Starting and maintaining a blog (any website?) is like buying a hamster. You hurry home and put together the cage with brightly colored tunnels and the little wheel that spins round and round. The sawdust in the bottom of the cage smells fresh and sweet.

And then it becomes work. A chore that must be attended to every day.

I help people (clients and internal staff) set up blogs and websites and the initial conversation goes something like this:

ME: So what will you put on this website?

THEM: Well, there will be an “about” page… and maybe photos and bios of our people.

ME: Okay, what else?

THEM: Uh, how about a map showing where we’re located?

ME: Alright, although it’s pretty easy to Google us for that. Anything else?

Nobody really cares about your bios and company history. They really don’t. They care about stuff that will be useful to them. If you don’t have that –and have it regularly–I’d argue a blog probably isn’t the right tool.

As for the Web 1.0 static “home page,” name one you’ve visited twice.

Going forward, I think I might use the following test:

Before we start building your new website, I want you to pick a topic that you know something about. Ideally, something about which you are passionate. Skeet shooting, counted cross-stitching, raising llamas, whatever.

Send me an email every day for the next 10 days. It should include an excerpt and link to something related to your topic… along with 150 words explaining why you think this is interesting or important.

That’s it. If you can’t do that, you’re probably wasting your time (and mine).

Every good blogger I know would have no problem with this. It would take them 5 min each day. Maybe 10. Comments?