Web logs are showing up everywhere. There are millions of them, and more
cropping up every day. There will be five million of these
down-and-dirty web sites by the end of this year, and ten million next
year!
Blogs are competing with traditional sites for ranking on search
engines, web traffic, and audience attention. In these and in other
ways, blogs pose a threat to e-businesses.
Blogs rank
The best web logs get high ranking on search engines because web logging
culture is based on linking to articles on other sites and other web
logs. This means that good blogs can end up with many incoming links.
Most web logging applications and services also create RSS news feeds
automatically, which are used by news readers and aggregators. This can
also help drive traffic to the site.
Google and other search engines use incoming links to a site as part of
the page rank. Good blogs can rank highly because of the high numbers of
these incoming links. As a result, your company may end up competing for
search engine placement against a web log.
Blogs are numerous
A recent Perseus report estimates that there will be 5 million of these
mini web sites by the end of this year. Even if only 1 in 100 of these
blogs is worthwhile, that leaves 50,000 sites of frequently updated,
worthwhile content. That's a lot of lean publishing machines, and a lot
of new sites that aren't on many companies' "radars" yet.
Blogs are hyper-efficient at what they do.
Blogs are easily built using inexpensive or free tools. These tools make
it possible to create many pages of professionally formatted web content
very quickly and very cheaply.
Bloggers don't need to get much in the way of rewards to make it worth
their while to continue. Some notable bloggers are making their living
writing for the web. Many, however, are willing to publish for the
exposure, or just because they are interested in their subject. This
inexpensive approach to site building is even beginning to generate
interest with publishers as a new content platform.
Blogs already do all that stuff your IT staff has on its to-do list
Most blogging tools can do several complex tasks automatically:
- They store web content in a database or XML file;
- They generate RSS news feeds for content syndication; and
- They can create multiple versions of content for alternate
devices, or for print.
Most large companies have complex content management systems that
require customization in order to do these things. Few companies have
the resources in place to implement this sort of thing. This can put web
logs at an advantage, because they can easily syndicate their content
and transform their content into multiple forms.
Bloggers work quickly
A few years ago, much was being made of the idea of "Internet time".
This idea is a reality in the web log world.
The best blogs are updated often, and track current news closely.
Corporate publishers typically have a layer or two of overhead to work
through. Companies often require new pages to be reviewed by their
marketing and risk management areas. As a result, bloggers often respond
faster to news, and draw traffic as a result.
Bloggers target web audiences that advertisers are interested in
Magazines, newspapers, and other publishers carry some baggage with them
to the web. Most of their income has traditionally come from delivering
advertisements for things that people purchase offline. Publications
tailor their content to maximize their ability to place these ads.
As publishers have moved their offline content online, many find that
their existing advertisers sell products that people are not buying
online. Publishers can find that their content doesn't attract online
advertisers, and their existing advertisers don't find it effective.
Advertisers are beginning to look at web logs as an inexpensive way to
connect with active web audiences.
The bottom line
There are several reasons bloggers pose a threat to the status quo:
- They are breeding like flies;
- They are building complex sites very inexpensively;
- The best ones are getting high search engine rankings; and
- They work very quickly.
None of these things are going to put anybody out of business. However,
they may increase your cost of doing business, or decrease the
effectiveness of your existing site.
Companies that want to maximize their website ROI need to understand
what web logs are doing, and try to incorporate blog ideas into their
processes.
Next week, I'll look at how companies can learn from web logs to publish
web content more efficiently.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
There will be 5 million weblogs by the end of 2003, 10 million by the
end of 2004.
http://www.perseus.com/blogsurvey/thebloggingiceberg.html
Blogging statistics
http://www.blogcensus.net/weblog/
