I’ve always been a little skeptical of the TypePad blogging platform. I’m not really sure why that is – perhaps I always saw it as a poor cousin on MovableType, or perhaps it was because it was a paid service, or perhaps I was just too lazy to check it out.
This week I’ve been consulting with two bloggers to help them set up their own blogs – both after looking at the options have chosen to go with TypePad. Whilst it’s probably still not my first choice for a blogging tool, in playing around with it and helping them to get set up I’m actually beginning to come around.
Whilst you do have to pay and whilst it’s probably not as powerful or as versatile as some other blogging tools it is a very usable platform. I’m especially impressed with the ease in which I’m able to communicate with completely inexperienced bloggers the basics of not only posting but design. I particularly like it’s commenting options (they just announced comment moderation today) which put a stop to spam (or at least slow it right down) and it’s ability to add advertising options quickly and easily.
I’m not about to move all my blogs over to TypePad, but I’m toying with the idea of running an experimental blog with it to fully immerse myself in it’s functionality and I’ll definitely be keeping it as an option in my consulting with beginner bloggers.
In other Six Apart News – they’ve also today released the beta version of MovableType 3.2.
