Blog or Website decision

I am afraid that’s not enough info to help with your decision. (And adsense should be really your last worry – first learn the basics!)

Sit down with a piece of paper and write down/draw the structure of your (future) content. Everything else is should steam from there. How the content will be organized? What kind of subsections > hierarchy… how they relate to each other. Have it (at least in your mind) as a diagram.
Then you can look for the right tool. It might be WP, since it is flexible enough to do zillion things besides blogging or maybe something else.
WP has static Pages, plus posts organized in categories, subcats etc.

There are sites from magazines to really static “websites” that were made with WP – that’s not an issue. You just need to become very familiar with its features and potential. It’s not a “blog vs. website” question (btw, blogs are websites, too!). It is an issue about what do YOU want ??

I guess I don’t see the difference. A blog is a website. A good website that is updated with recent news posted with the latest news highlighted, is a blog. Same thing. WP makes both, and makes it easy. You can have a website set up in 10 minutes, and it’s a blog as soon as you start writing blog posts.

WP accomodates static content just as well as dynamic. You can put the static stuff either: in your theme’s templates (using HTML, CSS)… or you can use WordPress “Pages” which are meant to be static although you can edit it anytime… Or you can use a Sticky Post to keep 1 post static at the top of the page…. Or you can use the Text Widget if your theme uses widgets. Also, the latest WP allows you to designate a Page as your home-index page, so you can have a static front page if you wish.

In conclusion, use WP. But be prepared to teach yourself, learn over time, be patient, and maybe settle for a design (a WordPress Theme) that isn’t your exact vision, at first (until you learn how to hack it to what you want).

Getting your own Domain now is a good way to start. Get the domain, install WP there, and choose a free Theme to begin. Then, learn how to modify the theme to your needs.

Good luck. Hope this helps

Moshu, DGold, thanks for the specific input. I guess I’ve confused myself to some extent, reading other blogs on website vs blog.

Part of the issue – chicken and egg I guess – is I’ve put off fully blocking out the hierarchy and structure til I had a better sense of how the site would be navigated. Newbie issue – don’t know enough of the features or functionality to guide my concept and content ideas I guess.

If it helps to understand more – I have a global topic which has been in the background for most people, now starting to emerge. The issues related to it are regional and personal. And I’m trying to bring current items and discussion to help guide evolving content.

Thanks again for the thoughtful replies.

more… kind of a Flow Chart for testing WP and seeing how flexible it can be, to plan your site:

if it was me, I would
get the domain & hosting plan
make a sub-folder
upload WP into the sub-folder
run the WP installer (“famous 5-minute install”)

Start using WP on a testing basis
Create 3 categories
Make 5 posts, some with Pictures, Lists, Paragraphs
Make a Page

After you have entered some of your test posts as described above,

Choose & upload 3 different themes

Switch between the themes and see how the site changes

THEN you would be better-informed of the options & functionality, to make a chart of the navigation you want for a long-term site you’re planning to create

Sounds like a smart plan. Alot will emerge from the testing and I need some OJT.

The topic is something we all take for granted, but we won’t be able to for much longer. Inside the field, its clear issues are rising above the radar in relatively short order.

Best analog for what I’m trying to do – imagine something like a new About.com topic, one where people are already searching within categories and subs, but are only just starting to connect the dots (which have been connected without them). Global impacts with regional and personal differentiation, which is why blog is appropriate.

Part of my aprehension is I’m coming from a field that does not have either the comprehensive site, or blog(s), or even much web savvy….yet…. so I’m (unjustifiably?) nervous about doing this half-baked and either ruining it or giving it away.

Have to say, everything I’ve read says what I’m imagining couldn’t be done without WordPress. Really appreciate folks like you out there.

Well, crawl before we walk.

I haven’t heard of the field which hasn’t made use of the web as of yet, but that’s great to be at the cutting edge. In that case I might think there’s value in getting it started before someone else grabs the idea, putting content for readership and search engines, and being the first to build your ‘brand’ ~ While planning to upgrade/improve the theme steadily or switch it anytime later. If they’re truly not web-savvy, they’d probably be happy with good writing on the Default theme. For example in emergency or breaking-news situations I have seen people install WP and begin writing immediately, where it’s all about the content and timliness, and suddenly the whole web seems to know that site is the place to go for that 1 topic.

The thing with WP, you can be writing a blog post in 15 minutes from now on a new website, and Google will know about your posts sometimes within a week. You can change the Theme design completely later, and your content is all still right where the readers and search engines first found it.

Just to keep things accurate, the field’s on the web – but about 30% is highly partitioned retail and wholesale, and the rest is either fairly conservative content for insiders, or distributed under related fields, so that items don’t get covered in public venues, despite the impact to communities and individuals.

That’s what makes this challenging and interesting – there is a wealth of excellent content available on the one hand, but no “clearinghouse” or logical forum for citizens and consumers…yet. I’ve found about 15 of my planned categories show decent traffic in the keyword search charts.

Well, I’m sure I’ll be back for help and insight. Thanks again.