Thread: Blog or website?

Hi everyone. I'm not sure if this has been discussed before in the forum. I want to start a tourism business which involves some affiliate marketing. At first I wanted to make a website, but I have seen some "gurus" say that a Wordpress blog is cheaper and has all the functionalities of a website, so now I'm not sure. I will greatly appreciate your advice. Thanks in advance.

Tourism you say?

I'm thinking numerous reviews, articles, and ideally user interaction... I'd go with a blog.

wordpress is a website....

Use a blog unless you are doing some referral program.

Be clear with your idea, because I'm not sure what you are trying to do with a tourism website.

I use wordpress for all my websites

Hi. Thanks for your replies. It will be about a specific niche of tourism.

You can do a lot with wordpress now. I would suggest that based on what you are saying, but use a very good design. The mistake everyone makes with wordpress sites is they use a popular or typical template. Use something very unique so it does not look like a cheap blog.

Use Wordpress. It has so much flexibility for free and if you pay a bit you can get excellent themes and plugins. Its the best way to start out, because later on once you have some extra Cha-Ching you can hire a programmer to change it if you want.

A blog is a website, Anavic.

These days there's no meaningful distinction between the two, from the perspective you're asking about.

It's possible, using blogging software (such as Wordpress, though that's by no means the only one - and it wouldn't be my choice) as the content management system, to build a static site that looks nothing like a "blog" at all. And it's also possible, without using blogging software as the content management system, to make a site that looks exactly like a blog (with dated posts, sidebars, and all the conventional "bloggy stuff").

People often say that "Google prefers blogs", but this is actually mistaken. What Google "prefers" is sites that are regularly updated. Until a few years ago, sites that were designed to be updated regularly were nearly all "blogs", so most people got the impression that "Google prefers blogs". It's actually the updates that Google likes, and you don't need blogging software for those.

So you can make your choice according to what you want to use, what you like the look of, and what's practical and feasible for you to use. There's no need to feel that a "blog" or a "non-blog site" will be intrinsically better, or worse, at all.

Thank you very much I used to make that distinction between blog and website, thinking that blogs were more like a journal, but now I realize that they have evolved a lot.

I use wordpress for all my websites. Try searching for Wordpress premium theme or go to themeforest to look for a professional theme to go with your web business. I use a few from themeforest, they got some prebuilt features like slider, feature post, magazine layout, etc. which helps to create a professional website, (not the blog look) however from my experience if you are not too familiar with their theme it can get a bit complicated. It took me some time to learn.

So my advice is google free Wordpress theme, from my memory I think there is a site call topwptheme they've got some nice simple but professional looking theme. Some other free one sucks. Anyway, you can easily build features (feature posts, slide/ gallery) you like by search and adding plugins within ur Wordpress, they are usually free.

P.S my first post here in this forum. I've been here for two days, reading some of the most inspiring posts, I just wanna say thank you for this forum! And I'll be sharing all the little stuff I know

Definitely go with wordpress for what you're trying to do.

Also check out Squidoo - They let you create a blog and really help you make money from it

Anavic,

I would definitely recommend Wordpress, it's easy to use and there are lots of themes, both free and paid, available online. There are many high quality themes that are free and you can find most paid ones between the $20-$40 range.

Some themes have a static home page that allows you to feature several pictures and boxes of text. This will give you more of a "website feel." Your blog post will probably go under a URL like www.website.com/blog. Others themes have what I call a "blog-style" look, meaning the home page contains the text of the most recent blog posts with a side column featuring links, social media updates and whatever else. Then there are also hybrids of the two. You can have a smaller box/slideshow at the top with a few featured images. And below that are the most recent blog posts. It all depends on what your needs are.

Hope that helps!

Originally Posted by 458

Wordpress is ok. The main problem with wordpress is that its very bulky. A single page can run 150-200k in size with a light weight template. Speed is a very important part of building a quality website, make sure you dont over look this.

Is this not the fault of the template though? I have only ever quickly look at WP, and that being a long time ago, but I can't see how WP itself adds to the page size dramatically...

Thank you everyone. I have been applying your clever advice Going slowly, although continuously (I'm a typical slowlaner with a lot of work, but in my situation it's the only way fund my potential fastlane business, so it's ok).
Thanks again!