Several years behind the times as usual, I’m gonna start a blog. Problem is, I have no idea how idea what the hell I’m doing, nor do any of my friends have a blog (that I know of), and so I have no idea what blog host is good for me. I will lay out what I’m looking for, and hope people here can help.
– Idiot-proof to install and maintain. I am a computer idiot.
– Must be hosted online. It will be a sort of travel blog, with updates perhaps posted from a different computer every time.
– Ideally, it will allow for multiple blogger IDs (so if I snailmail a letter back, someone else can enter it the info under a different name)
– Must allow comments
– Must allow pictures
– I do NOT care about flexibility of design and layout – default settings on blogspot or blogger or any of them are fine for me. Maybe I change the text color or something, but I’m not going to be supercreative.
I do not mind paying for the hosting or bandwidth (it won’t be much) as long as it’s not astronomical. Let’s say I’ll spend up to $250 for a year. I may put in some google ads if they are unobtrusive, but I do not want anything remotely like geocities-type annoyance.
Finally, I do want to install a Paypal tipjar.
Any suggestions? I resubscribed for this thread, so make it worthwhile for me…
I’d go with either Livejournal or Blogspot. I personally despise the LJ interface (you can code in rich text or html) but it’s easy to get “known” to a lot of people, and have them read your blog, so if you are interested in getting comments it works well. Also LJ has a very large “community” system; if there is an interest or hobby you have, there is probably already a community for it. That’s their biggest selling point IMO.
I think Blogspot is a little more sophisticated. Not sure why; it just seems that way to me. A little more grown-up.
I think you can do everything you listed on both sites.
If you’re talking about creating a serious site branded to you, you should get your own domain. Most of the hosting sites have templates so you don’t need to know html or Java, etc. But private sites are much harder to get people to visit regularly and comment on, unless you take off like The Superficial or Cute Overload. LJ or Blogspot is probably the way to go for what you want to do.
Interestingly enough, TypePad is owned by SixApart, who are also the owners of Livejournal. Not that I normally care about corporate ownership when choosing a blog provider, but it’s worth a mention due to the large number of people who hate SixApart’s policies and leadership. (And I say this as someone who has a paid Livejournal account.)
Not really, no. It will be a record of my thoughts during a specific period doing a specific thing. When that thing is done, likely the blog will be also. (Except I may send some of the best entries to a publisher for possible book consideration.)
Realistically, I hope for a regular readership in the dozens.
I’ve been told I am, but it may end up being for a very specific sort of taste. A “people who like that sort of thing will find it the sort of thing they like” situation, perhaps.