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Blogs and Lenses (together is better)

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Every blog needs a lens. Here's why.

What are blogs good at?

  • A blog is a super simple way to be on the web
  • A blog makes it easy to keep a chronological diary
  • A blog lets you easily link to other sites
  • A blog has a very simple yet accepted commenting capability
  • Blogs are sorted, ranked, fed and cross-posted to, creating a community

What are lenses good at?

  • A lens is a permanent signpost, it doesn't have to change every day
  • A lens can point to your best blog posts, or sort them by topic
  • A good lens is about just one thing, so it gets more relevant search engine traffic
  • A lens makes it easy to include autoupdating information, like RSS feeds, news and Amazon bestsellers
  • A lens can include Google maps, eBay auctions, polls and other features that are tricky to get into a blog
  • A lens gets free traffic to your blog
  • A lens can raise money for charity, a few pennies at a time. And it's free.

Structure matters (sometimes)

Blogs are unique. They have different structures. You can't 'get' a blog right away. You need to read a few posts, figure out what they're about.

Lenses have structure. To some people, that's boring. But if you're looking for information...fast... the consistent structure of a lens means that you will find what you need.

People go to a blog and stay. People go to a lens and leave.

Three examples

Things you could do with a blog (but why?)

But each one below helps one or more blogs
Guitars
A lens about guitars, guitar blogs, guitar videos and more
Rajesh on blogging
A starter kit, together with links back to his blog
Softies
Including a pattern for an advanced Himalayan Kitten.

by

sethgodin

Seth Godin is the bestselling author of 13 books. He writes about marketing, the spread of ideas and managing both customers and employees with respec... more »

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