5 years ago I started writing a website about Barbecue, Smoking and Grilling. Outdoor cooking has been a hobby of mine for many years although it has to be said that it was mainly grilling that we Europeans call BBQ and it\’s only been in the latter years that I\’ve fully discovered smoking.

Given my lack of understanding at how big the barbecue market is in the USA you imagine my surprise when my hobby website became a little more serious as I found lot and lots of people who were into reading my ramblings.

It made me start to think whether running a website could actually be made into a full time business and effectively become my sole source of income. It was these initial thoughts that led me to study social media as a way of promoting what I was doing with my site. But should I run a website or should I start a blog?

I was fortunate (well at least I think I was) to stumble across a system called Site Build It or SBI which not only helped me build a website, it actually approached it from the point of building an e-business. To that end there was already a big debate going on about the merits of blogging versus website building.

What\’s the difference? Well I think the easiest way to explain is in the filing system. A website files by subject matter, you know the score, you see the Navbar usually either down the left hand side or across the top and there will be a series of categories. Click on one category and your can drill down into greater detail on that subject matter. For example, I have a category of “beef” on my navbar, click on that link and you\’ll be taken to a myriad of barbecue beef recipes.

By contrast, a blog files chronologically. In this situation whatever you post and whatever the subject matter the most up to date and relevant stuff is on the home page and then the remainder is stored in an archive month by month.

I believe that the blog therefore is great for “happening” topics because if you want to get the latest on any subject then that\’s something that a blog is really good at delivering. What it\’s not good at (and where a website really hits the mark) is where the reader is looking for in depth information on a specific subject. OK I accept that many blogs these days have a tag cloud that allows for searching by subject area but because the author can attach many tags, from the readers perspective it\’s still a bit hit and miss.

The one big advantage to a blog is that the software is readily available (WordPress, Blogspot etc) so it\’s really easy to get started. You can be up and running in the day but no one will be reading your ramblings!

There\’s many bloggers out there making a tidy living out of it but I think that long term there are some disadvantages to working a blog and this namely comes down to the fact that your topic of choice has to be in the spotlight. The downsides are that your topic could become less fashionable in the future and also you\’re only as good as your last post. Blogging means that you have to be at the cutting edge time-wise to steal the march on your competition.

A website however is there for posterity. I wrote pages 4 years ago that are getting really high traffic even today, this wouldn\’t happen with a blog. So fundamentally for my business, a website is the way to go for my type of business.

It\’s all to easy to take the immediate route and go for blogging but my experience tells me that you need to be very careful to choose the right platform for your business otherwise you could end up wasting a whole heap of time on something that deliver nothing to your business.

Author Bio: Paul Yates explains how to make a website and why free website builders don\’t work. He also reveals the best way to make your own website into a thriving e-business.

Category: Business
Keywords: hobby website,thriving e-business,blog files,blog files chronologically,site build it,sbi,