Every site ought to be a blog. (This illustration came from a blog.)

A blog defines a template with dynamic content in the center and static content along the sides.

Most blogs are built on a database metaphor, to make searching for items easy. Why couldn't those be product searches?

The best blog packages are also scalable. They enable community as a basic function.

So why do we still see so many static home pages?

Both corporate and political sites still use static home pages and reserve the "blog" for an inside page. As a result, as in the Dean campaign, people simply bypass the home page and bookmark the blog.

What people most want in pages they bookmark is dynamic content. They want to know that each time they hit the page there will be something new to see. Blogging software enables just that.

The blogging metaphor also makes it simple to build a site that's dynamic, scalable and easy-to-maintain.

So why aren't big companies doing this?

I blame the media. You only need to look at Kathleen Pender's recent blogging article, or the piece of tripe I saw when I opened my local fishwrap this morning, about a 25-year old kid who dubs himself the "amateur gourmet" and photographs the aftermath of his meals.

That's what people think of when they think of blogging. They think of amateurs, and sites that aren't serious.

But that's just prejudice. And if you take what you read in the newspapers as gospel then you deserve to be disappointed.

So dump your current site. Do a redesign. Get Movable Type, or Radio, and create a dynamic, scalable, database-driven, easy-to-update site in minutes.

You'll be glad you did.