To Blog or not to Blog

Obviously Blogging is very important yadda yadda yadda but what i want to know is - is it necessary to have a typical "Blog" or can i just have a news section that i regularly update that has a space for user comments? is that not the same thing?

Was this a dumb question or does nobody know the answer? Apologies if it is a dumb question - im only a beginner

Any section of your site that you can add fresh content to will suffice. It doesn't necessarily even have to have comments (though comments do allow for additional user added content). It doesn't have to be a Blog in the strictest sense. It is however worth looking at some of the reasons that Blogs have a lot of SEO benefits:

1) Easily added fresh content that is likely to attract incoming links, social bookmarking, etc
2) Multiple entries on one page that can result in unexpected Long Tail keyword searches
3) RSS feed
4) User added comments = additional content with minimal effort
5) Regular return visits (assuming the blog is popular)

The principal difference between a Blog and a News section (to me at any rate - others may disagree) is that you're more likely to get personality coming across in a blog than in through just news. News suggests impartial reporting of events, whereas most popular blogs have very strong opinions on their subject matter. People generally like to spend time with others that have similar views. You're more likely to gain loyal visitors when your personality comes through.

I agree with the diff between a blog and a news section.

Also, if your site is fairly new, it's quite hard to promote it to people since they are still likely to visit a site that has a lot of interesting content and some traffic (both inbound and outbound). When you have a blog, you can easily submit it to directories that will greatly improve your traffic. Plus, you don't need to put whole articles in your blog...a press release or a snippet of your article from your site would do. Just don't forget to link it to your actual site (it also helps in building links).

although its not a "news" section in the strictest sense - I'd use it as a blog, but just not using traditional blogging software.

But what you're suggesting is that if im going to do it I might as well do it blogger stylee?

Cheers fellas, muchos gracias

I think there's no difference at all since you will still make
an update in your blog either personal, typical or news.
About the news section it's up to you where you will
put it, but for me I'll just put it in one of the section
of my personal blog.

Does business blog make a great convenience for both business owner and clients?