Beginning to Blog: Part 1 - What blog package should I use?

March 9, 2007 | Comments (0) | Filed under: Blogging

Lately, I’ve been getting a lot of friends of mine asking me about just what it takes to get into running and writing their own blog. Ultimately, my response usually varies based on their technical skill and their ability. While I might take for granted a system like Wordpress and my ability to get it up and running, a lot of people might not have the same luxury when it comes to their own setup.

What I thought I would do is start up a reoccurring topic here on Bookmark Bliss entitled “Beginning to Blog” where we can take a look at the different aspects to consider when you finally take the plunge and get into the game. In this inaugural issue, entitled “Part 1 - What blog package should I use?“, we’ll take a look at a few of the options available out there and the pros and cons of using them for your own blog.

The first thing you need to consider is just what tool or package you want to use to power your blog. There are a ton of options out there, and they run the gauntlet from free to commercially licensed. They also come in various degrees of difficulty from simply registering for an account to requiring programming and database knowledge.

The choice you make in each case depends largely on two things. Your technical knowledge, which is alleviated a bit by the tools provided by your web host (more on that later), and the level of flexibility you require in your final package. The two sort of go hand in hand in that as you increase the flexibility, the technical knowledge requirements tend to increase as well. If you are using a web host that provides you with PHP and MySQL support, then some of the technical issues involved in setting these up may be alleviated. Make sure you keep that in mind when deciding where you want to host your blog.

The Blogging Tools

Blogger.com (Cost: Free, Estimated Time to Launch: 5-15 mins)

Blogger.com is the easiest option for anyone setting up a new blog. Blogger is a hosted solution, which means you register for an account and pick a blog name and you are up and running in no time. It’s free, and it’s 100% hosted by their system, so there’s no need for hosting space of your own, and no technical knowledge required. If you choose to later host the blog yourself, Blogger allows you to do so by using their system to update your external blog. Definitely a good choice for any beginner, and used by millions of users already.  In the long term, many bloggers eventually move away from Blogger as they require more functionality that is not available. Many professional bloggers turn to packages with more prestige (i.e. not made for beginners) and more customizability as their readership increases.

WordPress (Cost: Free, Estimated Time to Launch: 10-30 mins)

Wordpress comes in two different varieties, hosted at Wordpress.com and self installed at Wordpress.org, both of which are free. Their system is more complicated than Blogger.com, but fairly straight forward to install with a little bit of technical knowledge. The hosted version, like Blogger, is limited in the flexibility available for customization. The standalone system though, is completely open source and customizable in every way possible, assuming you know a little PHP programming. The best thing about Wordpress is its huge community of users who have written thousands of plugins (add-ons to customize your blogs functionality) that are easy to install and may save you from having to program anything to achieve the setup you are looking for.

LiveJournal (Cost: Free to get an account, Estimated Time to Launch: 30 mins) 

LiveJournal is a hosted solution for people looking for a Blogger alternative with low costs. It is relatively easy to get up and running with your blog but as with other hosted solutions offers very little in customization when compared to the self install packages. Overall, LiveJournal provides more functionality and more flexibility then Blogger, but much less when compared with WordPress or MoveableType. A decent mid-range package for anyone wanting a little more complexity in their blogging software.

TypePad (Cost: $49.50/y - $149.50/y, Estimated Time to Launch: 10 - 30 mins)

TypePad is another hosted solution but this time it comes with a price tag attached. Ranging from $49.50 - $149.50 per year (depending on the option you choose) it may be a bit expensive for someone who isn’t sure they are in to blog for the long term. The TypePad system does feature a host of tools that make it a more powerful solution than Blogger, but no more powerful then WordPress, which is completely free. If you want to try something a little different though, with some different features then your standard Blog setup, you might want to give this a try. For most people it is not worth the associated costs.

MoveableType (Cost: $49.95/y - $279.95/y, Estimated Time to Launch: 2 hours)

MoveableType is another solution by the same company that brought you TypePad. It is a similar solution, however this one comes in the installable variety that allows for more flexibility. Still carrying a hefty price tag, this solution may be a bit out of reach for your average blogger. Also, MoveableType is a much more complicated solution requiring more tech knowledge to install and configure correctly.

Drupal (Cost: Free, Estimated Time to Launch: 30-45 mins)

If you want a solution that offers you the most flexibility as well as the largest opportunity to build a full featured website in addition to the blog, then Drupal is what you are looking for. Drupal is less of a blogging package and more of a content management system complete with a huge community of support to back it up. The Drupal package comes ready for blogging right out of the gate, and also allows you to develop a full website including forums, member profiles, security systems, and much more. Drupal is a bit more difficult to install and configure, and most likely requires some technical ability to custom tweak the tools to exactly fit your specifications. If you want a powerful solution that is capable of doing anything you can think of, Drupal is a perfect choice.

Others

There are several other solutions available, but really, these 5 cover the gauntlet for choices and pricing options. If you want more information, on other choices, you can try out ExpressionEngine, TextPattern, Joomla, Windows Live Spaces, or B2Evolution. Each of these offers similar services to the blog packages above, with slight variations.

Hopefully this article has given you a taste of what options are out there for an aspiring blogger. If you are new, start easy with a system like Blogger and as you progress in skill try others like WordPress or Drupal. As I mentioned in our introduction, Bookmark Bliss uses WordPress, and at this time we could not be happier with the functionality.

Stay tuned for more posts in our Beginning to Blog series as we take a look at many of the other aspects of starting your own blog.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 9th, 2007 and is filed under Blogging. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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