The Big Three
Remember when blogging was limited to a few blog applications and you
had to, you know, know something about coding to make your blog work the
way you wanted it to? Well, those days are /so/ over. Now there is a
veritable smorgasbord of blogging applications to choose from, and lots
of them are both web based and downloadable…and once in a while you find
one that feels like home. [/cheese]
Arguably the most popular blogging applications are WordPress, Typepad
(and its mother, Moveable Type) and Blogger.
First, before all of the fun comparing and contrasting begins, let me
say a quick word about MySpace. MySpace is a fun site. I have a
MySpace account. I like my MySpace account. I even have a couple of
friends who blog exclusively with MySpace. I, however, am old school.
I believe that part of the appeal of blogging is to get your voice out
there to the anonymous internet. MySpace limits this. I know that
sometimes MySpace blogs get indexed on Google and that some people write
lots and lots in their MySpace blogs. To me though, those blogs feel
more like notes passed in high school, even when the writing is
fabulous. Maybe I’m snobby, but isn’t blogging about putting out a
voice, not sharing inside jokes with people who already know your voice?
That being said (this is the CYA portion of this post) I do have a
couple of friends who are awesome MySpace Bloggers.
In terms of cost, the best deal is Blogger. Who can beat FREE? It’s
Free and you get total control over the look and feel of your site. You
can tweak your template down to the last pixel. And should you feel like
spending some dough, you can buy some server space to host your blog and
then upload your posts (and template if you wish) via Blogger’s FREE,
web based FTP client. The main problem with Blogger is that not a whole
lot is presented to get you started. If you’re a “widget” fan, you have
to hunt down your own. There aren’t any real starting points to give
you that wonderful sidebar inspiration.
If you don’t mind spending a few dollars, WordPress is a great buy. In
fact, it’s probably the most cost efficient of the three I’m reviewing.
You can download it for free and install it on a site host (which is
where the few dollars comes from). Unfortunately, you need to know PHP
to run it. I’m still learning, so I haven’t been able to try it out
yet. When I get the whole PHP thing down, I’ll make sure to give it a
whirl. The web hosted WordPress looks really cool. You can buy a domain
name from them for literally pennies a day. They charge a very
reasonable annual fee and you will have the web supported WordPress
without the pesky WordPress dot com domain name. There are easy to
manipulate templates and have a pretty good widget library. I honestly
like the pre-made templates at WordPress the best. WordPress is also
the best platform for a “professional,” business or group blog.
The most expensive application of the three is Typepad. The highest
level is $14.95 a month. The cheapest is $5 a month. The good news is
you don’t have to spend any money up front. Typepad offers a 30 day
free trial to try it out, and you can try any level for that free
trial. The highest level gives you complete control over your entire
site and offers domain mapping. The Typepad interface is the
friendliest of the three. It’s the easiest to navigate and the easiest
to understand. For people who want more control over their templates
but don’t can’t tell html from really complicated math, there’s a
template manipulator that lets you determine which colors and which
basic fonts to use. It also lets you upload your own banner image
(WordPress also has this feature).
Typepad is the offspring of Moveable Type, one of the first downloadable
blog platforms, which also requires PHP knowledge. Moveable Type has a
web based interface, for those not imbued with said knowledge, but
really Typepad is easier to deal with.
It really depends on what you’re looking for. All three are easily
indexed on Google and offer built in RSS Feeds and Trackback pinging.
Overall, WordPress has the best of all three worlds (price, template
tweakage and widget usability). It looks easy to learn. I’ve spent
time wresling with it to try and figure out what it can do. I’ve used
Blogger before, as well as its FTP client and it was a fantastic way to
learn my way around some basic HTML and CSS coding. Typepad is the best
for people who are on their way to learning all the coding they wish
they knew already but still need some hand holding. It’s got the most
receptive “help desk” of any of the blog applications I’ve tried. But
if you’re trying to get the best bang for your time and effort,
WordPress is the way to go.
The best part of the blog application buffet is that you can try as many
different kinds as you want. And the best part about the internet and
blogging is that you can start over or move around as often as it takes
to find the best place to call “home.” [/cheesy ending because this
Blogger still needs to work on not sounding like Doogie Howser in her
closing thoughts]
by Erin Steiner
November 8th, 2006 at 9:47 pm
I personally like WordPress. We use it for Blogitive and NetResults. I also use it on my personal site, www.oneblogtoomany.com.
For hosting I think MediaTemple.net offers the best deal with their Grid Server. For $20 per month (or $200 for the whole year), you get 100 gigs of storage, 1 terabyte of transfer, and up to 100 domain names on the account. It also has the best server control center I have ever seen, complete wit 1-Click install of WordPress.
I also want to add that if you are looking to go the next level beyond a blog, you may want to check out Expression Engine. It’s a lot more complicated, and has a small price tag to it. But you coudl really run a major news publication off that software. Everyone I have heard from that uses it says it’s the most underpriced CMS available.
November 8th, 2006 at 10:23 pm
I use, Blogger, WP, MySpace and Yahoo 360. Each have their pros and cons, but they all serve to do what I need done. Get the word out about my book and PR services.
Great post!
November 8th, 2006 at 11:41 pm
I agree with you Erin. Wordpress is the best. I have a few blogs with Wordpress and though it’s not a 123 setup like Blogger it is not that hard to use. It’s more about knowing where things go than knowing how to read PHP. I don’t really know how to read PHP but I do know how to upload templates, install plugins, insert Google Adsense, and edit my sidebar. Once you know where to put things you can pretty much to anything. You can find out a lot of information on codex.wordpress.com. I am sure you will do fine with figuring out how to use the Wordpress software.
November 9th, 2006 at 2:33 pm
For those of you who are going to be taking ads on your blog, don’t host at wordpress.com - they are really cracking down on blogs that do that. I recommend getting WP and using it on your own domain.
November 19th, 2006 at 5:03 am
I started with Blogger but have only retained two there. The category portion of WP serves need, something Blogger doesn’t have.
Haven’t tried Yahoo 360.
November 29th, 2006 at 12:22 pm
I’m using Blogger, Wordpress and Moveable Type. I haven’t decided what I like best yet, but do appreciate the ease of each application. As for Blogger, that is certainly the easiest for me to manipulate and use.
January 26th, 2007 at 9:36 pm
One that you didn’t cover is Thingamablog http://thingamablog.sourceforge.net/
It’s a free java based client that can run on windows or linux. It can import blogger templates and if you want, it will handle most of the grunt work (formatting, archiving, ftp, etc) so that you can concentrate on writing.
It’s templates can also be customized all you want if you know a bit about html