1.6 The Cons

You've heard all of the hype about blogging on the news. You've even heard about people who use monetized blogs to rake in piles of cash. Maybe you've even read "Blogging to the Bank"--or even have a number of monetized blogs yourself. You might wonder if everything about blogging really is true--if it really is that good-or if you've only heard the pros, not the cons.

Let's first tackle this from a non-marketing perspective. If you're not selling any good or service, what are the cons to owning a blog?

Owning a blog can be a serious drain on your time, even if it is a completely casual blog, which you update irregularly. It is yet another thing that you must check; and if you don't bother checking it and updating, it is essentially a non-functional, casual time drain. These are some of the cons you will want to consider.

And from a marketing perspective, there are also the cons associated with a blog, especially when compared to the alternatives, such as a fully functional website. While a blog might provide you with an easy means to make updates and an easy means to pull in traffic, you can effectively do all of this better with a fully functional site.

For instance, if you want to constantly update content, you can add RSS feeds to different pages on your site. This will look like fresh content to spiders, very much like comments on your blog would appear.

And if you're looking for a means to communicate with potential customers or to talk about problems with current customers, you are probably better off either using a support ticket system or creating a forum, which, if done properly, will yield more fresh content than a blog, but will require significantly less effort on your part.

Additionally, as a marketer, a blog that significantly detract from your time. It can also put you in a bind to add fresh content to a site that might be better off with a static, optimized salespage.

Overall, a blog can be an effective stand-alone device for pulling traffic, but if you're looking for a more long term solution, you may be better off using a suite of different tools and a fully-functional site, especially when you consider the cons associated with a blog.