Seperate Blog Vs. Blog On My Site

[Chuck M]

Please bear with me and my newbie ignorance as I plod through my first offical post/questions here.

I have a Yahoo store that has been open for business for about a month. I have been wanting to start a blog that can drive some traffic (via my original content/articles) but I read or heard that it would be better to have the blog as part of your website (I guess like an additional page)...not seperate like one from blogger.com or wordpress. So I have several questions:

1. Can anyone tell me if this is a good idea/correct info?

2. If so, can I make a blogger.com or wordpress blog part of my site? If yes, then how do I do it?

3. Would it be better to use Yahoo's blog service as it might be a bit more seamless?

4. Also, can I place Google AdSense on wordpress's free blogs. I don't think I can, but they are not 100% clear on this. However, I am tired and I could have overlooked it.

5. Does Google give any special placement for new blogs or are they just dumped into the mix like a new website?

Well, I guess that's all for this post. I have to go over to the viral marketing area now...see you there!

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide!

Chuck

[QiSoftware]

Yes, it is a good idea to have a blog because the information is dynamic and search engines crawl this data more often than static sites.

Blogger can be used on your site. You would FTP the posts back to your domain rather than publish to their servers. I am not sure if your current site is on a Windows platform. If so, you can not use WordPress. If on a linux platform you can. WordPress requires a free MySQL database and PHP.

I have a Yahoo! Blog. Yahoo! is good at many things. I would go with WordPress or Blogger. No, using their blog service will not make it more seamless.

Yes, you can integrate Adsense ads on a local copy of WordPress. WordPress.com users cannot use Adsense ads with their blogs [This may change one day].

There are different factors that are used in Google rankings. Blogs are dynamic. Search engines love them. You can pay for page rank.

Q...

[Idea Guy]

Originally Posted by Chuck M

1. Can anyone tell me if this is a good idea/correct info?

Yes it is a good idea..

Originally Posted by Chuck M

2. If so, can I make a blogger.com or wordpress blog part of my site? If yes, then how do I do it?

Yes. Choose between blogger.com or wordpress or if you want both, then register. It's so easy.

Originally Posted by Chuck M

3. Would it be better to use Yahoo's blog service as it might be a bit more seamless?

Sorry I haven't tried it yet I guess QiSoftware made some point there

Originally Posted by Chuck M

4. Also, can I place Google AdSense on wordpress's free blogs. I don't think I can, but they are not 100% clear on this. However, I am tired and I could have overlooked it.

I guess wordpress doesn't allow Adsense on free blogs.. Hopefully soon..

Originally Posted by Chuck M

5. Does Google give any special placement for new blogs or are they just dumped into the mix like a new website?

No, Google doesn't dump anything. It's true search engines love them..

[Chuck M]

Thanks for the help everyone. I'll let you know when I get the blog up and running.

Chuck

[Idea Guy]

right on Chuck! Goodluck!
and you are welcome

[karenlim]

Hi you may want to have your blog hosted on your own domain rather than using blogger because the former gives you control of your own website you are building up.

[krtup]

maybe its just me, but I've had some trouble with blogger and am switching over to wordpress. All of the links on my blog on blogger are missing a "/" and its causing the links to be broken. I searched and searched for a fix, and ended up deciding to go with wordpress instead. Just thought I'd pass along my experience with blogger...

[EyesOpen]

+1 for your own hosted Wordpress blog. It gives you the full control you don't have with blogger and a 'Wordpress hosted' blog.

Like many of us, I made mistakes in the early days, and one of my biggest mistakes was in hosting a blog separate from my main business site. A few months ago, I moved the blog into the business site, and very quickly noticed an increase in Search Engine traffic on the back of the blog.

As has been said before, the blog has continuously fresh and relevant content- something that can be hard to achieve on a static website, where change is slow to come.

It worked so well that I've been helping other online businesses incorporate blogs into their websites in the same way. Wordpress has advantages over other blogging platforms in that it is a relatively simple process to 'adjust' themes so that they fit seamlessly into existing websites - making them seem like just another page of the site.

Artistic or individual themes are all well and good - pictures of forests and daffodils - but my feeling is they work better for personal rather than business focused blogs - a business oriented blog should look and feel like part of the business website, addressing business or product concerns.

[zoobie]

Just want to say, best of luck to you, Chuck!

[Ryan]

Yes, a blog can be great for traffic. I've got an ecommerce site that has a Wordpress blog wrapped inside it where I post when I put out a new product.

I think the blog should be on the same domain as your main site (ie no Wordpress.com or blogger). Having a sub.wordpress.com or sub.blogger.com domain would turn me away from an ecommerce site.

The other major advantage to hosting your own, and Karen mentioned it, is that when it's on your domain you have control. If you want to move hosts you can. If you want to change blog platforms you can. If you're on a hosted platform you're stuck.

4. Also, can I place Google AdSense on wordpress's free blogs. I don't think I can, but they are not 100% clear on this. However, I am tired and I could have overlooked it.

I've never thought that AdSense on a site where you're trying to sell something is a good idea. Think about it, the ads you're showing are going to be your competitors'. You'd be better off using that screen space to show what you have for sale instead.

I am not sure if your current site is on a Windows platform. If so, you can not use WordPress.

Is that right? I thought that WP would work on a Windows server as long as it had PHP and MySQL. Never tried it though, so I don't really know.

5. Does Google give any special placement for new blogs or are they just dumped into the mix like a new website?

This is just a WAG, but I don't think that Google sees a new blog as any different than any other new website. The only advantage would be that most blog platforms submit posts to sites like Technorati so you'll get inbound links more quickly.