My second blogging tip is to choose your blog platform wisely.
By platform, I’m referring to both the choice of server you decide to host it on , and the blog software running the blog.
Server
Your blog can be hosted on your own website hosting account, or it can be hosted on one of the free hosted solutions from people like Blogger.com, Wordpress.com, Terapad.com, Typepad.com and many others. (Note: picking a hosted solution does not preclude you from using your own domain name with the blog – this is dependent on the host.)
Free hosted solutions are fantastic if you’re looking for a quick and easy solution. The flipside is that they don’t give you as much control to fine tune setup.
Hosting the blog on your own server gives you complete control over how things are setup. This is my preferred solution. It’s possible to have your server installed with Wordpress by experts if you ask nicely at Install4Free.
Software
There are several different options if you’re installing your own blog software, the big 2 being Wordpress and Movable Type. Other options include Roller (used for some major multi-user blogs such as blogs.sun.com), LifeType and even CMSes like Expression Engine.
I use and can highly recommend Wordpress. The main reason for this is that I’ve been using it for years and am happy to hack around in the code. Some other reasons:
- basic default install but lots and lots and lots of free plug-ins available
- easy to find free themes to change look and feel, and even search engine friendliness
- completely free to use, even commercially
Others, particularly perl hackers, prefer Movable Type. I’m not as familiar with it but I’m 100% certain we’ll have some MT fans chime in on the comments ;)
- not so many plug-ins available but much more functionality built-in than WP
- fairly easy to find themes
- some limitations on commercial use
So to wrap up, I recommend self-hosted Wordpress. Do some more research into the options before choosing. But make sure that whatever you do, put it on your own domain so that you have the option to change later if you so wish.
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{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
Well here I am :)
The one thing I would have to caution people about is security regardless of which blogging solution you opt for. Yes I know it’s boring, but it’s really embarassing and dangerous if your blog gets hacked. I’m amazed at the number of relatively high profile bloggers who have been hacked in the past.
MT has a better security record than WP, so that’s one of the reasons I moved back to it.
For free blogging platforms to play with I’d highly recommend looking at Vox as well (http://www.vox.com)
Michele
I think best solution – using wordpress blog engine with your own domain and own hosting.
Hi Michele,
I knew you’d chime in on this one with some MT lovin’ :)
You’re dead right about security being an important factor. Yes, some high profile bloggers like GrayWolf got hacked, but I wouldn’t necessarily blame the Wordpress platform:
Good call on Vox, one I’ve heard of but don’t know a lot about – I’ll check it out
Rob, I agree 100% – this is my preferred blogging solution.
Thanks for the comments guys.
Alastair
Let’s call a spade a spade. Most SME bloggers know next to nothing about security. If you want to get them blogging you need to get them onto a platform that doesn’t have security updates every two to three weeks.
Wordpress is constantly falling prey to serious security issues, so it’s a non-runner.
MovableType hasn’t had a security related issue in ages – I can’t even remember the last one.
Of course using a hosted solution such as typepad can do away with the headaches entirely.
Michele
Security is a big concern, but WP is fast becoming the mainstream due to many big hosting providers having one-click install for solutions such as WP.
Lets call a spade a spade.
Ok, let’s do that.
MT is a proprietary tool that has only been open sourced for about 3 months now, and with an install base far lower than WP, which has always been an open source tool and has an install base many times the size of the MT install base.
Given this, of course there have been security issues found with WP. I bet you several pints of the black stuff that there are security issues existing in MT right now. With a smaller market penetration and having been closed source for so long there’s no surprise that there have been no publicised vulnerabilities.
The recent vulnerabilities in WP were found proactively by a member of the community and with open source MT now available I’d be keeping an eye out for those too.
However, given your comments, I think maybe tip no. 5 will be a security tip for WP users :)
Thanks for the comments!
Alastair
You’d actually be wrong about the install base :)
WP is more visible, but MT has been around longer and powers a lot of corporate sites.
Your closed source vs open source argument doesn’t hold much water, as MT does not have obfuscated code and has always been available to personal users.
The key differences are in the actual underlying architecture. MT is written in Perl and uses clear namespaces, whereas WP is written in PHP and has no understanding of namespaces.
MT like any software may have holes and bugs, but it’s a hell of a lot harder for anyone to do any damage.
Michele
Nice Blog!
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I was hoping you were going to address linux vs windows setups when opening a web hosting account. I recently started my second blog on a seperate host from the first, and I went with linux, though I didn’t put in the time to really figure out the pro’s/con’s.
So far, it just seems to make the admin interface in WordPress show up a little differently. If you have any knowledge of the difference, please let me know!
very interesting, but I don’t agree with you
Idetrorce