Movable Type, Wordpress allow a seamless website/blog look

Older blog software were limited in their function. Their primary purpose was to let you post your blog articles on regular intervals, have your readers comment on them and provide an easy way for them to find older posts (usually by date or by category).

Many individuals and companies have been adding blogs to their main websites for a while now. This gives their customers and readers a place to find a variety of updated, current information, and even interact with the website besides just sending emails.

What is happening now is the reverse. Many bloggers are finding that they want to add a website-like appearance to their blogs.

For example, they may wish to sell some products (often books or artwork), they may want to add an extensive "Abouts" page, or a section for scheduled events , and a special menu for their links (to other blogs and other sites), an articles section if they also write for other journals or online sites, and of course the requisite "Contacts" page.

The site then seamlessly functions both as a website, and as a regularly updated blog.

Popular blogging software such as Movable Type and Wordpress have come up with just this version of web+blog.

Here are some examples of websites and blogs that combined together to provide the functions of both.

* Serious Eats very successfully merges both the functions of a blog and that of a content-driven website.

Regular bloggers post daily on a number of topics, and readers can interact with comments, and even participate by asking questions and making entries in the "Talk" forum*.

Besides blog posts, there are also columns which provide article-style posting.

* The Torontoist website posts daily information about Toronto. It has categorized its topics in its menu on top of the page, as well as adding a more conventional website menu including "about", an interesting "schedules" menu to know when the various topics will be posted, and a "staff" link with emails and contacts also added.

The Torontoist is part of a large, urban-based network of websites/blogs also found in New York, Vancouver and London, England.

* Even big organizations and institutions are using the Movable Type and Wordpress web and blog combination to greater effect, allowing for regular updates of news and events, some with commenting possibilities, and others with blog-like features for sharing and emailing these posts.

Almost everyone is now used to some kind of interactivity on websites. They also expect regular updates on information on events, specials (sales, items), schedules and other news that regularly change.

I have written briefly about this in another post.

*A forum is an online place where members login to discuss issues of similar interest. There are thousands of forums out there from discussing the latest reality TV episodes to intricate mathematical questions. Many websites are now including forums as well as blogs.

Promoting Your Website

In my article, How to Make the Most of Your Website, I have a section called:

How serious are you about promoting your work?

Here is a list of my recommendations.

The most important being:

Use every setting possible to publicize your website.

* Post on online sites

Find other websites to link to yours (and link theirs to yours)
Post your website on blogs and online groups
Start your own blog, and link to other like-minded blogs
Leave messages with comments and your services (subtly) on online boards
Send out your website on E-news letters
Find commercial websites that can advertise your site (usually for a small fee)

* Sign off everything with your website

On your business card
On your brochures
On any article or piece of writing

* Tell people your website address

Try to make your website easy to remember. This could be through a short address, a meaningful address (i.e. it spells out your company name clearly) or other ways to make your contact remember your website.
Just saying your website address can trigger someone to look it up later

* Put your website in visible places

On t-shirts
On paintings or craft work
On cars
On carry-on bags
On other merchandise

* Make sure that search engines like google can easily find your website.

For more information on how to obtain the article: How to Make the Most of Your Website, please go to kidistdesigns.com, and follow the membership information.