Best Blogging Systems
I was originally turned on to writing a blog a few years ago by a great book that you can still buy from Amazon called Who Let the Blogs Out? by the inventor of Blogger.com, Biz Stone – a name that is noticeably big in Twitter – he founded that as well! However, I was smitten and immediately created my first blog – coalface – and occasionally blogged.
The features looked great and I enjoyed passing comment and I definitely got a few calls and had a few chats about blogging. But as you will see, it did not really enthuse me…
This post is about the technology behind blogging rather than blogging techniques. It took another series of events for me to move on. The technology is nothing without the content but oddly, it was the technology that spurred me on to write better content and now my blogging is more enjoyable and I have more readers than ever before and I really think it was the technology that helped me. So this is a short journey on what helped me and I hope it helps others.
I really like Blogger, it is easy to use but I have been inspired to choose WordPress for a couple of reasons. I can host it – and all the software – on my own server. There are a lot of third party free and paid for updates, themes, plugins and all sorts of useful gizmos that I think would be really helpful in customizing the blog, whereas I feel rather limited to the Blogger.com varieties and services. I have tried Drupal and Joomla and I love them both too, although I have more sites out there in Joomla than Drupal.
In addition and for me, most importantly, as it sits on my own server (albeit like Joomla and Drupal), I can use a real domain, granted I can do that with Blogger.com. But somehow, the very fact that there is a free ware version of WordPress somehow sets me free and I feel freshly invigorated in the world of blogging. WordPress is so much lighter than Joomla and Drupal, less clunky, more to my point.
I was nearly put off by what seemed to be bad press about WordPress 2.7 – and I took the plunge anyway and it was great. It turned out that there are al ot courses out there that included videos and screen shot of the previous versions. Version 2.7 it would appear was a major revolution in the ongoing development of WordPress and although I did experience a few teething problems, the latest bug fix upgrade has fixed all that – and that is the power of open source! I have become a fan of WordPress because I have already been able to edit the template and it still works. In minutes I was able to work out how to glue some other applications into the software and use it as the basis for a system to build more sites, and this is important, as at the current count I run just under 1000 and that does not include client and partner sites. I need to build more…
I would also be the first to admit that my designs are not the best in the world – I just do not have the time – and WordPress offers a wide variety of those too (like Joomla and Drupal). I found Joomla and Drupal both well supported, both SEO friendly, you really need to decide for yourself.
What did it for me was that WordPress started off as a Web 2.0 platform and whilst that may be true for Joomla, it does not seem to be the case for Drupal. So if it is between Joomla and WordPress, the difference to me was the homepage and features offered by WordPress rather than Joomla…
So in summary, I reckon that it is possible to take full advantage of the latest 2.7 versions of WordPress blogging software and modify it for a range of uses. Although some of my applications step away from traditional blogs but I am looking to include all the essential features that you find in them. I am also excited by the increasing array of widgets that I am using. These are quickly plugged into the WordPress framework and since the latest upgrade, easier to keep up to date.
I am indeed impressed by the latest version of WordPress. The code has, apparently, been rewritten from the ground up and as a result there is a dramatic reduction in the amount of code required – all legacy code has been removed, leaving the emphasis on providing spaces for future code additions. To me it is its flexibility that makes WordPress the most powerful solution.
I am not saying that Blogger.com is not useful, it is just that WordPress is more flexible for me. My top tip has to be to go with the solution that is the most flexible – always! So if you follow this top tip, I hope you enjoy Blogger.com as I have done and further enjoy WordPress as soon as possible. As given the option I expect for new web and blog projects for the forseable to employ WordPress 2.7 in more projects – I am convinced, I am a convert.
Lets hope it all works out! It certainly seems like a good place to start and there does appear to be a lot of support for the new version…
