Q: I am new to affiliate marketing, and have a site up and running that I am continuing to build with products. I am trying to add reviews of products as separate pages to the site on a regular basis. I’m wondering if this will have the same effect as a blog, as far as keeping these fresh and search engine worthy?
A: The answer is that a blog is a Web site. It’s a little confusing, because a lot of people, and I’ve been guilty of this myself, refer to a site and blog as two different things.
A Web site can be built in many ways, and a blog is just one type of site.
Oftentimes, a site is created with a program or by hand in writing HMTL code, while a blog uses a software program like Movable Type or WordPress.
If your site is strictly based on reviewing products, I’d suggest trying out a blog as the backend for it. You’ll find that it’s very easy to maintain, and there are some core functions that make it easy to navigate for visitors, such as categories and search.
For example, I have an affiliate site where I post reviews for products and services at WeViews.tv. This site is built with WordPress, and hosted by LivingDot (they’ll installed WordPress for you).
Another affordable and easy to use hosting option is 1&1 Internet. When you get an account with them, you can easily activate WordPress yourself.
I used to use Movable Type for my blogs, and I exclusively use WordPress these days. It’s very flexible and easy to use, and a stark contrast from building sites manually, which I do for my sites that are not blogs.
As far as the search engines, it’s all about fresh content, so whether you have a blog or other type of site, if you are maintaining it regularly, that’s the most important thing.