What Blogging Platform Should I Use?

There are several blog scripts available for use, including:

• Blogger – Free to use, can have a blog on their site (blogspot.com) or publish the content to your own hosting account.
• Wordpress – Free to use, can have a blog on their site (wordpress.com) or grab the open source script (wordpress.org.) for use on your own hosting account.
• Typepad – Paid service (typepad.com)

There are bloggers using every type of blog script who swear by their tool of choice and list off great features that keep them loyal. So your own choice will be a personal one.

For a business blog, a common choice is a self hosted Wordpress blog only because of it’s option to have static pages, and with a self hosted Wordpress blog you are allowed to have an ad supported website.

Wordpress is feature rich. It is an Open Source script. This means that anyone can take the source code and edit it. A community of creative and talented people are constantly improving the code and releasing updates for free use.

Wordpress is flexible. It works with a variety of ‘plug ins’ which are like hacks for the base code of the scrip. When uploaded and activated, they make the blog script work differently.

At Girly Website Hosting we definitely recommend using a self hosted Wordpress blog, and with your hosting package purchase you can actually put in a free request for us to install Wordpress for you! Also as a hosting install and customize our free themes at no charge!

What Makes a Blog Different From a Regular Website?

Assuming that a ‘regular website’ is referring to a static HTML site, it is the database driven content that really sets it apart.

There are many websites that have been built using a similar script/database (known as a Content Management System or CMS) and these sites have a lot in common with the blog since a blog script is essentially a CMS.

The lines between blogs and other types of websites are blurring as more business owners choose to build their site with a CMS. While many blogs are designed to look like a web journal, more and more are being designed to look like a regular website.

Because the content you enter into the blog is stored in a database, it can be distributed as a data feed. RSS is the feed that most blogs employ. (RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication.) With RSS, your content can be viewed through any RSS reader or aggregator on another website or on a computer or portable device.

Another benefit to being database driven is that the script can accept and display comments on specific posts and can detect when other sites link to one of your blog posts.

Wordpress blogs are, in my opinion, the most versatile where you can either use the blog as a regular blog, or as a static website with a static home page. You can use a blog pretty much however you would like, and it is a lot easier to add, and organize content to a blogging platform unlike a regular html website.

Another benefit of using a blog - Wordpress - as your content manager, no exspensive software to buy! Unlike a regular website, with a blog you can easily install a Wordpress blog on your domain and you can do this for free!

If you have any questions about blogging or starting your self hosted Wordpress blog then please feel free to contact me here.