Blogging offers a down-and-dirty solution to the task of web publishing.
Web log tools have made it possible for millions of people to create web
sites, without the need to know much about the technologies of the web.
Most companies aren't thinking about the web log world yet. This could
be a mistake, though, because the best web logs are competing for
ranking on search engines, capturing web traffic, and acting quickly to
capitalize on news events.
There are many ways in which good blogs may offer competition for
corporate publishers:
> Blogs are getting lots of incoming links, and high search engine ranks
as a result.
> Blogs are springing up by the thousands daily, so companies may have
new competition.
> They are hyper-efficient publishing tools.
> They produce XML data feeds, alternate version, and more.
> They are updated frequently and quickly.
> They target web audiences.
Blogs have the potential to become new competition, or at least decrease
the ROI of your web investment. Companies need to understand web log
tools, and the methodology of down-and-dirty web publishers. Here are
some things that we can learn from the rise of blogs.
Maximize incoming links to improve your search engine ranking.
Blogs specialize in links, and this pumps up their search engine
ranking. Many companies, on the other hand, actively discourage incoming
links. This is done directly, by password-protecting content, or
indirectly, by asking potential referrers to fill out complex forms
prior to linking.
Links are currency in the world of blogs. Without incoming links, a blog
doesn't exist in the eyes of the web. Incoming links have real value to
ebusinesses, too. Any barriers to incoming links have to be looked at as
a liability.
Online, anyone can be your competition
It's more important than ever to know your competition. In the online
world, this means understanding not only your traditional competitors,
but also anyone that's competing for your online audience. If a web log
in your field gets a high search engine ranking, it's competition.
These may be built by people that have no interest in competing with
you, but that nonetheless are competing for your audience. With millions
of web logs emerging, you're likely to have new competition.
Increase your publishing efficiency
Most bloggers are using free tools. Nevertheless, these tools are
polished, because they have to be. They are used daily by tens of
thousands of non-technical people.
In contrast, most big companies are using complex, expensive content
management systems, and corporate publishers often have to jump through
many hoops in order to publish anything. To complete, companies need to
figure out how to publish as efficiently as bloggers do.
To do this, content needs to be captured using forms. Pages need to be
consistently formatted. Sites can't be thought of as collections of
pages, but must be though of as collections of content that can be
sliced and diced and formatted in many ways.
Capitalize on standardized content
Millions of bloggers are creating web sites of frequently updated
content, along with XML-formatted news feeds. Most of them have no idea
how this is done. How is this possible?
Bloggers are using tools that make these things trivial. They enter
their content into forms, hit publish, and the system takes care of
everything. Businesses need to do the same.
If data is entered in a standardized way, it's easy to manipulate. It
should be easy to create RSS feeds, WML pages, indexes, and print
versions automatically from content entered in standardized forms. If
your content management system can't do these things, it needs to be
updated or replaced.
Get fast
The best web logs are frequently updated. Good blogs gain search engine
ranking through these frequent updates.
Bloggers update their sites whenever they want; corporate publishers
have to streamline their publishing processes to compete. This is one of
the greatest challenges for most businesses.
It's not uncommon for there to be three teams or more, with different
goals, involved in publishing an article to a corporate web site. A
developer may create the page, that then goes to a marketing team, and
then to a corporate compliance team for review. Companies may have to
merge some of these tasks into single teams with a common goal in order
to publish quickly and frequently.
Target the web audience.
Content publishers often have existing content that they publish to the
web. This is sometimes known as shovel-ware, because it's "shoveled"
onto the web. This is a cheap way to build web content, but it's not
always the most effective.
Web audiences have different interests than offline audiences. This is
especially important to consider in terms of advertising.
People do different things online than they do offline, and their
purchasing habits are different, too. If your online content is tailored
to sell offline ads, it will be difficult to get your content to pay for
itself. Advertising-supported sites need to have content aligned with
the online market.
Learning from web logs
Blogs are here to stay. They may be an unruly swarm of down-and-dirty
web sites, but the best blogs are starting to grab the attention of web
surfers. Web logs are emerging as potential competition, so ebusinesses
need to understand them, and learn how to be as fast and efficient as
they are.
