Which blog platform?

So you want to begin blogging? So what is the first step?

The platform, engine, software, tool, whatever you like to call it?

Well that would be the second step. Deciding why you should blog and what you should blog about is the first.

But let’s deal with step two here.

Once you have decided to proceed you will already have set your goals. Coupled with your level of technical expertise, those goals will set the criteria you will use for selecting a blogging platform. By platform, I mean the software and where that software will run.

There are a number of free services available on the Internet including Blogger (from Google), Spaces (from Microsoft), LiveJournal and WordPress.com. These can be the ideal solution for a hobby blogger who doesn’t wish to, or perhaps cannot afford to, spend money. They are also useful as a sandbox in which to play while familiarising yourself with blogging and blogging software. For the novice or those with little technical knowledge there is also the advantage that the software maintenance and security chores are taken care of by the provider. The term used is hosted.

But there are things to be aware of when choosing – far too many to list here, but some important ones include …

• Spaces will only permit other Spaces members comment on your blog. Do you really wish to restrict feedback in this way?
• Blogger is by far the easiest to use as a novice. While the feature set is large, other free platforms may offer more, or may offer a feature that you personally would like to have.
• While the header banner on Blogger clearly brands it as a Blogger site, that on LiveJournal is even more obtrusive. You may wish your blog to be brand me, not brand someone else.
• WordPress.com is free, yes. But a payment will be needed should you wish to avail of their premium features such as additional disk space or blocking the ads they may insert. While the amount is nominal, it means it would no longer be a free service.
• It could be that you wish to make some money instead of paying it out. Will the platform allow you display ads?
• By far to most important thing to make sure of before creating a free blog is that it is possible to move your content elsewhere in the future.

For a serious user, such as business blogger, free services are not an option mainly due to branding. The URL for free blogs will always contain the name of the service e.g. http://acme.blogspot.com or http://community.livejournal.com/acme. If your company website is http://www.acme.com then the blog should be something like http://blog.acme.com or http://www.acme.com/blog. Plus it is extremely difficult and usually impossible to achieve the same look-and-feel on a free service as that on your company website. Promote the Acme brand not the Blogger brand!

The term used is self hosted – install and maintain software on your own site.

Examples of the software include Textpattern (as used by the author Pauline McLynn, she of Fr. Ted’s Mrs Doyle fame), Movable Type (as used by Barack Obama) and WordPress (as used by the Ford Motor Company). There are many, many more.

As with the hosted services, there are things to be aware of with self hosting.

There will be a cost. Even if the software is free, can be installed on the same server as your existing website for which you already own the domain name and is upgradable/maintainable using a one-click process, there still remains the time taken to configure it to look the way you want and do the things you want.

If on the other hand, this is your first venture in an Internet presence and the blog is to be your sole site, even availing of free software you will face the annual costs of your domain name and hosting service.

Cost aside, given that most software, or a flavour of it, is now free and open source there are other factors to consider. (In 2008 a version of the previously costly Movable Type was offered as open source).

• How easy is it to install? Is it a one-click process or a series of helpful screens similar to when installing software on a PC or Mac, or will you need to edit configuration files manually?
• Are the tools for database creation provided by the hosting service easy to use?
• Are you comfortable doing the above or at least wading through the documentation should something not work as expected? Some hosting providers have software pre-installed that can be enabled almost seamlessly.
• Once up and running, how easy is it to use? Can you judge that from demos or product overviews without having to install first? Movable Type provide a full feature list on their website. In the case of WordPress you could try out the hosted service.
• Will you need to learn a set of instructions such as how to use Textile for Textpattern?
• Are there plugins readily available to extend the functionality? There are an endless supply for WordPress. Movable Type (claim to) have all you need already built in.
• How customisable is the look-and-feel? Are there ready-made themes that you can use or will you need a level of coding proficiency to achieve your goals?

In summary, free hosted services are great for the hobbyist or novice to learn on, but be wary of the pitfalls, in particular that your content can be moved at a later date.

Self hosting is more professional and offers far greater control, however it will cost, if not in money then in time.