It is time. After all these years, I’m finally going to create a blog. But how shall I build it? I always hand-code my sites using some combination of HTML, CSS, SQL, PHP, and perl (this is my personal site at the moment), but I really don’t want to put that much work into creating a blog. I’d rather put the effort into the writing.
I want a blog with the following capabilities:
[ul]
[li]Tailor the look and feel so it’s similar to my existing site (doesn’t have to be identical, just close enough to feel connected)[/li][li]Create new posts from any computer or mobile device[/li][li]Support trackback/linkback/pingback[/li][li]Support tag clouds[/li][li]Allow easy comment management, so I can review all recent comments and kill the spam without having to search the whole blog for them[/li][li]“Email this post” and “Print this post” links[/li][li]Buttons for Facebook, Twitter, Digg, etc.[/li][li]Automated RSS feeds[/li][li]In-line images and video[/li][/ul]
My choices are to use WordPress (my Web host offers it at no extra charge, so it should be easy to install and integrate with my existing site), use a free service like Blogger/Blogspot, or use a premium service like SquareSpace.
What have you tried? What works well for you? I’m not looking for technical help, just opinions on what’s professional-looking and easy-to-use. I don’t mind spending a little bit of money if I need to–it beats spending a couple of weeks writing code.
I used Blogspot when I was doing that sort of thing. It was extremely easy to use; it can be as easy as just picking a template and start typing posts. This was many years ago and at the time the level of customization was limited but I’d imagine that’s changed significantly since I was using it. In any case, it’s as easy as it can get, and it’s free so it’s at least worth looking at.
I use wordpress hosted i might ISP and i achieve all of your goals.
One nice thing about wordpress is that you can have a perfecltly adequate out of the box experience and then customize it later when the mood takes you. There are ton of themes available but every now and again, when the fancy takes me, i design a new one. Its pretty easy.
The plugin model is nice too. You can find a plugin for almost everything you want but it’s easy to write your own.
Spam filter is excellent, it catches 99.9% of spam comments. I have a moderate-first-comment policy that catches the rest.
BTW those buttons to digg, facebook etc. No one ever clicks them.
Every now and again, I’ll get picked up by stumble upon and get massive amounts of traffic. But that’s true whether i have a stumble upon button or not. I occasionally show up on twitter and facebook but, again, the buttons makes very little difference. I got rid of mine.
FWIW most of my hits come from stumble upon and google.
I use Wordpress too. I use Go Daddy for hosting, on a vanilla Linux server. That way I am able to change hosting service with little effort–no lock-in.
Your site looks like a perfect candidate for a custom WP theme.
Wordpress. Other platforms such as Drupal are over-complicated, and the free ones such as Blogger are for cheap right-wing lunatics preaching self-reliance, paying your own way in life, and a hatred of free stuff for the undeserving poor.
Besides, the free ones have the right to destroy your blog without a moment’s warning: self-hosting means you control everything and if your host withdraws, you transfer elsewhere.
One of the strong points of SquareSpace is that since it’s a paid service, they have actual tech support when there’s a problem. My son says he’s used their tech support a dozen times and they’ve always answered promptly and accurately. Is there decent support for any of the others? If I install WordPress on my ISP and something goes south, do I just have to monkey around with it until it works?
My ISP - dreamhost - probably wouldn’t help me much if i broke something messing around in PHP but they are pretty good about keeping on top of updates and security fixes. I had a problem about 3 or 4 years ago that they helped me fix though. Your ISP might be different.
The wordpress community is pretty supportive and helpful though. My blog got hacked a couple of years ago and i only found out when someone emailed me. It was a volunteer that had taken it upon himself to find and notify wordpress users who had signs of hacking.
Wordpress is pretty simple though. You are unlikely to mess it up unless you are doing some serious hacking. A commercial third party might give you more help and support but you’d probably have to give up a lot of flexibility in exchange.
Btw. I don’t have any experience as an administrator for other blogging platforms, so interpret my recommendation in that light.
As a blogger, I have used several platforms- movable type, drupal, xoomla, et al - and i prefer WP’s environment by far. It probably has the most third-party support for things like plugins and ipad clients if you care about that kind of thing.
Wordpress. You already have a domain and a host, so it’ll be incredibly easy. Just remember to back it up when you do something that could break it, and you won’t have to worry about tech support - you can just roll back the changes.
I use Textpattern for most of my websites these days. It’s extremely customizable and there are plugins to make it do just about anything. You can check out my homepage at http://opalcat.com to see how I’ve implemented it there.
Thanks for all the input! I’ve been monkeying around a little bit with SquareSpace (very cool system, but a bit buggy); now I’ll try installing WordPress and playing with that one.
