Blogging Platforms Compared
There are many blogging platforms out there (Wordpress, Blogger, TypePad, Live Journal, MovableType, etc.), which can make it hard to find the blogging platform that is right for you. Therefore, we have compared the various different platforms available, giving the pros and cons of each platform and then suggesting which platform we think you should use. The platforms compared include Blogger, TypePad, LiveJournal, MovableType, and Wordpress.
Blogger is the platform where a lot of bloggers get their start. Its free, easy to use, and allows you to get the “full blogging experience”. You don’t have to pay with hosting, its easy to change the design of your template, you can add pictures and videos to posts and receive comments from your readers. On the surface, it would seem that Blogger has everything you could need. However, there is one major problem with Blogger. To use it, you almost have to have a sub-domain on blogspot.com, for example, myblog.blogspot.com. While this allows you to bypass the hassle of hosting, it is not good at all for credibility.
Therefore, we recommend Blogger as a great platform to get some experience blogging, but if you want to build a credible blog, you are going to have to host your own blog and switch away from Blogger at one point.
TypePad is a blogging platform that acts more like a hosting service. They have a number of different plans, running from $4.95 a month to $89.95 a month, which each plan offering a different amount of space and bandwidth on TypePad’s servers. While, most of the hosting platforms are quite affordable, most TypePad blogs are at a subdomain of TypePad.com. Again, the problem of credibility arises, though many large credible bloggers such as Seth Godin use TypePad. However, my other main problem with hosted blogging platforms is that they don’t allow you to expand your blog from just a blog to a full website with blog, forum, image gallery, etc.
While hosting your blog may be more expensive than a TypePad blog, the freedom hosting your own blog gives is well worth the few extra bucks a month you may pay.
From my experiences with LiveJournal, it is best for your personal blog, a diary of your life, which you maintain for fun without the purpose of monetizing it. They have a large community and the vast majority of blogs again are hosted at a subdomain of LiveJournal.com. If you are looking to create a blog with the purpose of making money and turning it into a business, LiveJournal is most likely not the best option.
MovableType is very similar to Wordpress. Earlier in December, they decided to go Open Source, which means that anyone can download and modify the code in any may, making MovableType much more competitive in the blogging platform market. While, there are a number of advantages to MovableType, you can host it on your own domain for example, Wordpress is our blogging platform of choice for its ease of use and popularity.
Wordpress is our winner in the blogging platform fight. Below are a few reasons why we use Wordpress and you should too:
1. Wordpress is free – always a great plus.
2. It is easy to download and use on your own domain. Just follow the directions on their Install page. Almost all great blogs have their own domain. Having a blog at a blogspot or other domain isn’t good for credibility. Host it yourself.
3. It can easily be customized for a unique look.
4. There are thousands of available themes to choose from if you don’t want to create your own. Browse some free themes at Wordpress Themes.
5. There are hundreds of plug-ins to drive traffic, improve content, sell ads, increase comments, and much more that are easy to install and use.
6. Its easy to get help since so many people use it.
7 . Some hosts like MediaTemple and GoDaddy allow you to install it by clicking a button and entering some basic information about the blog.
8. Their backend is very easy to use and making new posts, editing a template, creating new pages, and more is simple and straightforward.
9. You can easily use it as a CMS for professional or content (sites with groups of articles that don’t change and aren’t updated often) based sites.
10. New better versions come out often and you can easily upgrade your existing version.
11. It is easy to add audio files, video files and pictures to posts or pages.
12. Its very easy for people to leave comments.
13. One of the greatest advantages is that you can set posts to appear at a later time so if you want a post to appear tomorrow at 6 PM but want to write it save it in the admin panel now, you can. The post will automatically appear at the time you set.
14. If you are not ready to host yourself, use Wordpress.com to get a free easy to use hosted platform and get some experience with Wordpress.
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