Tuesday, February 23, 2010

From Blogspot to Dot Com

Many blogshops have gone from using blog platforms to purpose-built e-commerce websites.

A blogshop is essentially an online shop that is built from a free blogging software like Blogspot and Word Press (the two most popular blog platforms used for blogshops).

There are various indicators of this classic blogshop format- the layout, the navigation, the chronologically-reverse posting arrangements, comment boxes, and the '.blogspot/wordpress' in the URL.

It is reasonable to guess that owners convert their blogshops into 'dot com' websites to take their business to the next level, as a proper website can better facilitate e-commerce operations. 

Where a blog software is free, a dot com site requires some expenditure to maintain the online presence, like hosting fees, Web design, etc. 

It seems to me that the essential questions to investigate here are:
  1. the motivations to go from blogshops to dotcoms (including the features, facilities and capabilities that a website can offer over a free blogging platform)
  2. whether the blogshop model is an entry-level phase for micro-business owners (the scope and size of business this model can support- for example size of customer base/turnovers, product range/inventory, geographic scope of operations, etc)
  3. whether a conversion signals a move to grow the business (the neccessity to automate the business to handle larger scale operations)
  4. whether it is possible for a blogshop model to sustained (without conversion to a dot com)

Here are blogshops that have converted to dot coms:

Loving Avenue: the blogshop
Loving Aveue: the dot com

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