A Healthy Alternative to Blogging

I think The most important thing I learned about marketing while in the entrepreneurship program at Wichita State University was differentiation. It was constantly pounded into our heads and now I'll never forget it. If it was the only thing I learned it was 20K well spent. I've known in the back of my mind that blogging is a big fat waste of time for a while now. I think most internet marketers feel the same way. The primary reason blogging is such a tough racket is because it is a fairly restrictive medium. The lack of variables make it tough to differentiate.

Unless you're a great writer and extremely knowledgeable about your vertical, blogging isn't going to do much for you. You don't have to stop blogging altogether, but don't expect many links or additional traffic. People have known this for a while, but feel compelled to keep plugging away and posting. I believe a lot of this has to do with a lack of clear alternatives. People know they need to have something on their site other than just boring old web pages, but what?

Why Blogging Is A Competitive Nightmare

When you analyzing blogging through the lens of a competitive framework such as Porter's Five Forces Model you realize why blogging often produces very little.

• Everyone is doing it. The barriers to entry are low, even in the context of the Internet.
• The standardization of blogging software makes differentiation more difficult.
• As opposed to other writing platforms such as books or magazines - with blogging competition takes place on a post by post basis. This granularity makes it even more difficult to establish meaningful differences.
• Like most things on the Internet, there are zero switching costs and "buyers" (users) have all of the control.

Another problem is that supply FAR outstrips demand. If blog posts where a stock they would be plummeting. You probably already know all of this at some level so why do you continue to pump out articles?

An Alternative To Blogging - Permanent Resources

When I say permanent resources, I mean a static resource that answers some burning question in your industry. It may be collection of images, information, articles or all of the above. Something that is more than a single page, and comprehensive. It is possible to create a "permanent resource" with a blog post, but I believe using a single post makes it more difficult to differentiate and tougher to market to link targets as a robust resource.

Creating comprehensive, non-blog resources will produce much greater gains for the same level of content production. Here are some examples of permanent resources that I have found that show good examples of how you can use your content production time more wisely:

• SEOmoz SEO Ranking Factors
• XTRA Lease's Comprehensive Guide To Trailer Specs and Sizes
• Career Explorer's list of career videos
• The SEOBook.com Glossary

Creating these types of non-blog resources are a great way to differentiate and add value. Once you create the resource get on the phone and start selling it as link bait. Don't email, CALL.

If you need ideas for what kinds of resources to create see this article about exploring Yahoo! Answers for ideas.

Imagine all those blog posts and hours of writing. Now imagine the robust and link-worthy resources you could create by spending that time differently.