Your website is software, your blog is for content.

This is becoming more and more true and it’s only going to become more widespread in the next few years. The ‘informational website’ is going to go away and give rise to websites that are a lot more like software applications and a lot less like press releases and information packets. Asp.net, php, ajax, and javascript are already beginning to  replace html web pages. In this new age of complicated scripts and high-tech interfaces, people will come to your website to DO things instead of merely gather information. They’ll get your information from your blog.

In the next few years business blogging will become ever more important. In fact it will be critical. There will simply be no way for anyone to find your business or organization without a blog that is updated relatively frequently. Now is a golden opportunity to get ahead of the curve. Right now it’s possible to jump on the bandwagon and enjoy a few years of success before your competition tunes in and eliminates your monopoly of the market.

So, what do you do with your website? Be creative. What services can you make available to your customers? How can you make it easier for people to buy from you? Do you do ecommerce? Should your customers be able to view their account online? What makes sense from a customer service standpoint.  These are questions that even the most technically backward companies are going to have to acknowledge in the coming years.

The fact is that the only things that are valuable on the Internet are content and services. Content tells people what they need to know and services let people ‘do stuff’ to make their lives easier or more fun or whatever. My recommendation is to provide both, and to do it now and not in five years when you’ve already missed the boat.