I'm currently working on a book about blogging. Pretty ironic really, because writing about blogging has taken my attention away from my own blog. I'm in a kind of blogging meta-state.
Anyway, I've lifted my head above the parapet to ask you a question – what's your favourite blog platform, and why?
I'm thinking about this a lot – my main website is on WordPress, as are most of my clients' blogs. But Eggblogg is on Typepad. I also have personal blogs on Blogger and a proto-blog on Tumblr which at the moment serves simply as a glorified business card.
It frustrates me that each proprietary system is different enough to make changing between them a bit of a pain. I've got my own views about what's good and bad about the different platforms, and I'm asking a lot of bloggers for their thoughts. So now I'm throwing it open here – any insights you care to share will be much appreciated, but be warned – I may quote you in the book!
Funnily enough just last week I wrote about the different blogging platforms but from a point of view of which one should be used. I definitely prefer WordPress (the self-hosted version) for a business or professional blog. Most importantly you own the data on it as you host it yourself rather than relying on the free hosted versions which could disappear at any point. WordPress also has the best SEO functionality in my mind.
I started off with Blogger which is a great platform if you’re starting out, but didn’t like the fact you can’t categorise posts as well as with other platforms such as WordPress and Typepad. You tag posts instead, and it can be a bit of a headache if you ever decide to transfer your Blogger blog to another platform (as in your tags become categories).
I also use Posterous and Tumblr. Posterous is very easy and simple to use, but with fairly limited functionality. Tumblr I like, but is more of a community where you subscribe to other Tumblr blogs within your account. I think it really depends on what you want to use it for at the end of the day. A hobby blog doesn’t need all the functions of WordPress and if you’re not a techie and don’t want to know about technical things, then a more simple blogging platform may be the best answer!
I’m personally with Blogger and use it for quite a few sites including my productivity blog and my CV website. I first created my personal blog through it and, when it came to writing my business blog, I looked into WordPress after understanding it was a superior platform but found Blogger so much easier to use so went with that instead.
Although I would like to bring my Blog into my WordPress website, part of me is a little reluctant as Google is integrated so much into my working life (I use Gmail & Chrome etc) and with the release of Google+ and Google soon to rename Blogger, the overall advantages of using their platform may yet to be realised.
Thanks for your comments Jo and Sam, very interesting to hear two different viewpoints.
Excellent points about Google and Blogger Joanne! I started out with Blogger, and I am sticking with it ~
I’d go with WordPress, not just for blogs, but for building whole sites with blogs as a part of them. There are just so many cool things you can do with WordPress nowadays – a couple of my clients have done sites with it that don’t look like blogs at all.
My preference is WordPress. The flexibility and community support is key.
I helped my son set up a website on Tumblr, purely cause the design was simple and nice on the eye. Much easier to get your head around. I think WordPress would have been too much at this stage (he is 7, see http://www.aaronsherry.com). I do know that Tumblr didn’t have the functionality to export content which is a big negative.
Posterous is nice, but lacks the flexibility that WordPress has.
Which ever solution is used I find the ability to export content easily and hosting (or pointing) on your own domain is key.
Many thanks for your comments Laura and Julia, and Rosie thanks also – very good points about ease of exporting content and ability to use own domain name.