A Blog is in fact a Website. Blog = Web Log.   According to a source on Wikapedia, “the term “weblog” was coined by Jorn Barger on 17 December 1997. The short form, “blog,” was coined by Peter Merholz, who jokingly broke the word weblog into the phrase we blog in the sidebar of his blog Peterme.com in April or May 1999 Shortly thereafter, Evan Williams at Pyra Labs used “blog” as both a noun and verb (”to blog,” meaning “to edit one’s weblog or to post to one’s weblog”) and devised the term “blogger” in connection with Pyra Labs’ Blogger product, leading to the popularization of the terms.”

Apples and Oranges are both a fruit but look and taste different. Blogs and websites are essentially the same in that they are both websites but behave,  look and taste differently.

A Blog is Dynamic. A blog is a  frequently updated website consisting of blog posts that are arranged in chronological order. When a reader comes to your blog, they see your most recent article or post first.

A Website is Static. This is where you actually describe your products and/or services.  You can create some life by linking an RS feed from your blog and your website will receive blog updates too.

If your objective is mainly a brochure online, a website works well but if you want a website that changes constantly, updates with your posts and videos and ranks higher with the search engines, blogs rule. Both serve a purpose but I like the flow of a blog.   A website can become stagnant whereas a blog like a river has an input and output to the web community.   A blog thrives on interaction and continual content updates — great for SEO.   That’s Search Engine Optimization.   The web bots and spiders can find you!  I know that sounds scary.

The advantage of a blog is you can post written text, audio and video and have it online within minutes.  Setup a WordPress.com or Blogger.com blog you’ll be live within minutes and communicating to the blogosphere.  If you love tweaking and customizing, WordPress.org is where you download their free software and install on your hosting site, like Hostgator.

Blogging is the dynamic choice when you’re building a business and communicating with subscribers or just sharing your rants and raves.  Right now I only update my blog once a week, either here at SmartIdeaMarketing or at my ViralVideoIDEAS site.  Happy blogging.   Mark