Choosing a Blog Platform

Since hitting the internet in 1990s, blogging has become a world-wide phenomenon. Whether you're a photoblogger or a mommyblogger, each of us are a writer, longing to make our voices heard, longing to get out ideas out there. Some of us blog for the sheer pleasure of writing, the desire to share our personal experience, others to keep up with family and friends, or simply because we have to rant to someone, while others still seek to share their photographic genius!

If you've not joined the community, the "blogosphere" as it were, and you're feeling a little overwhelmed by the possibilities, relax. Your first step should be choosing a blog platform. Frightening, I know, but necessary and to make things easier, I've done the hard work.

Free Platforms: Free blog platforms all you to register for a completely free account in minutes and with the click of a few buttons, be blogging in the blink of an eye.

- Blogger.com: Blogger is possibly the easiest, most well known, free blog platform. I began on Blogger.com, it's extremely easy to navigate and with the introduction of their new features, it's more versatile than ever. Blogger allows you to choose from a variety of attractive templates; customize their colors, header images, and the sidebar layout simply by click and drag. Also, for more advanced users, blogger allows users to edit their own templates from within the interface. Comment moderation is also available to help fight off comment spam. If appearance is important, be sure that there are hundreds of blog templates available free for blogger, and when purchasing templates, those coded for blogger are the least expensive.

- Wordpress.com: Another free, easy to use blog platform, Wordpress.com (not to be confused with Wordpress.Org) is simple to use, even for beginners. Their innovative "Widget" system makes sidebar customization a snap and their stock themes are beautiful and easily customizable. Their built-in features include categories, post-slug, and password protection for personal posts. Wordpress also features Askimet spam protection as a built in feature and comment moderation to help you avoid the pesky comment spam.

- Livejournal.com: A free, easy to navigate blog platform. Less customizable and user-friendly than Blogger and Wordpress, Livejournal is a very utilitarian platform for those who want less hassle than features.

- Nutang.com: Nutang is innovative in their payment for blogging system. A system based on blog views, Nutang pays its users. It is, however, less customizable than Blogger and Wordpress, templates and themes are less easily found, and users have to put up with unruly header and footer advertisement bars.

- Myspace.com & Xanga.com: These websites are less blog platforms and more social sites. They do, however, have blogging platforms available and are easy for new users.

- Vox.com: A new platform on the scene, Vox is also a social website, though they focus their attention on blogging and community. If you're interested in a build in community, Vox is for you. Their stock templates are cute and easy to use and there is likely something for everyone to be found at Vox.

- Other free sites include: Mindsay.com, Muliply.com, b2evolution.com, and iblog.com.

Hosted: For many of us, some of whom began on platforms such as Blogger and Wordpress, hosting out own blog is an option. As most hosts offer a one click installation of Wordpress (found at Wordpress.Org) hosting has become easy and manageable. A number of good platforms can be found on the internet with a quick google.com search. Wordpress also offers a list of suggested hosts for those interested. I strongly recommend Startlogic.com, their inexpensive and extremely user friendly!

- Wordpress.Org: A free, self hosted, blogging platform. This is the same software available for free at Wordpress.com, however offers a great deal more versatility with self-hosting. A number of themes and plug-ins are available for Wordpress, as well as the ever popular Askimet spam protection (Askimet.com.

- Blogger.com: Blogger can be hosted on an external site through FTP (File-transfer protocol). The only advantage to doing so, in my experience, is the ability to direct blogger to a personal URL.

- Other available hosted blogging software includes: Expression Engine (pMachine.com), Movable type (movabletype.com), Greymatter (Greymatter.com), Text Pattern (Textpattern.com), Mambo (Mamboserver.com), Nucleus (nucleuscms.org), Joomla (Joomla.org), Typepad (TypePad.com), and Drupal (Drupal.org).

It should be noted, in closing, that this list is not exhaustive. It is, however, a list of the most popular blogging platforms available. Happy Blogging!