I get a lot of questions from people just getting into blogging about which blog platform to choose. I have my own preferences and opinions but try to be objective with my answer. I usually point people to my blogging for beginners post on blog platforms for starters – but I’m aware that even that is skewed by my own experiences of blogging.
So – I’d like to be able to give a more independent set of reflections to my readers also and would love for you to share which blogging platform you use and recommend. Here’s a few questions that you might like to answer in comments below (or feel free to write a post about it on your blog and leave the link below so others can find it).
- Which Blog Platform do you Use?
- Why do you use it?
- What do you love about it?
- What do you wish they’d improve?
- What type of blogger would benefit from using it?
I’m looking forward to reading your responses.
I currently use Blogspot. I have used WordPress in the past. I am just learning about blogging right now and I am sure I will find something better in the future. I use blogspot because it is easy to publish and update the templates. The one thing I wish they would add is some way of tracking traffic to the blog without having to install a 3rd party script.
* Which Blog Platform do you Use?
WordPress ver. 2 on my own (shared hosting) account.
* Why do you use it?
Simple, relatively “bullet proof” and it’s the current industry standard. The fact that it’s free also kind of enters into the picture.
* What do you love about it?
Pretty simple, easy to get up a post, edit, handle comments and administer the blog. More different themes and plug-ins that you can count so there is virtually something for everyone.
* What do you wish they’d improve?
Better documentation of features such as home page, locking a group of pages into separate topic sections, built in AdSense and other advertising blocks easily “floated” in posts without having to explore all the different plug-ins for same.
* What type of blogger would benefit from using it?
Beginners to advanced can all make good use of it. It’s a great tool to use to “learn the ropes” and basically can be extended as far as you would care to go.
I started out with TypePad, which is very flexible, and will meet the needs of a wide range of bloggers. I didn’t have the technical skills for WordPress at that time. Using it though, I’ve learned enough that all my new blogs ARE on WordPress.
I wish I would have used my own domain though. I had it, but went back to the TypePad default because Technorati wasn’t picking the blog up when I was domain mapping — one of the stupidest things I’ve done blogging!
I will say this though. If your motivation is commercial but your skill set low, and you have any reason to believe that you will want to graduate to WordPress, start out with Blogger instead of TypePad. You can retain Blogger URLs (on your own domain) when you move to WP, which is either impossible or incredibly difficult with TypePad; I’m not sure which.
All three of these have met my needs at different points in time. I wish TypePad used more standardized URLs that would allow for exporting to another platform. And I wish WordPress weren’t so scary for a non-techie to upgrade.
After testing the various platforms and looking at the community support, themes and plug-ins for them I picked WordPress.
WordPress is a great tool for blogging if you are a do it yourself. If your not adventurous enough to try things then I can see how WordPress can be a bit technically challenging for some. There are many amazing templates and plug-ins that make WordPress a great product.
For improvements I think they may want to have a Beginner version which comes with 20 or so of the most common themes and plug-ins already built in.
I love WordPress. It’s free, it’s easy to use, there is plenty of documentation if I have a problem, it’s stable, and it looks good. I think that any kind of blogger can benefit from using it because they have free blogs if you are just getting started, or a stand alone solution for those who want to set up their own site. My only wish is that it was easier to customize so that your blog doesn’t look like every other blog without some substantial work.
Normally I use Rapidweaver for Mac, but just today I tried WordPress and it`s fantastic. Easy-to-use, a lot of plug-ins, access by webbrowser, that`s actually much better than Rapidweaver…
Well, i use blogger because when i started blogging that was the only blogging plataform i knew.
I like blogger, its easy to use and serves all my blogging purposes.
I think its suitable for iniciant bloggers and bloggers with some experience.
I’ve played with a lot of them, blogger, TypePad, WordPress, BlinkLife, iBlog, but in the end came back to Blogger with it’s ease of use and now easy customization.
With the new Blogger (out of beta) I feel as though I have both ease of use, and the ability to play with the HTML code.
I’m satisfied and happy with the service and realibity.
Here’s a wish: the ability to edit your comment/response/reply!
By the way Darren, have you noticed that you use all 3 to mention the same concept. At the end of a post you have ‘x Responses to “blabla…”‘, then at the end of the ‘responses’ you’ve got ‘Leave a Reply’, and finally the button to submit states ‘Add comment’.
So which is it: a response, a reply or a comment?
Sorry for being a nitpicker!
=)
I’m using WordPress. I like it because it’s easy to use and it has so many possibilities – you can modify it as you want to fit your needs. All the templates and plug-ins for WordPress are also a good reason for picking WordPress. It’s also fairly simple to avoid comment spam with WordPress – which saves a lot of time.
I think WordPress might not be suitable for total newbies – but for people that are not entirely unfamiliar to the internet and how websites work it could be a good fit. It’s also good for advanced bloggers because they can use WordPress to its full potential.
WordPress… Mainly because I saw a MacAddict article about it back in Spring 2005 and thought it might be fun to try blogging. I installed WordPress and never looked back. Very flexible, very extensible, and very easy to use.
I’ve got a few blogs, all with different platform:
for my tech blogs I’ve used dotText and then Subtext: they are both developed with .NET technology. The second is the development of the first one, so just focusing on Subtext, I think it’s very nice, but not being extensible with plugin if you need a feature it doesn’t have, then, or u code it, or u forget about the feature.
Then I used DNN blogs, because I wanted the blog to be deeply integrated inside my DNN site (but I’ll not recommend DNN blog unless u want the same effect)
And last, I used WordPress for my recipes blog: I wanted the most from my blog, and wanted to experiment with features and other gadgets, so I used it. It has a big community around it, so many skins and plugin available.
But really I love Subtext, and maybe in the next release, with the introduction of add-in, it will be as powerful as WordPress
I use tow blogging platforms WordPress and Movable Type. I have used MT for years now and like the way that I can right click in Windows and crate a post from any page, I found that I could do this in WordPress as well.
I am also very comfortable with making html changes to the Movable Type templates although I am starting to get better with WordPresses PHP templating system as well.
The one thing that i am trying to find is an easy way to get a bunch of links together so that I can do the speedlinking thing on news stories that I find and at the same time make sure that the pingbacks go to the sites. This is one feature that I have not found a very easy way around.
One more, Blogger, I have used blogger over the last couple of years and yuck, I am really tired of it’s lack of features and the way that it is so hard to make small changes to a template without it making global changes to all archive pages. The new changes at Blogger are good but still not nearly enough. I fear it is still mostly a place for spammers and diary writers
I use tow blogging platforms WordPress and Movable Type. I have used MT for years now and like the way that I can right click in Windows and crate a post from any page, I found that I could do this in WordPress as well.
I am also very comfortable with making html changes to the Movable Type templates although I am starting to get better with WordPresses PHP templating system as well.
The one thing that i am trying to find is an easy way to get a bunch of links together so that I can do the speedlinking thing on news stories that I find and at the same time make sure that the pingbacks go to the sites. This is one feature that I have not found a very easy way around.
One more, Blogger, I have used blogger over the last couple of years and yuck, I am really tired of it’s lack of features and the way that it is so hard to make small changes to a template without it making global changes to all archive pages. The new changes at Blogger are good but still not nearly enough. I fear it is still mostly a place for spammers and diary writers
Which Blog Platform do you Use?
Wordpress all the way. I tried blogger and it’s just nowhere near as flexible, nor is it as easy to optimise imo.
Why do you use it?
It’s simplicity, it’s power to do difficult tasks easily because of the available plugins, and so much more.
What do you love about it?
The constant beneficial learning process when you join the WordPress clan and all the support that’s available.
What do you wish they’d improve?
I can’t think of anything but a far out idea might be that maybe ‘WordPress’ could provide their own hosting and with it the ability to upgrade the version of WordPress on request – would make it easier for beginners.
What type of blogger would benefit from using it?
EVERY blogger, except the stubborn ones who refuse to admit the superiority of WordPress :-)
WordPress. Because it’s FREE, easy to use, and easy to design/manipulate.
FT
http://www.milliondollarjourney.com
I’m pretty satisfied with Blogger. Provided you have the willingness and tenacity to slug through the code (Blogger classic), you can tweak and refine your site until it is barely recognizable as a Blogger-based blog – if you so desire. And there’s a large base of experienced users to draw troubleshooting tips, tricks, & hacks from.
I love Blogger because it takes care of the nitpicky bookkeeping details and I can mostly focus on the content I want to present.
Which Blog Platform do you Use?
I use Expression Engine.
Why do you use it?
It can do absolutely anything. It’s completely customizable. It can integrate easily into any design.
What do you love about it?
I love EE because, as a web developer, there hasn’t been a project I’ve encountered that EE can’t handle. I recently created a site for a musician that runs three different blogs, a list of touring information, and online store, forums, a photo gallery and a download section…all off of EE. It’s all integrated.
I currently run both of my blogs (The Secret Life of Kat and The Secret MUSIC Life of Kat) which have drastically different designs, off of the same installation of EE and should I ever want to add more blogs each with unique domain names, I could do that as well.
What do you wish they’d improve?
The only thing I can think of is that I wish they’d make it easier for non-technical people to get started with it. There is a bit of a learning curve, but with that curve comes more power and flexibility than I’ve found in any other system.
What type of blogger would benefit from using it?
EE is definitely for the serious blogger. They’d benefit because they could easily expand their site by adding more blogs, ecommerce, forums, galleries etc all off of one integrated installation of EE.
They’d also benefit from the shear flexibility of the system which would allow them to set the site up in any way they can imagine.
I use WordPress and Blogger, definitely prefer WordPress, much more extensible and much easier to use. The template tag system in blogger is just messy and confusing.
WordPress hands down. It has, by far, the best templating engine and blogging platform around. I’ve tried them all, but I really like WordPress the best.
It’s easy to install and even easier to manage.
A vote here for Movable Type, although even I’ll admit that I’ve been tempted to try out WordPress, but I don’t have the know-how to migrate my existing blog over and I don’t want to risk messing things up right when it’s really starting to hit stride (just hit 5-fig status – woohoo!).
MT has been great to use. It’s solid, the templates are pretty easily managed once you get the hang of it and yes, it’s available for free, too, but it doesn’t have the same grass roots support.
WP is tempting, but I can’t see myself using anything other than MT while it’s going so well.
Textpattern. It’s incredibly customisable — my boyfriend & I have contorted it into doing some amazing things.
I use WordPress because there is a huge developer community standing behind it. You can get all kinds of plugins, both practical and flashy, and a lot of them are must-haves – the Adsense Plugin, the Akismet spam fighting plugin, the Sitemap generator, etc.
With a one-click WordPress install available through a lot of hosting companies, you really don’t need to have a lot of technical skills to get yourself up and running on your own domain. Even a person with very few technical skills (like me) can take WordPress and tweak it here and there, thanks to the zillions of people writing about how to do it.
I also use WordPress currently after changing from Blogger. Blogger had too many bugs for my taste. I’m not technical guru or web designer, but I found WP extremely easy to set up and host myself. GoDaddy has a one click install for WordPress. Great for newbies like me.
There are also TONS of themes and plug-ins to choose from.
I use WordPress. It’s the only one I use and have ever really used. There were a few hosting company provided blog engines I’ve used and others have recommended others, but I don’t see how any can beat the wide variety of plug-ins and themes available for WP. Also knowing absolutely nothing about web site design or coding I would not even attempt to create my own templates. WP has it all and I couldn’t be happier with it.
I use two –
the obvious WordPress and the more important and less obvious one for this discussion – Drupal. I think that Drupal is often overlooked for blogging, since it’s mainly used for community websites, and that’s a shame because it’s just a wonderful platform for a blog.
It’s extremely easy to use, has an unbelievable easy-to-setup modules collection to extend already impressive built-in capabilities, as well as the most incredible open-source development support community (help, tweaks, tricks, extensions, etc.). Drupal 5 has really taken this one step up.
It’s a great tool for both beginners and advanced users.
It is lacking in the theme department, and blogging orientation needs to be addressed directly, but that’s also changing slowly.
Give Drupal a try…
I first tried TypePad and it’s my main platform. Have tried Blogger and Vox. I currently recommend Vox for “personal” blogs but I’ll stick with TypePad. It’s about right for me in terms of flexibility and ease of use.
I guess I’m rather backwards. I started using static HTML, then tried the open source things, fell in love with Textpattern, then, like everybody else on the planet, started using WordPress. However, as I kept on using it, I found nothing truly endearing to the product. While you’ve got zillions of people working on stuff for it, the main product is clearly not refined.
After beating WordPress around the neck and shoulders, I finally tired of security vulnerability after patch after update after update. For somebody security-focused, it’s a little unsettling using something with so many vectors to intrusion. That, and all the bling I kept installing could easily be handled by other means.
That’s what made the move to Movable Type good for me. I don’t have comments on there, and I’m not trying to start a discussion on my own site. I do track other sites with Technorati, but again, that’s something I don’t need a plugin for.
For me and how I work my site, I think MT’s the best. Here’s some background on my decision to change from WordPress.
http://macstansbury.com/site-updates/moving-to-movable-type.htm
And I’m not saying WordPress is bad, per se. It’s just that WordPress isn’t best for everything.
I’ve used Joomla on my last several projects.
Yeah: Joomla. A great CMS that can be easily adapted to small or large-scale blogging. You want a shopping cart with that? Easy. Forums? Take your pick. Two sidebars or none? It’s up to you — and it can change from page to page. Without touching code.
The best part of Joomla is being able to arrange your content pretty much any way you want on the page from the administrative back end. That’s because the layout is modular: assign what you want, where you want it. You have almost complete control of your story ordering and media management.
Darren asked for downsides: there’s no native commenting system (plenty of 3rd party options, though). You can’t assign multiple categories to a story in Joomla 1.0.x, but that will change in 1.5.
I think Joomla is a good choice for complex sites, multiuser arrangements, and anyone who wants commercial-grade flexibility without hacking at PHP.
I have to answer this because no one mentioned what I use…Joomla. Although it’s a CSM, it can blog :-)
I use Joomla because it can do and be so many things. On my main site I use but a few features – document management, newsletter, portfolio management. But on other sites I use additional available features such as forums, multi-author, directories, advertising, social bookmarks, ecommerce, etc. It’s a very flexible platform. It’s free :-)
I wish Joomla had better trackback support. There is a commercial plugin that support trackbacks, but an improvement would include a native solution.
Consultants or other professional service providers in need of a blog/site should take a look at Joomla. As a CMS, it’s ideally suited for managing content.
Additionally, it’s a great platform for membership sites.
Joomla is a well supported open source CMS.
I’ve dabbled with most of ’em… blogger, livejournal, Yahoo and WordPress and I keep coming back to WordPress. It is extensible, easy to use, beautiful and Free!
I’ve used Blogger, Vox and Rediff Blog before. But, at last, I went for WordPress because of the powerful and safe code and security. I also liked the fact that it is open source so that I can hack my script and make a lot of tweaks.
The Akismet spam protection is quite efficient and the community is really booming. So, about your question, Darren :-
> Which Blog Platform do you Use? WordPress (duh)
> Why do you use it? I use it to blog about Webmaster News. I use it because its the CMS in the world.
> What do you love about it? I love the fact that it is Open Source and the whole
customizability and hackability of the script.
> What do you wish they’d improve? I wish they included a feature in which I can
upload themes and plugins right from the browser. I hate going to the slow FTP client.
> What type of blogger would benefit from using it? I think this platform is pretty much versatile. It will be useful for both the newbies as well as gurus. Its easy to use. But, I think the big guys will have great advantage with this script because its Open Source.
I use typepad, but am thinking of using WordPress. I would like to host it myself but don’t know if I have the technical skills for all of this.
1. Which Blog Platform do you Use?
Atom5
2. Why do you use it?
Free subdomain & flickr & no more comment spam
3. What do you wish they’d improve?
Custom sidebar
I use Google’s Blogger for my site: The Jack Sack. My blog is a fan site for the t.v. show “24.” I post images regularly and I upade the blog daily.
I use Blogger mostly by default– someone mentioned it to me, it was easy to set up the blog, and it became a routine very easily. My biggest complaint about Blogger is the periodic blackouts the system suffers. I had a major posting in which I expected a large amount of traffict last Thursday and as if it were some cruel twist of fate, during the middle of the day Blogger was offline (my readers were met with a 502 Error message).
If my traffic continues to increase, I will explore other options but in the meantime I enjoy the customization tools, I am learning CSS quickly and I am enjoying myself at the moment.
Come and check it out: http://thejacksack.blogspot.com
WordPress for life!
It’s arguably the best blogging platform in terms of stability, ease of use, expansibility, and amount of resources available on the net.
The only thing they could do to improve it, as of now, would be to add an in-built management system for multimedia (namely, pics and videos). But that would really be only a plus. It’s close to perfection right now..
* Which Blog Platform do you Use?
Now I use WordPress and I love it :) (one remark, the link on my name doesn’t lead to the blog, I’ll be converting those static pages to wordpress soon)
Before I tried to use blogger but I switched, mostly because I use my own domain now.
* Why do you use it?
Becouse it has many plugins and themes.
* What do you love about it?
Plugins
* What do you wish they’d improve?
Definitely speed is an issue with wordpress, its very slow.
* What type of blogger would benefit from using it?
I think a one that knows a little PHP HTML and CSS, becouse he could tweak the code to his liking, but it’s not necessary others might base on the code created by vast amount of users.
Blogspot is my choice, worked also with Movable Type and Blogspirit. There are certainly better options, but it workes for me. II must say, that without little bit more than basis knowledge of HTML Blogspot can be very inflexible.
I use Expression Engine across my personal blog network, I wouldn’t personally recommend it for less technical people as there’s only a dozen or so templates and there is a general assumption throughout the documentation that you’re reasonably competent with web site building.
But that said if you are technical and you want the ability to shape a site to be exactly how you want it then Expression Engine is an ideal platform, a lot of my blogs don’t really look like traditional blogs, I wanted to create a different environment more corporate like feel to attract corporate advertisers in my niche who unfortunately seem to feel that a blog is somehow a less worthy platform to advertise from!
Expression Engine enabled me to change the feel enough to get the corporates in my niche motivated to approach me for advertising, so if your in a stuffy niche like me and know a thing or two about html, css etc. Expression Engine’s flexibility can have quite a positive effect on your bottom line….
I use Pivot because it does not need a MySql database to work. I used to use B2Evolution for it multi-blog formate but when my provider started charging for it I switched.
I use blogger, because it’s easy to use and free. I really like it, and my blogs have always been there. I attempted to switch to WP, although, it was too hard to reroute my traffic etc etc. Anyway, I just invested in a .com address, as I felt it would be good!
Charlie – http://www.theapblog.com
I started off with Blogger, went to Typepad and I just made the jump to WP 2.1 on own server.
Looking back makes me realize that I needed all the steps before. Because 2 years ago I didn’t even know what an RSS FEED was.
For now I will stick with WP, it gives me all the freedom I want. I can change the looks within a second. Add easily Database content. It just feels right using WP.
For posting I am still using the Qumana Editor – since I run couple of blogs.
I blog at an IT blog network which uses Movable Type. I guess my comment is on why I let someone else choose my blog platform for me and control the look and feel of my blog (though not my posts). I figure on a stand alone blog every minute I would have spent tinkering with the stuff around my blog entries, such as widgets and blogrolls and advertising and fonts and headings, is time lost from researching and writing for my blog. With four kids I don’t have a lot of spare time. My blog network is certainly putting in a huge amount of work to bring me readers so I’ve got a better result than if I had set up my blog on my own.
I use both blogger and wordpress.
I like blogger because it is free and very easy to use.
I also like wordpress because it is very customizable and because of the numerous plugins available.
anthony – http://meandthecomputer.blogspot.com
Which Blog Platform do you Use?
I use WordPress Version 2.1
Why do you use it?
Its easy to download, easy to setup, and has an awesome base of users and technical knowledge so that you can always ask for help. It also allows you to host your own blog so that you don’t have to use Blogger.
What do you love about it?
I love the great load of plugins that are amazingly simple to use. I love the ease of use. I love the fact that everything and anything is customisable.
What do you wish they’d improve?
Erm…there’s not much which I think could be improving. There coders and programmers always release useful updates as well as anti-hacking protection so I think at the moment, WordPress.org are at the top of their game.
What type of blogger would benefit from using it?
Any type of blogger hoping to continue with their blog after the initial 3 month novelty stage. If you’re serious about blogging (and perhaps earning a bit of cash out of doing so), WordPress is one of the only blog management systems that will make yo look more professional.
Great question and thanks WordPress – yo’re awesome!
I use Blogger. I find it reliable and easy to use. It gets a bum rap, but Ive never had any problems.
* Which Blog Platform do you Use?
I use Blogger
* Why do you use it?
I’m new to Blogging and it’s the first thing i’ve stumbled upon
* What do you love about it?
It’s convenient for beginners
* What do you wish they’d improve?
They don’t have the TrackBack feature, they should really include it
* What type of blogger would benefit from using it?
Mostly beginners, I think. and people without their own domain and hosting.
I use blogspot,because it is the first blog plantform i have found…
And it is easy,simple,and some free templates…
I am using WordPress blogging platform for a year or so.. I am using it on my own hosting, so I can tune it as much as I like.
I think that WordPress ir great both for the beginners and more advanced bloggers because it has a lot of options (plugins, themes) but they don’t make whole platform heavy or hard to use. I don’t have to think about technical issues, I just can sit back and write..
I use WordPress. It is free. Easy to install and play around with to get the look and feel the way you want it. I am sure I have only scratched the surface with my http://www.mlm-journey.com blog.
I use Firefox and a couple of days ago I came across a phenomenal Add On for Blogging (you may already be using it). It is called Performancing. Amazing tool for writing blog posts, dragging and dropping images, setting up tags etc… Here is the link for anyone interested: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/1730/