I’m thinking of starting a blog (waits for the ooohs and aaahs to subside).
I’m curious what blogging platforms come recommended. I activated a tumblr account yesterday, and I’m not impressed. For whatever reason the search isn’t showing me blogs that I know to exist, it seems overly cluttered, and I’m not seeing an easy place for comments. The pros, obviously, is that (apparently) one can update the blog from a mobile phone or tablet, imbed other blog posts, etc. Not sure if I’d use that feature, but it’s nice to have.
I use blogspot for work, and I like it a lot. However, it seems incredibly… boring. Very plain. Since the account is controlled by the college I can’t make changes to it, so maybe it has more to offer than I’ve seen.
What I want is something that I can post updates to easily from a PC, imbed pictures and videos, and have an easy way for people to comment and leave replies (and comment on those comments). Blogger can do that, if I can get past the incredibly boring layout.
Do any bloggers here have any suggestions? Or hell, is blogging passé and not really a thing anymore?
I’m a Wordpress girl. For whatever reason, Blogger’s interface has always been an insurmountable obstacle for me, while Wordpress’s seems intuitive and attractive. There are lots of nice themes available. If you write quality content with attractive pictures and post it around 6am Eastern, you stand a good chance of being Freshly Pressed on a regular basis, which brings in mega views.
In case anyone is wondering why I’m undertaking such a stupid endeavor, I’m from a small jerkwater town in the middle of nowhere and in 3 weeks or so will be moving to a Big Huge City to finish my undergrad. My friends, colleagues, fans and enemies want me to keep an online diary of life in the city (for pointing and laughing purposes, I assume), and I’ve agreed to do so.
Tumblr’s definitely not going to work for you if you want a real comments system. The only way to comment is to reblog with your comment appended or to send an ask which they may or may not answer publicly. It won’t do blog posts with a comments stream tied to each blog.