That’s the question du jour these days.
The answer: it depends.
If you don’t yet have a web site, a blog can serve as a Phase 1 web site. (Indeed, some designers even use a blog as their one-and-only web site.) A blog literally takes 10 minutes to create and you don’t need any technical expertise. However, you have less freedom with the layout due to the limitations of most blog publishing software, especially the free ones (like blogger.com).
If you already have a web site and are trying to decide between an email newsletter and a blog, note the main difference: a blog is a “pull” (i.e. readers have to find it and go there) while an email marketing message or newsletter is a “push” (i.e. you send or push it to those you want to keep in touch with). Actually, these two tools can work beautifully together. You can drive traffic to your blog by including links to it in your email messages.
Here are a couple of designer blogs I like:
More than a traditional web site, a blog has the potential to convey your design sensibility and who you are as a person. Swiss Miss, Tina Roth Eisenberg’s, advice: “Keep it real. Don’t blog just to simply promote your services, or even worse, to cash in on advertising money. Readers will sense it right away if you sell out. Be passionate about your blog. Be consistent. Kept it fresh.”
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Get yourself known by commenting on other people’s blogs as well. Sharing is a vital aspect of growing readership. I just started mine, but only after spending many months conversing with a variety of bloggers and getting to know them. Lastly, quality content is the key. Try not to clutter your blog design with widgets, links, icons. Use WordPress or Typepad; they’re the best
is there any one who knows any source about this subject in other languages?
Interesting points, I actually use wordpress as a CMS to build static sites, blogs & hybrids.
I use the rss to pull the search engines to the websites.
I also make sure to add my autoresponder to my “blog”.
I’ll say yes, you should have your own blog. At least try it. There are so many free blog services you really have nothing to lose. Maybe your get bored of blogging after the first month or two (happens all the time) or maybe you’ll really fall in love with blogging (happens not as frequently but when it does it can be great). Again there’s nothing to lose. I like Blogger.com (almost everything you need) and I also think Tumblr.com is incredibly easy to use and a good easy beginners blog. Once you get going on your blog there are so many possibilities to expand and grow. It can be a lot of fun, and that’s the original point of blogs (but maybe just maybe you’ll make some money too).
I have both blogs and websites but I find blogging more interesting as you can carry on conversations right online about a particular subject. You can’t do that with a static website.