Finding a home for your blog
So you’ve decided to start a blog. You’ve decided what the focus of the content is going to be and who the audience is. Now, you’ve just got to turn your ideas into web pages, and to do that, you’re going to have to first work out where on the web your blog is going to live.
There are a number of options open to you.
Choose a free blogging service
From LiveJournal to Vox, Blogger to Wordpress, there are a number of sites which will host your blog for free. All of them will provide the basics you need to blog, such as a text editor, a website address and a way for people to leave comments. Many of them provide you with templates to customise the design of your blog. Some allow voice posts, others allow polls.
TopTen reviews has published a 2007 Blog Services report which compares the features of a number of free blogging services, as well as providing a review of each.
Blog on a social network
If you’ve already set up a MySpace page, and already have friends and contacts there, you might want to take advantage of their blogging service. When you’re logged into your profile, you can just click on ‘manage blog’ then ‘post new blog’.
As an example, check out the MySpace blog of independent publisher, Legend Press.
Blog on a niche site
If you want to create a blog on a particular topic - whether it’s parenting or books or parrots - you might want to check out the sites that you currently visit on that topic. Do they have blogs there already? Do they have an option for you to set up your own?
If they don’t, but you have an idea for a blog that you think can be sustained long-term, you might want to contact the site’s owner and express your interest. By blogging on an established site, you may get a lot more traffic to your posts than you would by going it alone.
For example, if you’re in the UK and want to start a blog about your volunteering experiences, you might want to check out this opportunity from do-it.org.uk. They’ve already got a number of volunteering bloggers and are looking for more.
Host your own blog
If you want to have your own domain name for your blog and have complete control over its design and code, you may want to host it with an independent company.
Both my personal blog and web stuff 4 writers are hosted on one account with BlueHost. Both the blogs use the WordPress software, but instead of following the complex self-installation instructions, I’ve been able to fill in a few boxes on the BlueHost control panel and have had the two blogs automatically created.
My other UK experience with hosting is with 1&1 Internet. They offer free blog set-up with some of their hosting packages as well, but I was only able to chose from a limited set of design templates and wasn’t able to upload any extra plug-ins (pieces of code which allow additional functionality).
Your thoughts
If you already have a blog, what has your experience been like with your blogging service? Would you recommend them? If you were to start from scratch again, would you choose to move your blog somewhere else?
I currently have three blogs. The first was created years ago on a niche site (writing.com) and is fairly basic. It doesn’t allow for plug-ins, HTML or advertising but it was a fun way to keep in touch with my other WDC friends and to keep a regular writing pattern.
I now have two blogs with blogger.com The template allows me to completely customize but it takes a little getting used to if you’re changing an existing template with their blogger specific codes. There are a few features that I’d like to have but haven’t worked out how to impliment yet.
Blogger is easy to use but not easy to customize, if you don’t have experience with CSS and HTML then you’re better off leaving the template alone or finding a site that offers more wysiwyg functionality.
As for independant hosting, I just used your link to sign up for Bluehost. I had been simply using a mirror domain to point to my free content with my ISP but I’m about to change ISP and would lose those few MB storage space so I checked out a few hosting options and decided to go with BlueHost thanks to your link.
So far it’s working out well. It was easy to FTP up my content and it was running within minutes. The only trouble I’ve had is transferring my original domain name. I used the free domain option during signup so now have two domain names but when I get to the checkout option on the domain name transfer it keeps telling me my details aren’t verified. I think it’s simply a time factor, the staff haven’t had a chance to verify my details since I’ve only just signed up so hopefully that niggle will be sorted out in a few days.
Thanks for the referral by the way! And great entry today! There are so many options, finding something that works for you takes a little research and it’s best to do it before you begin so you’re not relocating your audience once you’re established.
Found your blog through Rebecca’s Round-About. I look forward to visiting often.
I’m a new blogger (http://lifepundit.typepad.com/my_weblog/ and http://lifepundit.typepad.com/smellshorsey/, in addition to the link I signed in with) but old freelancer. It’s really liberating to get to write what I want to write about on my blogs. I’m trying to blog, freelance and work on my novel at the same time. It’s been quite energizing, but I’m not sure I’ve left myself room for NanoWriMo. Who knows. There’s a saying, “Busy people get things done.”
I look forward to learning more about your novel, too.
I have a self hosted WordPress blog and I would highly recommend that platform. It is highly customizable and pretty easy to use straight out of the bag.
Rebecca: I used to use writing.com, but it must be 5-6 years ago now, and I don’t think they even had blogs then. It’s funny how web browsing habits change.
Thanks for using my link to sign up for BlueHost. They’ve served me well so far, and hopefully they’ll do the same for you. Let me know if you’ve got any questions about how their control panel works.
Anne: It sounds like you’re really busy at the moment! I’m finding maintaining two blogs take a fair amount of time, and you’ve got three! Do you have a schedule for when you update each blog? Or do you just update each one as the inspiration strikes?
Elysa: I’ve got to say that WordPress is my favourite blogging platform as well - I’ve found it so much easier to customise than my former LiveJournal.
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