by Marisa Wright

Created on: August 08, 2007   Last Updated: August 09, 2007

These days, when we consider how to promote ourselves online as writers, our first thought is to write a blog. But is it the right solution? Could a (seemingly old-fashioned) website be a better answer? A lot depends on the kind of person you are, the style of writing you do, and what your objectives are.

The first thing to bear in mind with blogs is that they are, essentially, a diary. By their very nature, if you're going to have a blog, you MUST update it frequently. It doesn't have to be very day, but it should be around once a week at least. That means constantly finding new and interesting things to say, and it also means making time to make those entries.

If you can't make that regular commitment, a blog may not be for you, and a website may be more manageable. On a website, there is less expectation that new material will constantly be added. Of course, you need to make sure it is fresh and interesting, but you don't have to add new material every single week.

The other thing about blogs is that the recent posts are the most visible. Older posts are usually consigned to a side bar, where they are easily overlooked. Some blogging packages (like Wordpress) enable you to have permanent pages where you can put important information you'd like to keep in the forefront, but others don't. So if you have older information that you want to keep highly visible on your front page, you may be better with a website.

Of course, the advantage of blogs is that they are the "flavour of the month". There is huge interest in blogs and there are strong blogging communities. No matter how basic your blog, you are certain to get some visitors, even if you haven't worked out how to submit it to search engines or maximise your key words. Of course they may not come back, and they may not be your target audience, but it is encouraging to se those hits on your site counter - whereas a website can sit lonely and unseen unless you make strenuous efforts to promote it.

However, it will do you no good to have visitors to your blog if it's not well maintained and interesting enough to make them come back again. If you have limited time and need something you can leave unattended for a week or two at a time, then it's better to focus your energy on a good website rather than a bad blog.

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