To be able to answer that question you really need to know how blogs, and the WordPress software that we use here at Ballarat.net, have evolved over the past 5-10 years.
If you look up ‘blog’ on wikipedia or a dictionary site it will tell you that they have been around since the late 1990′s and were originally just static content like a standard website. A site called ‘Open Diary’ was the first to come up with the innovation of ‘reader comments’ in 1998 and over the next few years the concept of blogging gained considerable popularity.
WordPress arrived on the scene in 2003 and evolved from a basic blogging application to a full blown website content management system. The traditional ‘blog’ is still a major part of WordPress but you now have the option of presenting the main part of your website however you want and have the actual blog as a link from your main page.
If you look around at business websites, both big and small, you find that most now have a blog. One of the main reasons for the blog is that it is an incredibly easy way of keeping your readers updated with your latest news, thoughts and knowledge whilst also allowing them to interact via the comments section. In short, it’s a great way to engage your audience, garner feedback and build your own mini community. This works for both business and individuals.
One of the worlds best known bloggers, Darren Rowse, who is also a fellow Victorian (he lives in Melbourne) really nailed the evolution of the blog in the introduction he wrote for Mark Hayward’s ‘ProBlogger Guide To Business Blogging‘. He has very kindly allowed me to include that introduction in this post.
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“In 2002 I started my first blog as a way to express what I was thinking and connect with others with similar interests. That blog was what we’d probably call a “personal blog” today.
In the early days of blogging, many blogs were an online expression of the things going on in an individual’s mind and life—personal to the extreme. In fact blogs were thought of as personal to the point that they were often described as “online diaries”.
But they were more than online diaries—blogs gave individuals a voice. They built authority, credibility, trust and opened up relationships.
Over the next couple of years the potential for blogs became much more than “personal”.The possibility for them to intersect with business—and even become a business—grew.
In the same way that blogs were helping individuals, we began to see businesses also developing an online voice, credibility and trust with their customers.
Today many businesses depend on blogs at their very core to do these things and more.
I’ve long wanted to publish a resource for business owners wanting to use blogging and social media to do this for their businesses, so when Mark Hayward and I explored the idea I became very excited.
While blogging has become my business, Mark has used blogging and social media to build up his own bricks and mortar business. He’s the ideal guy to teach others how to create and develop a business blog, and he’s developed this ebook to be your definitive resource to achieve successful blogging and business results. – Darren Rowse”
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Besides the obvious advantages with ease of use and interaction with customers and potential customers there are also literally thousands of free and low cost plugins for WordPress that allow you to sell products and services, create directories, publish image galleries, update your social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter and optimise your site so that the unique and valuable content that you publish ranks well in the search engines.
I guess it can all be summed up in one sentence.
Blogs aint just blogs anymore.