A lot of independent consultants ask me if they need both a blog AND a website. I always say NO. I actually suggest that you use a platform that can serve as both your blog and website because this method allows you to build your personal brand and sell your services at the same time. How?
Your Blog is a Selling Tool for Your Expertise
I would just use one main hub where people can go to read your blog and learn more about your business. When people read your blog, they are learning something from you that they might be willing to pay for later. Use your blog as a selling tool for your expertise, and then offer your readers other pages on your site where they can read more about your products and services.
Your Blog Can Help Build Trust With Potential Customers
As soon as potential clients land on your blog homepage, they are reading to see if you write like a real person, if they can connect with you. If they can, and if you’re sharing great information, they will likely come back to read more. Over time, this develops into a blogger-reader relationship that involves trust. A good blogger has readers who trust their opinion or advice on a particular subject. For example, thousands of readers place a very high level of trust in Afrobella’s hair and beauty recommendations. And since they already trust her, they would be much more likely to buy products or services from her.
The Latest Blog Platforms are Already Set Up to Act Like Websites
Reason #3,469 why I love WordPress! As their website states:
WordPress is web software you can use to create a beautiful website or blog. We like to say that WordPress is both free and priceless at the same time.
The great thing about WordPress is that your blog is just one page on the site – you can have as many other pages as you want: an about page (there is a sample one that comes with your new WordPress blog already), a “services” page, a testimonials page, whatever you want.
How has this worked out for you? Are you a consultant (or want to be) trying to figure out how you should present yourself on the web? Do you have both a blog and a website for your business or just one hub for everything?
This was an opinion I shared during DCWeek at the Social Media for NonTraditional Users (#smntu) presentation that I gave. I'm happy to see my opinion backed up from another source. I'm going to share it on the SMNTU website I've built. Great advice.
I agree wholeheartedly with this. I like, and use, WordPress for this very reason.