A Word About Blogging Platforms

Besides Blogger and WordPress, What other blogging platforms you can use? How do you choose the right platform? Where is the best place to blog? These are common questions asked by people who want to start a blog. There are no strict answers or rules to these questions, because it depends on what you are looking for.

Now I´m going to give you a small lesson about Blogging Platforms, their features and their disadvantages. This post should help you decide which is the best option for you. The first thing you have to know is that there are 3 types of platforms:

• Hosted blog platform
• Stand alone blog platforms
• Remote Hosting

Ok, now I´m going to explain what exactly is a hosted blog

This kind of platforms is where the user simply needs to sign up and set up a weblog account in order to start blogging. There’s no need to install any programs, get a separate web hosting account, and/or obtain a domain name. Examples of such platform are: LiveJournal and Xanga. Starting a blog using hosted weblog providers is the simplest way to begin blogging. Most people who wish to start a weblog use this type of platform.

Now, for basic set up guidelines , just visit the provider’s site, sign up for an account, and specify some basic customization like: template design, title and description. Once you have done this, just start writing your entries. With this kind of platform your blog´s URL will be something like http://username.provider.com.

This kind of service is perfect for bloggers who don´t know a thing about HTML , CSS, PHP , or FTP. This may sound like the best option to start a blog, but don´t hurry and please continue reading.

A brief explanation about Stand Alone Platform

This type of blogging platform is where the user needs to download and install special software in order to start blogging under his own domain or URL. Blogger Lounge is powered by a stand alone platform which is WordPress. Examples of other providers are Movable Type Greymatter , TextPattern and B2Evolution.

The basic set up guideline for this platform type is as follows: Go to the provider´s website, check the requirements, download the software, install the software on your domain/URL, and follow set up procedures. This type of weblog platform is good for bloggers who wish to have more freedom in tweaking their blogs, either by customizing templates or adding functionality. Users of stand alone platform are comfortable with handling technical matters. Or, at least, they can rely on someone who can help them with such things.

Advantages

Complete control of your blog´s design
Some of them are very easy to use if you take a look to their tutorials and to their “How to” guides.
Most of them are for free.

Disadvantages

Although they are very easy to use once they are already installed, the problem is the set up process, because you have to know some technical issues about FTP, hosting and more, but as I said there are many good resources that can help you with this process, just visit their tutorial pages and documents and everything should be fine.

Cost, when you use a hosted blog platform you don´t have to worry about hosting plans and all that, but with this kind of service you have to look for a good hosting provider. That is going to increase your costs, but once you have a successful blog that generates income you wont have to worry about that!.

Your other option is: Remote Hosting

There are some blog platforms that allow a combination of hosted and stand alone blogs, you have the option to host your blog using your own domain or to host it in their own servers using a sub domain. This has some advantages and disadvantage, check out why it is important to have your own domain name. This type of blogging platform is somewhere between using a hosted blog provider and a stand alone platform. Examples are: the famous Blogger and WebCrimson.

Bloggers who will benefit the most from this type of platform are those who wish to have some control over their blogs but do not wish to go through the trouble of installing software into their pc´s.

Remember that you have the last word, review your options and your goals, and choose the one that best fits your needs, you can find further information about platforms in these articles:

Charlene Li has a great evaluation article about the main providers.

Helen Teixeira has a great review about blog platforms.

SitePoint has a very useful review called: The Big 3 Reviewed.

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