Which is more preferable for what I want to do: a website or a blog? HELP with your opinions PLEASE.?

Question

Honestly I don't really know the difference between a website and a blog but what I can tell is that a blog is kind of more of a personal setup. Recently I had this idea of setting up a site where readers and aspiring writers/authors can meet to discuss, share information, ideas and opinions, rub minds, encourage one another and generally help each other out. Also there would be contests and so on. The problem is that I don't know if a blog is what I should create or a website ... I need your opinions on which one suits better - with reasons, advantages and disadvantages.
Again, I came up with a few names for the domain and am a little bit confused on which one to choose. They are; 'Penville', 'Penvilla', 'HandStorm' or 'PenStorm'? Your opinions and suggestions are welcome.
Look out for the site! Everyone is welcome; readers, writers(amateur & experienced) etc!
Thanks in advance:)

Answer 1

First off, I find your idea is great and I really hope you can make something happen with it. Of course there is a lot too it and it sounds like you have the right attitude that we all start from the beginning :).

Everything takes time and effort and those who are willing to put in both will accomplish great things.



I want to first focus on the terminology you used "Blog" and "Website". Both can be used to describe the same thing, and imply different things.

I Know, Mind BLOWN, Right :). But here's what people now mean when they use the 2 terms:



Blog:

An informal collection of posts normally conveying random thoughts of an individual or organization that allows readers to comment on the posts. Like a site for Rough Drafts of Ideas.



Website:

A more polished and organized collection of webpages that all serve to meet the goal or mission of the website. Wikipedia or IBM.com comes to mind.



Now let me break it down a bit more for the common meanings of each.



Blog:

There are many of these blogging sites out there now. Wordpress, LiveJournal, Tumblr, Blogger. They are free, have ads and are simple to use. However they are locked down. They only allow you to do certain things that they allow. For example, the look and feel of your blog. If you go to many websites you notice that they all look different. But if you look at many blogs you'll notice they tend to look the same. Nothing wrong with that. It's just there are limited options when you use those services. They all offer upgrades, but normally it's more expensive and you purchase things a la carte style. Keep in mind you are still limited to what they will allow you to do.



Website:

The Term website, as you are thinking of it, really means using a Web Hosting Provider, or Hosting Company to create your own, independent, fully owned by you website. There are many out there but I'll use one I'm familiar and happy with. In my mind they are the best hosting company and it's FastWebBuilder.com.

http://fastwebbuilder.com/



Personal Website Hosting:

When you use a web hosting provider like Fast Web Builder you have your own slice of a server that's located in a data center that's connected to the internet. This way the computer is always on and available on the web. A quality hosting company offers easy installs of open source (free) Content Management Systems (CMS) that have many templates, themes, plug ins, extensions, etc. that allow you to build a website quickly and easily without needing to know computer lingo. The good thing is that one of the most popular Blogs is also a free CMS called Wordpress.

http://fastwebbuilder.com/hosting-articles/hosting-packages-description/



Wordpress:

Wordpress is a free CMS that has many options and can be customized to do basically anything you would like. There are many Plugins that Wordpress has that are free and you can install them but just clicking Install. No coding or any special skills needed. The same goes for the look and the feel of your website. Wordpress calls them "Themes". Themes are templates for how your website is laid out. Usually they include basic banners and images to make your website pop a bit. Some Themes are so good that the people who made them charge for them. There are many Free ones so unless you fall in love with something, try a free one first.

http://fastwebbuilder.com/wordpress-web-hosting/



Domain name:

The domain names you suggested are good. You just need to make sure no one else owns them already. Try a domain name search and see.

http://fastwebbuilder.com/domain-names-with-hosting-packages/



With your domain name and host you'll be able to setup emails and you will want to see how many people are coming to your site. FastWebBuilder.com has all of those options in a very easy to use control panel that makes it simple to do everything related to your site.



Hosting Package:

Since you will want your own site with the ability to create fun and engaging environments for your users to collaborate in you will want to know which hosting package you will need.

I'd start with the Easy plan for using Wordpress and other CMSs

http://fastwebbuilder.com/hosting-packages/



With the Easy package you will get a free domain name plus enough power to handle a good amount of users while you startup.



Remember to look into Google Adsense so you can put ads on your website to cover the costs of hosting. That's how a lot of places online stay "FREE" because they run ads.



I hope this helps you start out. Go into this with an adventurous attitude, close your eyes, take a deep breath and if you were to image yourself signing up with FastWebBuilder.com, starting your Wordpress Website and building a creative community, you'll look back at this moment and know you made the right decision.



I wish you Great luck on your new website!!!

Answer 2

A website is usually static, a place someone sells something off of. You pay a fee yearly to keep it up on the hosting site, and you have a domain name you purchase.



A blog is hosted by another person so you don't have to pay your yearly fee to be on it. It's set up to be like a diary more than anything else. People can comment, but their posts are limited in space and you can't get a discussion going for very long, it clogs up the site.



What you're referring to is a forum, and there are a lot of writers forums out there than you can join, post your writing and ask for comments on. Try googling some and see which one you like, partake in some of the discussions and stick with one of them. You don't sound like you have the technical expertise to keep a forum site up and running smoothly on the technical side of things.

Answer 3

Actually, you can set up either/or to do what you want, except for a few major problems:

1. You have no idea how to do it.

2. You have no idea how much it would cost to maintain

3. You have no idea how much time it would take to do that.

4. You have no idea there are already plenty of professionally created websites like that and no one is coming to yours, simply because you want to make one.



There is no "advance." You are incapable of doing it. Just to give you some idea of what you're asking, one question for you - who do you have to watch the content 24/7? I'm talking at least a staff (paid) of five people, and they better be paid well, because they're giving up 60-100 hours a week of their time.



Get it yet?

Answer 4

Blogs are just a diary published on line.



The rest is just an attempt to add yet another version of social media. In this case a very narrow one which duplicates ones already established by much wider companies.



My prediction is that this company would never make a dime or even be thought valuable.