What’s the difference between a book and a magazine and how does this relate with websites?

A book is a huge project and once it’s completed and sent off to the publisher, there are usually no changes.  Read a book once and you probably won’t come back to it.  A magazine on the other hand is a smaller publication, but new editions come out on a regular schedule.  People subscribe to magazines because they want the latest.  And they’ll keep coming back for more.

From this analogy, it should be obvious why we should be thinking about our websites as magazines.

• We want people to keep coming back to our sites for more.
• Magazines in general will make more money over the course of time.
• Magazines are always fresh and dynamic.
• These are all descriptions we want for our websites.

The blogging revolution has changed the web forever.  Because blogging pioneers began writing articles and publishing fresh content regularly, people expect websites to have fresh, interesting content or most will not return to the website.

And I know the first thoughts that go through your mind when you hear the word blog is, “I don’t have time or desire to write an article everyday.”  and “What would I write about anyway?”

Who ever said you have to write everyday?

But if you want your business to grow online, consider investing a little bit of time on a regular schedule to put some thoughts on your computer screen and publish it to your website.

What would you write about?  Why don’t you start by thinking about every question you’ve ever been asked about your business.  Take one a week and write the answer to it.  When you get ten of these articles, put them into an FAQ page.  As your collection of questions and answers grows, add a search box to your FAQ page.

Investing even an hour or two each week to answer a question you get all the time won’t require any research on your part.  The answers are all in your head, just waiting to be put onto your website.

And aren’t you tired of answering the question, “So what exactly does an entreproducer do?”  Put it in a FAQ section of your website.

Your customers will love your easy to find answers to their questions and Google will love you for updating your website regularly.

To Infinity and Beyond!
Arlen

The inspiration for this post came from the Boagworld podcast episode “We Were Right All Along”