Blogging vs. Custom article creation - best route?

[brianzajac]

Hello everyone,

I've recently got a dilemna on my hands. I've noticed more and more that quality content is one of the top factors (if not the top) in marketing. This being said, I deal with clients on a small business budget. They have a real need to get their information on the web, and are willing to post up their own articles (due to budget concerns). I've created two ideas that might solve their dilemna:


Blogging

Let's take a system like blogger.com. They allow for easy access in writing articles, allow you to archive, contain RSS feeds, and are tied in with Google. However, it's currently not possible to "separate" these articles from each other. For example, you can't have separate title tags and metatags for each article. So, you're article's uniqueness is comprimised.


Custom article creation

Creating a custom article system allows you the flexibility of creating what your clients trully need in a system. You can make it unique and adapt it for changes...like changing the structure of title tags, metatags, formatting of body copy, ect..However, as I've found, it's difficult for programmers to figure out the RSS feed. And, the system can be expensive to start out. Lastly, you are not inadvertently competing against blogger.com and the rest of the businesses. So, adaptation might get expensive.


?The Question?

For small business, which route would you take and why?

[ronniethedodger]

I am glad you brought this up. I have been asking myself the same questions.

I am leaning away from blogging -- not for the reasons you cited though, for I think there is a lot of open source bloggers that can archive your articles/documents on a page by page basis with updateable titles, meta tags, etc. Blogging may be quick and dirty, and easy -- but I think it is not professional looking; cheesy.

Content Management Systems is what I am looking at, and I think this is what you might want to look into also. There are a few PHP Source Forge open-source projects that were (on the surface) extremely flexible and customizable. phpNuke is one that keeps getting tossed around a lot...and what a lot of these are compared to.

Some do not require much programming or fiddling with and are ready-to-go right out of the box. So for a small business and minimal start-up costs -- this could be the ticket.

I do not have the link handy for the particular site that I was looking at where I came across them at, for I was just browsing around one day and will not get into this until sometime next year. If I come across that site again, I will pass it on.

I did a quick search and did come across this site that has a bunch of em listed...but this is not the actual one I was looking at before

http://www.opensourcecms.com/index.php

Do a search at Google for "open source cms" or spell the cms out.

Check out phpNuke also at www.phpnuke.org. I was there just now, and there is a person posing a question that is almost like yours. You may want to hook up with him and collaborate on this. He is looking for the same thing, but with even more requirements -- and a non-existant budget it seems.

http://www.phpnuke.org/modules.php?n...ticle&sid=4915

[dwilliams]

I suggest both. The blog can be informal and chatty. A "what's new" in our (the company's) world. Have someone (or ones) spend a few moments each morning blogging. What's going on around the office? Holiday party? So and so's birthday? Obviously this isn't right for all, but it can add a "real people" touch.

Quality, custom content that users can't get anywhere else is a great way to grow your organic listings, attract links from other sites, catch the interest of human editors, and position yourself as the expert. Time consuming indeed, but if your client(s) are serious about e-commerce, then they'll find the time to do it.

[maniactive]

In a sense, a blogging tool is a content management tool (albeit a limited one.)

One way around the "compromised" content of blogs is to write a good, one paragraph "teaser" or summary blog, using links within the paragraph to point to the complete article (hosted at your site, of course) that uses the title and meta tags.

Maybe even a linked "Read more about Whatever>>>" at the end. . .

This gives you linked keyword copy within paragraphs (helpful for PageRank at Google) and gives you keyword rich blog copy (also helpful at Google).

The original problem remains, however: how to get those articles up there! If it's a small site, how about developing a good "article" template and have your clients work within its framework? They can ftp it up to an "articles" directory.

Just a thought. . .worked for me well on two small sites that didn't want to invest in full blown CMS for the same reasons. And Google picked up the title phrases of the articles pronto, because they were linked in a blog.

[fortepiano]

I've been manually creating a separate journal entry for my Bon Journal at http://www.analyticalq.com/journal/ in dreamweaver and then using FTP to send to my host - since day one. When I'm on the road, I use the last entry - right click view source - and edit that - and then load it up via the control panel file manager of my web host. Recently, I've been toying with the idea of using a blogging tool. However, I'm concerned whether search engines will be less effective in indexing my journal entries, each of which has a different subject. For the small business owner, my manual method is tedious - and I would like to find a solution for myself and my clients who are new to the web.

[brianzajac]

Thanks everyone for their input, especially ronniethedodger...I've seen your special "take" on certain subjects in the forum and found them quite interesting. I also like maniactive's approach of coming up with a "teaser" section that leads onto a full-blown article. But, as I see more and more, my company will need to start using a CMS solution...however with a certain blend of blogging elements. Here are the essentials:

-Title tag, metatag, and main header implementation
-RSS feed
-Archiving component
-A "simple" picture post-up (ftp to it and allow for alignment)
-maniactive's small description page that leads to the full-blown article (optional)
-Done in Cold Fusion or ASP (around my area, these seem to be the main languages of choice)
-dynamic (but search engine friendly) and module-based (for easy implementation and upgradability)

Out of these key ideas, who do you think works best? Moveable Type? Single programming source (i.e. one programmer)? Community of programmers? Thanks for any help you can provide.

[ronniethedodger]

Originally Posted by brianzajac

Out of these key ideas, who do you think works best? Moveable Type? Single programming source (i.e. one programmer)? Community of programmers? Thanks for any help you can provide.

I can tell you have been busy with a lot of reading, I noticed your new buzzword -- CMS !!! =)

I do not know much about Movable Type...always assumed that that had something to do with blogs. That is as far as I go with it. But some of that technology may be incorporated into those open source CMS packages...heck I dunno about that either.

On the Single vs. Multiple programmers though...I would go with Multiple programmers and some sort of Lead go-to guy. Cross train the whole staff maybe, so you are not stuck in a position where if one sole individual is not there, then the whole thing does not move.

I was once in a position once where I was one of those sole individuals. In retrospect when I look back at it now, I had them right by the ...ahem..well you know..hehehe. Point is I got away with murder sometimes....don't get me wrong, I loved every day of it (and the months, and the years) But now that I look back at it...they had no choices. This was bad from their viewpoint.

I do not know your particular setup, but if possible start with a couple of young enthusiastic individuals who are willing to learn. Get the ball rolling, then add in the cross-training.