ll debate on this episode.
Blogging is considered an essential tool in the content marketer’s toolbox. But is it worth the time?
With so many options available for online ad buys and social media engagement, does having a blog really help you grow your business?
In this 32 minute episode, Sean Jackson and Katy Katz debate the merits of blogging; discussing its merits, pitfalls, and alternatives that you should consider.
Listen to The Digital Entrepreneur below ...
Is Blogging a Waste of Time?Sean Jackson
- Social:
- Link:
- Embed:
I am not sure I agree that what makes a blog is comments. While they are often there, what makes a blog a blog is newest first display of content. Much easier to do this then it used to be back before blogging software.
Chris, thank you for leaving a comment. To your point…
The ability to post content quickly is a function of web content management systems (CMS). These have been around for a long time. What made the idea of blogging unique was the concept of journaling – sharing thoughts online – and comments.
Prior to blogging, most organizations looked at their website as a static brochure; using their CMS primarily to create and update pages for their site. But as blogging grew in popularity, these organizations adopted the concept of freshness and applied it using whatever CMS system they had at the time.
In other words, the ability to publish new content via a CMS was always available (though not always at cheap price given the cost of CMS solutions in the 90’s and early 2000’s).
But what makes blogging UNIQUE is the concept of COMMENTS. Comments allow readers to interact with the author and contribute their thoughts to the piece written (like you did…and thank you). Further, the ability to comment on the content creates a subtle but important change to the intent of the content; providing an incentive to write information that elicits comments.
Think about it this way…you can add commenting features to the About Us page of a site. But the feature of comments and the content don’t align. Now if I use WordPress to create that page, is it a “blog” just because I am using a blog platform? No.
Conversely, if I create a page that talks about XYZ new feature and don’t have comments on, is that a blog post or just an update page?
Journaling and comments defined blogging in the beginning. But as the web has matured, and the cost of online publishing decreased, more companies appreciate the concept of keeping their website “fresh”. But if you exclude comments from that fresh content, then can you really define it as a blog?
In my opinion, no. Hence my statement that what makes a blog a blog is the ability to comment.
Chris, I really appreciate you pointing this out and for listening to the show…and more importantly, thank you for your comment 🙂