Travel Technology - Bloggling platform - WordPress, Blogger, LJ... or something else?

Hey gang.

I'm decided to try and start writing a blog again (lets just say my last attempts have been god awful. This time I hope to have some content at least)

To be honest, I don't want to Tweet (as my willingness to be tweeted everywhere isn't my thing), so I'm thinking of a more traditional platform. Although I could modify my hosting package to have a blog function, to be honest 1) I can't be bothered to pay out and 2) I prefer other people to the dirty work for me ;)

So which platform should I look at for blogging? Ideally, I'd want to tie a domain to it in the long run, but something reasonable to get started first would be not a bad idea.

Thoughts welcome :)

PS - I'll try and keep away from the the so called Bloggers philosophy. Honest ;)

I do two blogs: one on LJ and one on blogspot. My LJ is personal stuff read by folks on my FL. It's mostly folks that I know through an interest. My blogspot is slightly more serious and related to my work. I'm not really that into blogging. I do it mostly cause I want to keep up with friends. I don't see a whole lot of difference in the two. Lots of folks I know on LJ are migrating to Dream something or other. There is also some concern because LJ is run by Russians (who bought it from whoever started it).

Blogger is pretty simple and seems to support even very frequently hit blogs. I think it is a pretty site. Good luck with the blogging in any case. Sticking to it is probably a lot more important than which platform.

I prefer Blogger but whichever you choose, you should be using Windows Live Writer (http://windowslivewriter.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!D85741BB5E0BE8AA!1650.entry) to make your blog entries.

It's invaluable to an active blogger and has a whole host of features to make posting, tagging and editing a much simpler process.

I use blogger for my main blog (www.wanderingaramean.com) and am reasonably happy with it. The layouts are pretty flexible assuming you're willing to get in under the hood and poke around. And I've had no problems with them hosting my content on a custom/personal domain name.

I also have limited experience using WordPress (for traveltechtalk.com) and think that it is probably a bit more flexible but also a hair more complicated because of it. I've never set up a blog using it so I cannot comment to that aspect of things.

And I agree re Windows Live Writer. I'm a HUGE fan.

Blogger is sounding a good option from the feedback here... so I'll probably plump with that.

LiveWriter will be a no-go in most situation as I have one of these fruit flavoured computers and I don't intend having VMWare running all of the time... or booting up the StinkPad ;)

I use wordpress and have found it to be really easy to use. I deploy it myself (rather than use wordpress.com) and even customized a theme the way I liked it. So far, I've quite enjoyed using it, and the plugin community is quite large.

Since you use a Mac, I'd suggest looking into Mars Edit (http://www.red-sweater.com/marsedit/) to write up your posts. This way you can write up the posts offline in an external program. Otherwise, you can use the Google Gears functionality of Wordpress (available in 2.7) to do offline writing.

Hope that helps.

You're probably fine with either WordPress or Blogger. I'm using WordPress (self-hosted for two sites, .com for one site), and haven't run into many problems...

Given what you posted above, the customization options with self hosted WordPress (.org) are both its strength and weakness. And it's likely your host already has it available for uploading to your site or else you could do it with the 5-minute install (really, it is about that long). In your admin panel, you'll see what needs to be updated, and a few clicks later, you're good to go. Since you have a hosting option, you could actually set this up on your own site now.

If you don't mind having templates picked out for you, go with either WordPress (.com) or Blogger (I believe the former has slightly more options, but both have quite a bit). The .com has even added entering posts via email, if you want. If you want alternative themes, or the ability to customize to your heart's content, then you're looking at a self-hosted solution...

Dreamwidth.org is the place a lot of former LJ'ers are going. Much more customer-centric and based in the US, not Russia.

(BTW, I have a few invites, so PM me if you'd like one.)

If you want alternative themes, or the ability to customize to your heart's content, then you're looking at a self-hosted solution...

Blogger allows virtually unlimited customization of the themes/templates within their hosting platform. I think that the only thing you cannot get rid of is the top search/report blog/next blog bar; everything else is customizable.

I prefer Blogger but whichever you choose, you should be using Windows Live Writer (http://windowslivewriter.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!D85741BB5E0BE8AA!1650.entry) to make your blog entries.

It's invaluable to an active blogger and has a whole host of features to make posting, tagging and editing a much simpler process.

Oh, how I had wished I read your advice sooner - I eventually found it the hard way, but you are 100% right, this makes creating content a piece of cake and should be tried by any Windows blogger.

I don't really like Blogger. I am looking for a good site where I can blog. I am willing to pay, at least as much as I pay for SmugMug.

Please advise, thanks.

M8

I don't really like Blogger. I am looking for a good site where I can blog. I am willing to pay, at least as much as I pay for SmugMug.

Please advise, thanks.

M8

Wordpress.com. Alternately, if you have web-hosting somewhere, you can run the wordpress software on your own hosting account.

I have to agree with other and say Wordpress. I use wordpress not only for a blog site, but a couple of basic web sites that I own. There are tons of templates and add-ons and it is very easy to configure and manage.

I don't really like Blogger. I am looking for a good site where I can blog. I am willing to pay, at least as much as I pay for SmugMug.

Please advise, thanks.

M8

Have you ever tried Tumblr?

www.tumblr.com