Using a blog to keep your site fresh

Sorry it's been a while since I posted, I've been working exclusively for one client so I've not been able to do any of the research that normally drives my blog posts.  I have however had to find a cheap and easy to for my client to update their website without the expense and resource required to implement full content management.  So here's what I came up with.

Background
The most common reason for websites failing is that they stop getting updated, so people stop visiting them (which is a downward spiral).  The problem is particularly acute for smaller businesses who cannot afford to have even part of one person dedicated to updating the website.  The solution which technology has presented in recent years is 'Web Content Management Systems' (Web CMS for short).  In a nutshell these applications allow people without any HTML or web design skills to update the content on a website, using simple formatting options which everyone is familiar with (bold, italic, bullets, numbering etc.)  The CMS enforces the 'house style' so whatever you type in appears in the look and feel of the site, including pictures and text.

Pros and Cons of CMS
The upside of these systems is that the web design company you employ only needs to set up the site once, and provide you with a CMS to continue updating it from that point on.  Because it's so simple to use, your marketing department can add company news or an event, and your administration staff can add a new job advert.  The downside of these systems is that while they're often free, they're not simple to install, and installation costs money.  If you already have a new site and don't want to spend a lot of money on a web design agency fees then you're stuck with putting all your updates through your agency (with the resulting fees).

The alternative
There is (as always!) another way though.  With some simple changes to the site you can use RSS and FeedBurner to 'push' your business blog entries to your website.  All you need is

1. A blog (I use Typepad, where a Pro Account costs around £100 per year), and
2. A FeedBurner account (free).

You categorise your blog entries according to their type (e.g. news, events, jobs), and set up an RSS feed for each category.  Then you use FeedBurner 'BuzzBoost' to republish your blog article anywhere on your site with just a simple snippet of HTML.  This way, you can have portions of your site updated as often as you update your blog, making it much easier to keep it alive and keep visitors coming to your site.

Note: You will need someone to put this onto your site, and they should use CSS to ensure the blog entries are displayed in your existing web site style, but that's not a lot of work.  You can also (quite easily) 'brand' your blog so it includes your logo in the top banner, and uses the same fonts and colours as your own site.