In my attempts to get blogging, I of course can't just settle on the first blog service I find. I have to do a survey of all the different blog services, what features they have and what kind of blog they would be good for. But rather than go in a million different directions at once, which I do very easily on-line, I decided to focus on what I considered the top ones I see mentioned the most.
LiveJournal boasts on it's front page the stats of how many millions of journals and communities it has helped create since 1999. They also show us how many thousands of entries were posted within the last 24 hours. So they want you to know that they are not just a random company offering free blogs but an established organization. They also speak to their culture with the very first few lines and images that you see on the home page 'Express Yourself, Share Your Life, Connect with Friends On-line'. Even the name 'LiveJournal' says a lot about how they intend for you to use their site. It sort of has a Craigslist ground roots feel, encouraging people to create a free on-line journal and to interact with other peoples journals. It seems like a good site to create a blog if you are the journalist type. They encourage discussions of politics. They have teamed with other newspapers like the Independent in the UK and have contests which encourage writing about travel experiences.
Wordpress is not just a blogging service but also a software package that you can install. It is very popular in both arenas. If you do a google search for WordPress Template, you will find a lots of free templates out there. When I explore the faces behind WordPress, it does not seem like a large company in comparison to how widely known the site and application are in the world. I know it is an open source application so it is free for the most part and there are many add on application developers. I think acquiring new skills with Wordpress will not be worthless in the world of Blogging and it is probably a great tool if you are considering afford-ably hosting your own blog or blog service.
TypePad seems to target the professional blogger. Someone who is not afraid to spend the money just to get all the perks. I personally like TypePad because of all the gadgets that I know I just have to learn how to incorporate into my blogging experience. I know that I will have fun using TypePad to make my blog look cutting edge eventually and everything I learn will provide me with further insight into where we are going with all this interactive media.I imagine other blog companies will follow along shortly but I find TypePad has a lot of integration with other social and media apps like facebook, flickr and delicious.
My conclusion, it has a lot of capability and it is not just a simple blog site but does cost a lot of money but if you like the limo treatment, it is worth it.
Blogger is a google site. I believe it was one of the pioneers. I imagine it is a good site to use if you are concerned with organic traffic to help boost your Google site rating. Privacy though concerns me. I know that I get a lot of junk mail from my google email address. I know this because when i signed up for a google email I gave them a different email address then I give everyone else. So I can only imagine what they do with the information you give them on your Blog. I would say that Blogger is a good site for people with business web sites that they would like to promote but smaller, maybe home based businesses who probably don't need all the features of the paid sites but still want to present a professional approach. That way you can talk about what you do, show it off, and discuss with other people who may in the process become fan's of your site and follow through to your store like this user: http://www.shopsmallwords.com/
Recent Comments