You may be thinking that I’m insane to imply that there isn’t enough publishing happening on the web with the proliferation of blogs, Squidoo, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and all the other services that exist. The problem, as I see it, is that web publishing doesn’t exist on a spectrum, it is almost completely bipolar. On one end are the user-facing publishing systems like Squidoo, YouTube, Flickr, all the blogging platforms and online web page creation systems. On the other end are the expensive, custom-developed sites that are maintained for corporations by teams of skilled software developers.

While it is frustrating that new technologies are difficult for non-insiders to use, this is not a new phenomenon. The first automobiles were very similar to the current web in many ways. The first automobiles were not user friendly. Consider this snip from Wikipedia regarding hand-crank starters:

Originally, a hand crank was used to start engines, but it was inconvenient, difficult, and dangerous to crank-start an engine. Even though cranks had an overrun mechanism, when the engine started, the crank could begin to spin along with the crankshaft and potentially strike the person cranking the engine. Additionally, care had to be taken to retard the spark in order to prevent backfiring; with an advanced spark setting, the engine could kick back (run in reverse), pulling the crank with it, because the overrun safety mechanism works in one direction only.

Although users were advised to cup their fingers under the crank and pull up, it felt natural for operators to grasp the handle with the fingers on one side, the thumb on the other. Even a simple backfire could result in a broken thumb; it was possible to end up with a broken wrist, or worse. Moreover, increasingly larger engines with higher compression ratios made hand cranking a more physically demanding endeavor.

The first cars required much more maintenance and tinkering than we are accustomed to in 2009 and car experts (insiders) were the first to benefit from new innovations. In contrast, during my driving years, I have had to change only two flat tires. I’ve never (yet) run out of gas or had to carry extra fuel to ensure that I wouldn’t. I’ve always had air conditioning and I’ve had power windows and locks in all my cars except one.

Today’s web is much like early automobiles. Avid fans and tinkerers build amazing technologies on the existing web framework. New innovations spring up daily that influence the very early developers of this new set of technologies. But for the end user, the web is still not very accessible or friendly. My conversations with small business owners and individuals remind me how foreign and unintuitive much of my world still is.

I started this blog because I want to more provide information about what technologies are available, why they are useful and how to use them. Unfortunately when I look at my own posts, I realize that very few people can really use the “how-to” articles such as How to track outbound links with Analytics or How to publish to Facebook, because these articles assume a great deal of pre-existing knowledge of web software development.

In an ideal world, business owners and individuals seeking to create rich, interactive web publications will be able to buy or lease a solution similar to today’s best luxury vehicles. First and foremost, the vehicle will be guaranteed to start and operate for years with minimal maintenance. Second, the features available will be well designed and integrated so that the consumer knows they exist but isn’t distracted by them. Third, a minimal skimming of the user manual will be all that is required to understand even the esoteric features.

We’re not there yet, but there are changes afoot. I’m excited about the potential of cloud computing as a framework for next-generation hosting. The site builders and content management systems are better today than they were yesterday — and they’ll be better tomorrow. And there is a lot of work happening to ensure that sites integrate easily with other sites, data and services.

On the other side, it is imperative for individuals to dive in and get familiar with what exists. Automobiles didn’t advance themselves, they were advanced by individuals who saw a shortfall and fixed it. Understanding what’s possible on the web today, what’s hard to do and what hasn’t been done yet are the keys to innovating the next generations. We need more suggestions and good ideas. Sooner or later, we’ll meet in the middle and then the web will be truly valuable.

For a while, I suppose, there was a reason to make a distinction between a traditional web site and a blog. Those distinctions might be in how the site was arranged, how dynamic the information on the site was, and how the site was maintained (which tools). I don’t think there ever needed to be a distinction between a small business presence web site and a blog — and I certainly don’t think so today. In fact I think the best way to create a small business web site now is by blogging.

But blogging is too much work

Go with me for just a moment. Let’s say that you’re getting into the home inspection business and you need a basic presence web site. You need a place to describe your business, create a contact form and you want to display some basic service information and policies. You’re not necessarily interested in posting regular updates, but you want to be able to change things around from time to time.

Guess what? That sounds like a blog to me. Modern blogging software normally allows the creation of pages in addition to regular posts. If you look at the top of this blog, for example, I have an About page and if you look at the very bottom I also have a Privacy policy page. From an administrative standpoint there’s no difference between a blog post and a content page.

So, before you rush out and hire a designer and a web developer to put together your small web site, you might want to take Wordpress.com for a spin. There you can create an account, set up your blog/site and see what it might look like. If you install the really incredible Thesis theme* on your blog, you’ll also get point-and-click control over which pages appear in the top navigation (and much more).

Future benefits

If you start building your site this way, you have the option to eventually post regular updates like you expect from a blog. You also get built-in commenting (which you can turn on and off for each page or post individually), a huge collection of installable plugins and widgets that you can use to display things from Flickr photos to YouTube videos to stock price widgets (and on and on).

Some caveats

If you’re trying to build a commerce web site for hundreds of products, a blog probably isn’t the right way to go. There are other solutions for that if you’re interested (drop me a comment). Also, keep in mind that free hosting on sites such as Wordpress.com might introduce elements (such as unwanted ads) onto your site without your control. It’s still worthwhile to consider, though, since Wordpress.com provides a premium feature set at extremely reasonable prices. You can build your site up on the free version and decide if it’s right for you, then upgrade if and when it makes sense.

Last thoughts

With all the flexibility built into today’s blogging platforms, it’s hard to come up with a good reason to build a site any other way. You may not be blogging today, but as your business expands, your customers may expect regular updates on your site. Using a blog as the foundation provides the ability to turn that feature on when you need it rather than having to figure out how to merge a traditional web site with a blog later. The simplicity of starting a new blog site on Wordpress.com reduces the startup barriers to practically zero, so there’s almost no reason that anyone — even someone with no experience creating web sites — couldn’t create a web presence immediately.

Get to it. Then tell me what you think!

* Disclosure: The Thesis theme is not free and I am an affiliate representative of DIYthemes, the creator. I get paid if you buy Thesis. I’d recommend using the Thesis theme even if I weren’t an affiliate.

There’s not much more to say. Take a look at at the UserVoice tour and see if it works for you. It’s a great tool that fills a real need — and you don’t need to invent anything to take advantage of it.

My intent is to provide guidance and instruction on how and why to use emerging tools. I’m also going to acknowledge as often as possible when to do something completely different. If you see something that needs correction or amplification, let me know — like Rob did. He’s right too.

Let me just make sure that I’ve been clear about one thing. The best way to do something for your business is the way that it works best for you. Sounds like a bunch of consultant double-talk, doesn’t it? It’s true though. You can only succeed in the things that you believe in.

So whatever you read online, be rational and weight it with your current business strategy. Maybe it fits, maybe it doesn’t. Do it your way.

I went with listed. I want people to be able to reach me if they need to — and phone books are for humans. People who need to call me look in phone books because they know my name. The computers that make outgoing calls for companies don’t use phone books, they just dial lists of numbers, so it doesn’t matter in that case whether I’m listed or not. If I choose to be unlisted, I block the people that I want to have contact me and do nothing to stop the people I don’t want.

Considering your web site

Are you listed or unlisted when it comes to your web site? This isn’t a question about whether you can be reached by the robots — this is a question about humans being able to reach out to you personally from your web site. Have you published your email address (or an email address for your company that a human reads) on your web site? Do you list your phone number? Address? In short, is it possible for me to reach you if I need to? If not, why not?

Think about it

Would you place an order online for a product or service and spend actual money on a site with no contact information? Are you comfortable entering personal information in a web form on a very anonymous site? I’m not. Amazingly, however, I regularly find web sites that ask me to register to receive a super fantastic tip but that provide me no human contact information. Is that your web site? Are you hiding?

If you need people to make your product or service work, you need to be listed. You need to be available and it needs to be easy. Go crazy — give me your email address, phone number, Facebook profile, Twitter account, and your amateur radio call sign. The more ways I can reach you, the better.

It should go without saying that I don’t want your home address or a live feed of your current location. This is about professional availability. Make it easy for us, your customers, to reach you when we have a question, complaint or suggestion. Don’t hide your email address because the bad robots will harvest it and use it for spam — they’ve probably already got it anyway. Make it easy for the humans and use robots to fight robots (spam filters, firewalls, etc.) and you’ll do just fine.

By the way…

I just did a little check on the blogs and web sites I visit most — I was able to find direct email addresses for primary people at all the big blogs I follow. Chew on that.