Blog or Website? This question still befuddles people who wish to start something of their own online at some point in their life. From what I’ve experienced so far interacting with the people who wish to enter this digital space, they treat the term blog synonymous with a website. Simply put, most of the people still do not understand the difference between blog and website. If you’ve set yourself for a digital mission, it’s important to know the basic difference between blog and website. A clear understanding of the same will lead you to choose a clear path that takes you to your desired goals. Therefore, In this post today, I’ll be helping you understand how a blog differs from a website!
What is a website?
In the words of Wikipedia, a website is a collection of inter-related web-pages hosted on a common domain name. These web-pages are usually static with multimedia content published. Yes, you’ve got it right. Still need some examples? Check Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo, Quora, Paytm, etc. These all are examples of websites. So, if your goal is to start an online business related to domains like social media, e-commerce, forums, online dating, utility, etc., then you must create a website. To create such a website, you’ll either have to buy themes or hire a web-designer to get it done for you.
Characteristics of a website
Now that we know what exactly a website is, let’s recap its striking features:
- Usually run by a group of individuals
- Comprises a collection of static web-pages
- They are usually commercial in nature, with an aim to generate profit/sales
- Designing a website requires one to be tech-savvy with knowledge of languages and codes like HTML, CSS, PHP and XML.
Now, what is a blog?
A blog is a genre of website that comprises a published set of articles/photos/videos, often in a reverse chronological order. The article which you’re reading right now is a blog post, and it’s published on my blog – Budding Geek. Sounds interesting? It indeed is. So, if you love writing articles to share your knowledge and experience with the world, starting a blog is the right choice for you.
Characteristics of a blog
- Usually run by individuals
- Authors share their individual ideas/opinions/knowledge about a particular topic
- Comprises blog entries/posts/articles which are published in reverse chronological order, i.e. the latest published article appears first on the homepage, followed by the previous published article and so on. Hence, we can say that a blog comprises web-pages which are dynamic in nature.
- It’s also a platform where the readers share their respective comments/views in response to the article published by the author
- Still need examples? Look at my own blog. And if you need some external sources of inspiration, please take a look at Techcrunch, Mashable and Lifehacker.
Blog Vs. Website: Point-to-point difference between blog and website
Now that we have a basic understanding of blogs and websites, let’s have a point-to-point comparison between blogs and websites:
1.Purpose
Blog: Sharing of ideas/information/knowledge
Website: Display of static information about a particular business
2.Goals
Blog: Sharing of knowledge/expertise
Website: Commercial
3. Ownership
Blog: Usually run by individuals
Website: Usually run by businesses
4. Updates
Blog: Dynamic in nature as blogs are most often updated with fresh content on a day-to-day basis.
Website: Static in nature as web-pages are occasionally updated with fresh content
5. Readers’ Feedback
Blog: Readers usually leave feedback in form of comments on blog posts
Website: Readers leave their feedback through feedback forms/contact forms
6. Level of Engagement
Blog: They generally have high level of engagement as readers are attracted to conversational tone of the articles
Website: They generally have a low level of engagement as there is no conversational style of connection
7. Organisation of Content
Blog: The articles on a blog are mostly organised in form of categories and tags. Example – I have file this article under category: Blogging
Website: The pages on a website are usually organised as sub-domains or sub-directories. Example – apple.com has thousands of webpages organised under sub-domains and sub-directories like apple.com/iPad, support.apple.com, etc.
8. Credibility
Blog: High, as the conversational style/sharing of knowledge wins the trust of the visitors
Website: Usually lower as compared to blogs since websites have static content with no such means of influencing the trust of the visitors
9. Monetization Potential
Blog: High. Since a blog can be easily monetized using a variety of ways like display advertisements, sponsored content, affiliate marketing, direct product sales, etc.
Website: Lower as compared to blog since there are a limited number of ways to monetize a website, like – e-commerce, advertisements and paid subscriptions
10. Cost of Maintenance
Blog: The maintenance cost of a blog is usually less compared to a website. You mostly pay only domain and hosting charges.
Website: The cost of maintaining a website is usually higher as compared to a blog since besides domain and hosting charges, you must shed extra bucks to hire a web designer and settle at a unique layout and design for your website. The designing cost increases with complexity of the website. The more the features, the higher the designing cost.
If we summarize the above tabulated differences, we can easily conclude that the basic difference between blog and website lies in the way their web layout is structured to display the information to the visitors.
Conclusion: Blog or Website? Which one is better?
There is no concrete answer to this question. Both blogs and websites have their own significance, which is aligned to your own objectives and goals. Go ahead with a website, if your goal is to sell your unique products/services online. Contrary to this, go ahead with a blog if you have passion for a particular topic and you can spend days and nights without getting exhausted of the content that you can share with the world. Blogs need to be regularly updated with fresh and useful content, and therefore they will naturally suck your more time and efforts as compared to a website. Deciding between a blog or a website is therefore your own call.
As a newbie in this area, I’ve always confused between blogs and websites. Now I’ve a clear understanding of the concepts. You’ve touched every single aspect of the difference very beautifully. Loved it.
Thanks for the appreciation, Daniel