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Social Marketers: Stop Blogging Now!

In a recent Zogby Interactive online survey of nearly 2,000 people, some interesting stats made me think it is time to stop blogging.

According to the survey a whopping 86% of Americans said websites were an important source of news, with more than half (56%) viewing these sites as very important. However, fewer than 38% say the same about blogs.

What’s even more interesting… 87% feel that professional journalism plays a vital role in journalism’s future, along with citizen journalism (77%) and blogging (59%) but only 1% of consider blogs their most trusted source of news, or their primary source of news.

1% ?!

Am I busting my blogging butt to impress 1%? What about that 86% who think that “websites” are an important source of news?

Is it time to retire Wordpress, find those old html pages and ftp the “old site” back up to the server?

Not exactly!

If the experience I have gained working with “newbie” clients at NetSmart Media serves me correctly, I have a feeling that most people know not what a blog is. In fact, I would be confident in saying that the sites that people come to trust the most (outside of CNN.com) are indeed professional “blogs” that are perceived as “websites”.

So, I still say it is time to quit blogging but only in the traditional sense.

Traditionally, most blogs have served up some pretty lame content. Little thought and effort goes into most posts I see as I scour the blogowogosphere.

Crusty Internet marketers, aggressive adsense portalists, and straight up spammers have jumped on Wordpress platform like it was a golden chariot leading to fame and fortune.

This has tarnished the reputation of blogs with the Internet public and so, when asked, the “public” expresses their reluctance to trust “blog content”.

We Won’t Be Blogging Anymore

Actually we stopped “blogging” a while back. Instead, we started sharing social marketing strategies and tips on our new magazine-style website.

What, you thought this was a Wordpress blog?

Well, it used to be, but, in case didn’t notice, we installed a new Wordpress theme that retired the old chronological post-after-post blog look. In fact, we are about to upgrade again to a custom Wordpress theme that carries that magazine-style look a step further… that’s coming soon (or may have already been installed if you are reading this at a later date).

Get The Point

So, to make it all clear, those stats are telling us it’s time to get serious about your web presence. It’s time to consider a custom WP or blog theme.

Retire the traditional “blog-style” blog themes and come up with something that impresses, engages and intrigues your visitors.

You don’t need to look like CNN.com, but you do need to differentiate yourself from the millions of me-too bloggers posting miserable content to one of the hundreds of free blog hosts with lame templates.

Your readers won’t trust you until you do.

Another Reason For Blogmasters To Focus On Google

If you are a blogmaster (webmaster) you know how tedious it can be to accomplish all the tasks that ensure your blog(s) are getting indexed correctly.

Well, Google has made it much easier. They recently turned each of the Webmaster Tools into “feeds” that can be instantly added to your iGoogle homepage.

Once these “gadgets have been added to your iGoogle homepage, you’ll have access to all the blogs (or websites) in your Google webmaster account for instant stats on:

1. Crawl Errors

2. Content Analysis

3. Top Search Queries

4. Subscriber Stats

5. What Googlebot Sees

6. External Links

7. Internal Links

8. Site Links

From this page it’s just one click to tons of data that will keep your blogs and Google on good terms. This is a serious time-saver! And, if you are like most busy bloggers (me) and have sadly neglected this stuff, you (we) have no excuse now.

To find the Google Webmaster gadgets: Go to your Google Webmaster Tools account. Click on any verified site, click Tools, then click Gadgets.