Want to Begin Blogging Immediately ?
The words “blog” and “blogging” have become so overused and belabored that a lot of people misunderstand what a blog actually is anymore.
A blog is a kind of website – (for the purposes of these reviews) one that is maintained by an individual. It’s not an article. It’s not a static HTML page (though these can be incorporated into a blog). It’s a log of web pages: a web log = a blog. Anyone can have one for any reason they want: personal, professional, job hunting, family chronicle, marketing, book clubs, celebrity gossip, tech news, online diary, fashion do’s, fashion don’ts, dream journal, music, art, recipes, travel – anything you want.
Below are the top 7 blogging services which you can choose from and start BLOGGING:
Rank -1 Wordpress :
This hosted version contains much of the same features and functionality without the added difficulty of being your own web developer and host.
The design tools offered at the free level include access to many templates (blog designs), sidebar customization using widgets and some of the themes even let you upload your own photo to customize your banner
Tracking and publishing tools are mostly integrated into the program – the stats are certainly integrated and offer a real-time look at all the activity and traffic happening to your blog.
The hosting has several different paid levels that increase your blog’s functionality. Upgrades include custom CSS, unlimited private users, 5 GB, 10 GB and 15 GB space upgrades, no ads and video embedding capability.
Rank -2 Typepad :
TypePad by Six Apart is a beautifully thorough proprietary blog software program with hosting included or you can pay for more storage and bandwidth. It costs fewer than $5 per month for a basic membership. TypePad’s advanced tools and features include stats, word banning, text file uploads, static pages.
One of the only faults, the only missing feature we can say about TypePad is that the program uses trackbacks (as opposed to pingbacks, which are less prone to spam. Otherwise, just about every check mark on the matrix is covered by this great program.
Rank -3 SquareSpace :
Squarespace is award winning blog service that is actually hosted "on the cloud". It's an easy way to set up a blog, or even a full website that can all be managed remotely. Squarespace has one of the finest interfaces for designing, customizing and personalizing your blog without knowing programming language or finding third party templates.
Rank -4 LiveJournal :
LiveJournal is a vital online community (masquerading as blog software) that was started in 1999 by Brad Fitzpatrick as a way to keep his high school friends up to date. Now on their home page LiveJournal boasts 20.7 million journals and communities created since then. LJ was purchased by Six Apart, Ltd. but is now owned by Russian developers SUP.
LiveJournal is free to join, but the features, storage and image upload capabilities are limited unless you upgrade to the Paid account. This program is ideal for writers and artists with enough technical know-how to figure out how things work and how to make LJ’s features work for them. There are plenty of ways someone with a little CSS and HTML can have a great time here.
Aside from comments, there are no statistics on traffic and referrers though. LiveJournal was designed less for commercial use and more for personal use and community building.
Rank -5 Blogger :
Blogger is the great, widely used blog software developed independently but now owned by the good people at Google. The program is free, easy to use, well organized and intuitive.
Having a blog through Google makes it really easy to monetize – use AdSense to place ads and possibly make some money. Blogger also provides plenty of challenge for more advanced users who want to customize their blog – build their own templates.
Mobile blogging capabilities are fully utilized here – BlogThis! is a downloadable client. You can also email your posts to publish on your blog or send them from your mobile phone.
Rank -6 Xanga :
Xanga’s classic account offers a variety of blog software templates and you can easily change the appearance further with a little HTML knowledge. They offer simple templates as well as advanced options, which we always like to see. A set up wizard guides you through the sign up and creation of your blog.
The free account is great to get you started but the features, storage and image options (which aren't many to begin with) are fairly limited unless you pay for a subscription.
Xanga also has a fairly large and active community - the home page shows featured articles as well as many specialty communities you can join or read. None of the traditional XML-based feed options (RSS and Atom) are integrated in Xanga.
Rank -7 Open Salon :
Open Salon by Salon is an emerging community powered by capable blog software and writers who are looking for an audience. It's a simple, plain service focused on great content rather than design and features.
The cover page welcomes you in to the community with featured articles, tips (such as how you can build a blogging audience), most viewed articles and an activity feed.
The blogging interface is clean and uncluttered.
Posted By: Doc CN
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