#1 - Asked myself what I wanted from a blog host?
- Free (I don't wish to pay to maintain a blog)
- Stability/ reliability (i.e. no frequent downtimes)
- Credibility/ trustworthiness (usually I look at who are the people using the service as an indicator of the service provider's credibility)
- Ease of updating (e.g. interface)
- Features
#2 - Choosing a (free) blog host: Narrowing down the list
Probably the most important consideration for me. I'm looking for a free and reliable blog hosting service. There are many free blog hosting services. Those that I've seriously considered are:
- Blogger.com
- Blogsome.com (based on Wordpress)
- Wordpress.com
Final choice -- Wordpress
Making the choice was more difficult than I thought. I'd really wanted to stick with Blogger because I can access my new blog with the existing user ID (single ID logon*). It's managed by Google and it's not about to close shop anytime soon. Plus, Blogger has also introduced several improvements in the past year (e.g. anti spam; linking) so I'm convinced more features would be introduced.
[* UPDATE: Wordpress.com introduces unlimited blogs, Apr 2006]
Blogger is great and I'd still recommend it to people who've never started a blog before. But I wanted to try something more complex than Blogger. I figured it's good to be proficient with more than one specific blogging platform. And really, what tilted in Wordpress' favour was the "Categories" feature. I wanted to "file" my stuff, you know?
Why not Blogsome.com, since it's also based on Wordpress blogs? To be honest, the No. 1 reason was because Scoble is using it! His choice can't be wrong. Of course I also considered how Wordpress.com has been setup -- with a Feedback channel, a Wiki... basically they just seem to provide more help. Like I said earlier, the whole blog-creation process is subjective.
Ok, if you wish to know more about the different blogging plaftforms, here's a Blog Software Comparison Chart (discovered via Cowboy Caleb).
[Next: Part 2]
I used to recommend less tech-savvy bloggers to blogger.com while the more comfortable ones to blogsome. Wordpress.com is a better choice now since their system is based on their own latest releases (they make it, so they support it best), so you can be assured you're future-proof.
ReplyDeleteHi, Can u pls tell us more about your courses on blogging. Thanks.
ReplyDeletei was all ready to move from blogsome to wordpress, until i found out that you can't tweak the template yet.
ReplyDeleteimplications:
- no stats
- can't splash your lovely pic on the top of your blog
however, they are working on the issues at the moment.
p.s. scoble gets special treatment (custom template).
Kevin: Yup, that's the term I was searching for -- "Future Proofing" my blog.
ReplyDeleteTinkerTailor: I know what you're talking about. Which made me think a bit about Wordpress Vs Blogsome. But in the end, even without the ability to customise the blog like what I'm used to, Wordpress still wins. It's good enough for me. Recently, they added a "Regulus" theme that offers some degree of pre-set customisation. I can live w/o the enhanced stats part (what Wordpress currently provides for the blog is, again, good enough for my needs).
i've only just moved over to wordpress as well.
ReplyDeletenon-customisation came as somewhat of a surprise, but i really like being able to modify categories on the fly. i've only just started tagging my stuff, and its addictive!
anyway, i plan to get myself a host eventually so i can use the full version of wordpress, so this is like training wheels first.
Oh, I forgot to respond to Chun See: I don't conduct regular courses on blogging. Just when I'm invited to do so, for different audiences. I've started another blog for "course purposes". I can email you to share more.
ReplyDeleteIt should be noted, of course, that the comparison chart is 6 months old, which by computer standards is half an eternity. Many of the software packages have significant updates since.
ReplyDelete