Click To Hit

I was asked this question today while training some new sales staff on both of the services I act in a BDM role for. In case it is not highly advertised on this blog, I am also responsible for the really great Website Building Tool service that we launched to our channel back in April, one month post the launch of Blogware.

Let me start with the basics, Blogs are bottom-up Content Management Tools, basically content management for the “rest of us” as a favored reseller coined for us recently. If you do not know what that is take a quick read here. This is a great company that offers this type of sophisticated Enterprise level software at the bargain basement price of around $50k or so and just happens to have an office in the same area as us. I'm not being facetious here; these systems could range in the multi-millions of dollars for some applications. A great example would be ZDnet that uses a similar sort of system. Absolutley amazing for large infrastructures with multiple stakeholders and a truly massive presence of content etc….

Blogs on the other hand are really just database driven systems that generate web pages on the fly in real time, hence the term Dynamic content. This means that every article posted, every picture or spread sheet uploaded receives it's own unique URL and location in the database. When you look at this blog and see the categories, the logos and backgrounds, they are all generated in real time as a “Frame” around the content, which is the real painting of a web presence. If this blog were a static website, specific articles (pages) I have listed under the WHAT’S A BLOG? category would be physically located in that directory on the server in most cases, whereas in this blog that category is really only a pointer to the destination of the database elements (Articles) that I have entered as content. With the Blogware system I could have a specific article repeated on 8 different “pages” or categories, but there is only ONE copy of the article stored on the server. With static HTML there would have to be 8 different pages with that same article replicated on each to mimic this structure.

This means that with our system Content is King and as a user I don't have to worry about the little details associated with a traditional Web Page such as frames or tables, or making sure that logo is just right in the top left corner. All I do is write, upload and post. That's it, it’s so simple, and will more than likely be the biggest reason for widespread adoption over the coming months and years. If you can use a Windows operating system and are somewhat familiar with Word, you will find the Blogware interface that easy to use.

A traditional web page has allot of uses, and some “Blog Providers” actually have a tool that mimics a blog by generating static HTML pages that have entries with chronological order. That is not a web log per se, but it looks like one. Does it acquire the same features as our service? Immediate publishing of changes to the world, no need to FTP or wait for DNS to propagate, higher rankings in search engines etc…? It wouldn't unless there was some strange workaround that did not come inherently with static HTML. 

Here is an excerpt from Google's explanation of how their popular Blogger.com System works:

The Blogger.com references are in effect a security model?

It's both security and our architecture in general. All the dynamic stuff is on Blogger.com—all the application stuff, I should say. Blogger always publishes static HTML out to people's sites. That makes it portable and more compatible; you don't have to install anything. Anytime you're inputting content, you go back to Blogger.com.

If you read the description of their service you will find alot of similarities to how our Website Building Tools service works. The design environment is a database driven system that allows you to design, create content, and export via FTP to your hosting servers in static HTML. The actual content is static HTML and is served to the internet as any other traditional website is. Is their web blog service different than our website building tool service? A little in terms of features, but you be the judge.

Static sites are the solution of the early Internet. Is there a demand? Definitely! This is one of the almost prerequisite features to be successful or even merely competitive in the Hosting industry and we have one of the best offerings available in the market today. Is it the most effective? From a look and feel perspective if your image is built on your website or you have a need to sell online then I would say yes, but if you are in the business of communicating, or looking for traffic, or building a community then the only way to differentiate yourself is to use a Blog. If not as the primary then at least as a parallel Internet marketing tool to achieve your primary goal no matter what that may be.

I hope that somewhat explains some of the differences between blogs and static HTML. Not all differences of course, and I could micro scrutinize this discussion for a few pages, but hopefully you understand the difference without the need to get too detailed.

When I first entered this position I kind of understood it, but one differentiation I didn't truly understand was how is a forum different? Chronological posts, in some cases database driven, comment capabilities, decent search engine rankings….sounds similar, but no. A forum is more like a debate where everyone participating is a debater as opposed to a Blog, which is more like a speaking event where people in the audience can ask questions or make statements in an orderly environment that everyone else may hear, but always controlled by the presenter(s). Our service places the power in the hands of the presenter(s), where a forum can lead to a shouting match of unchecked emotion and chaos.

Out of all three, which technology is best?

IMHO that would be Blogware, not just web logs since so many seem to want the claim to fame. With our security features and notification options which include RSS and email subscriptions, advanced moblogging functionality and full support for third party plug-ins by most who use the Metaweblog or Blogger API, our service is really on the forefront of changing the way people interact. It's not only community development but also viral marketing.

It's not only a content management system, but it is also a forum and a website. Now I hope that last sentence really get's you thinking…