Integrating Websites, Blogs, Etc. into a Web Publishing Platform (Part 1)

It’s time to start thinking differently about websites, blogs, podcasts, etc. In fact, it’s time to STOP thinking in terms of “blog” and “website” altogether. I’m not saying we should stop using terms like “blog” or “podcast.” Nor am I saying blogs are dead or anything like that. Afterall, the majority of the population hasn’t even caught up with the whole blogging phenomenon yet, and there’s probably no need to confuse them with new terms now.

But it’s time that we - as small business people, web publishers and developers - take our thinking to the next level. It’s time to start thinking in terms of an integrated “web publishing platform” instead of merely a blog, a website, a podcast or a video blog.

The Problem With Small Business Web Publishing Today

I was cruising around iTunes earlier this evening and discovered a new podcast that sounded interesting. So, I clicked on the link to take me to the publisher’s website, Todd Henry’s The Accidental Creative. When I got there, as any blogger might do, the first thing I looked for was a blog. What I found instead was a static website with some blog posts imported into the homepage. So I clicked on one of the links and it took me to a new site over on Typepad.

Then I looked for an archive of Todd’s past podcast episodes. I wanted to listen to some of his other stuff. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any on his site. I couldn’t find any on his blog either. The only way I could listen to past episodes is through iTunes or download them into my podcatcher (which I will probably end up doing). But I wanted them NOW, and I’m not a big fan of iTunes.

Before you think I’m picking on Todd, please understand I’m just using him as an example (as I said in the beginning, I really enjoy his stuff). And the reality is this is how many, if not most, small business people have their online presence set up today. They have a website. They have a blog; oftentimes on a completely different site/platform. Some may have a podcast or video blog on another site. A smaller percentage might have a forum and/or a shopping cart; again on a different platform/website.

There’s still too much piecemeal web publishing in small business today. That’s bad for your audience; with all the bouncing around between different sites, different platforms, and in some cases, completely different applications. It’s also time-consuming, stressful and can be unecessarily costly for people like Todd to learn and maintain multiple sites, platforms and applications.

The Solution to Piecemeal Web Publishing

As I said at the beginnging of this article, I believe it’s time we evolve our thinking and start thinking in terms of an integrated web publishing platform. This is a platform that would integrate your website, blog, podcast, link blog, video blog, forum, shopping cart and any other publishing tools you may use. All of them in one place, integrated within one application.

So for you, the small business web publisher, there’d be no more bouncing around between FrontPage, Typepad, Libsyn and whatever else you may currently use to maintian your web presence. Likewise for your audience; they’d be able to find all your content, products and/or services in one place.

True, not everyone will want to use all the components I mentioned above, but they’ll certainly want at least some of them. And if the rest of them were also available and user-friendly within the same application, I imagine more people would use them.

Although I’m presenting this idea as something new, it’s really not. There are plenty of sites out there - large and small - that are already set up this way. Yaro Starak’s site, Entrepreneur’s Journey is one example of a small site that’s very nicely integrated on the front end, although I’m not sure about the back-end. I know he uses WordPress, so my guess is things are pretty well integrated from his perspective. On a larger scale, the tech news site, ZDNet seemlessly integrates news stories, blogs, audio and video in one nice, neatly packaged site.

There’s more to say on this idea, and I plan on fleshing it out further over the coming weeks. In the meantime, I’d appreciate your thoughts on the idea. Would you agree it’s time to evolve our thinking about small business web publishing? Or is it me who’s catching up with something that’s already happened? Is it all merely semantics?