The Platform to Successful Blogging

Thu, May 14, 2009

Blogging Techniques, Blogging Tips, Link Management


There are hundreds of blogging platforms available in the World Wide Web today. Each one specializes on the different features and applications. At the start of 2009, one of the up-and-coming blogging platforms, JournalSpace, has closed down due to a technical sabotage made by an IT employee to one of their main hard drives. This incident has disgruntled a lot of bloggers who now have zero journal entries. In order to avoid ignorance on this subject, here are a few blogging platform tips for maximizing your site visibility.

Knowing the Difference

Choosing the right blogging platform is essential in maintaining a blog. Remember that you have to assess your skills before picking the right platform to use. There are those that may require advance technical skills involving the use of Javascript or HTML. There are also those that require a certain fee to keep the web space running.

Blog platforms come in two types: Hosted Blog Platform and Stand Alone Blog Platform. A Hosted Blog Platform is by the word itself “hosted” by a particular server using their own domain. More often than not, these are the widely used blog platforms in the internet; the standouts include Wordpress, Blogger and Livejournal. The process of site customization is not that intricate and tedious for Hosted Blog Platforms. There are user-friendly codes that you can use to manage your account. Most layouts are ready-to-use and the packages are usually cheap or free of charge.

A Stand Alone Blog Platform, on the other hand, aims for personalization. Your blog can be noticeable with its own domain and with modified applications. A number of the existing Stand Alone Blog Platforms include Movable Type, Expression Engine and b2Evolution. These platforms can configured to your own liking and have various plug-ins that are constantly updated.

Getting the Criteria

Since each person has different skills in using online softwares, you may also opt to create your own criteria in choosing your blogging platform. Remember that in doing so, you must think of which possible server can best maximize your site visibility.

Plug-ins. One effective way to make your blog stand out is to insert plug-ins. These are usually additional features that serve different purposes. To guard your guestbook against spam, you may indicate the requirement of typing codes. You may also tag related articles depending on the topic of your entry as well as RSS and Syndicate features.

Budget. Make sure you know how much you want to spend. The bigger your budget is, the more chances of purchasing a better domain. You also have to make sure that you get your money’s worth by choosing the platform that you can manage and configure on your own.

Tech-savvy. Know what you can and cannot do. Although the platform may be promising in its applications, you have to make sure that they are useable. Some blog platforms are also not compatible with other media sites like Flicker, YouTube or Photobucket.

A Piece of Advice

It always pays to research on your own and to check if some of your friends are using those platforms. Most of the time, the best advisers are the current users of the application.


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Internet Home Business(Home)

This post was written by:

Salwa - who has written 1 posts on Work From Home Business Blog. The author of this post is Salwa, a digital artist, web designer, blogger and online entrepreneur from U.K. London. She is a writer and webmaster of blogriffic.com, a blog devoted to Search Engine Optimization, Art, Design, Wordpress and Blogging in general.

Contact the author

  • I've always used WordPress self-hosted (which should be listed in standalone too shouldn't it?). I did actually try Blogger once but it didn't provide me with the flexibility I wanted from a blog, where as WordPress is very flexible, not just as a blog but it also works as a traditional CMS quite well too. I haven't tried many others though but it seems to me that WordPress has the best level of support, plug-in development etc. So it's an easy choice for me.
  • Wordpress blog platform is what I'm using since the first day I started my blog, I'm sure that Wordpress is the most easiest blog platform among all of them for beginner. I've tried Joomla before but it was complicated, just tried it in my another domain, but I gave up, it's too much of features and I was not able to handle it.

    If my friends ask me about blog platform, I would definitely recommend Wordpress to them. I believe that you're the same, right? :)

    Good writing Salwa!

    Regards,
    Lee
  • Lee,

    Wordpress simply rocks! and it is not just easy to handle but you can also pretty much make anything out of it which makes it so flexible.

    Thanks for your comment.
  • Hi Salwa,

    As always great post. I guess you have an idea of the platform I use for blogging and what an expert I am in this platform, lol

    Luis
  • Yup no 3rd party ads.. you have total control of your blog!
  • Hi Salwa,

    I agree self hosted blogs are the most popular methods you have more control.
  • Hi James,

    Yeah, if you are more of a serious blogger and hoping to make few bucks along the way than self hosted blogs are definitely for u.
  • I just began using a self hosted but free account but it was some restrictions that do not allowed you to really have some control over your site that´s why I change to a paid hosting.
  • Absolutely, its the best way to go. I learn this the hard way, after using free blogspot and then free hosting, never again. I will use paid hosting as well as self hosted WP.
  • Very good advice here. I agree about budget, the more you spend the more chances you have on bigger profit later. But it's still a risk
  • It is but if you have the money you might as well invest it on your business and hope for the best!
  • Wordpress is the king ^_^
  • Agreed!
  • I'll definitely recommend that you go for the self hosted blog solution on your own domain. I've seen so many blogger start off with the free solutions only to regret it deeply after less than one year of blogging.
  • But I do see some bloggers doing well with Free hosted blogspot platform, such as http://moneymakerinfo.blogspot.com (Liew) & http://makemoneyforbeginner.blogspot.com (Grizzly). They can rank well in Top even though they use blogspot, but there is a lot of works need to be done in order to reach this stage. :D
    But still, I support self hosted blog, Wordpress!

    Regards.
    Lee
  • I know Grizzly, this guy its amazing with links and techniques even that his sites are not very pretty, but he has a lot of subscribers and is making money already. But I still prefer to use self hosted WP.
  • Wordpress is just absolutely awesome!
  • Really bad to hear about what happened to journalspace. Hoping they can recover.

    I really think that the majority of bloggers simply have decided that wordpress is the best. The amount of plugins you find to customize and make your blog more efficient when you use wordpress. I can't see there going to be any major migration in the near future so I would really recommend wordpress for any starting or veteran blogger.
  • More than decided that WP its the best, is because there is an actual reason why and is because you can tweak it and make it better for SEO and grab more plugins, themes and lots of tools in the market.
  • Wordpress is just absolutely awesome!
  • I've read where folks take a subject that they're interested in and make money blogging; how can I turn my love of handbags into a successful blogging venture?
  • Hi Patriotic plates,

    There are many ways on how one can monetising their blogs. They are programs such as adsense which you can use. As long as you can get some clicks, you can start earning from your blog almost immediately, affiliates and many other methods really.

    Obviosly I won't be able to answer this question in whole on one single comment, or even an article for that matter as it is such a vast subject but if you do little search on google I am sure you will be able to get lots of information to help you make money blogging.

    Regards
    Salwa
  • Well, I'd have to agree with everyone else that having a self-hosted Wordpress blog is the way to go. It's very easy to setup, use, and manage the content and functionality of your site. Oh, and the best part, of course, is that it's free. You really can't beat it.
  • Work From Home Opportunities,

    Very true, WP simply rules!
  • I love it! I can't believe I went so long without it. Beats Blogger any day.
  • I'm starting to get to grips with Wordpress myself, I find it pretty easy and straightforward.

    I hav, however, been reading that using a hosted system like Blogger, is better for SEO. Is this true?
  • Whether self-hosted or not, Blogger is not better for SEO. A self-hosted Wordpress blog is much better in terms of SEO than Blogger.
  • Thanks, that's a relief! Didn't want to have to start again...!
  • Glad I could help. I'd hate to see you have to start over because someone gave you bad information!
  • That´s true. Even most of the pro bloggers use and prefer WP like Yaro Starak. WP have tp be the prefered choice over any other platforms.
  • I use Blogger and yes, it's not as customizable as WP, but it's not so bad!!!
  • Salwa, thanks for the breakdown of what to look for and consider when choosing a blogging platform. I see from the responses here that WP is the preferred platform but my friend tells me that there are two versions of WP so which should I use and why?

    Paul
  • Hi Paul,

    There's a self-hosted option for WP, which is what you want. The other option is to have WP host it for you, but that comes with A LOT of restrictions. Modifying is very restricted as well as the links you put on it. There's many cases where people lose their account because they fail to comply with the huge list of terms. With a self-hosted WP blog, you're not bound by any restrictions, only the ones you place on yourself. ;)

    Hope that helps,

    Alan
  • Alan answered you perfectly! :)
  • That's good to know! :) LOL
  • Thanks Alan, I get it. Hey just a quick question for you or anyone that may care to answer. I am in a niche where forums are used and get more exposure than individual corporate blogs. Please remember that I am a one person show, the majority of my competitors have the money, technological expertise and a large community following so...

    Wouldn't it make more sense in my situation to start a Forum (like the Warriors) rather than doing a blog?

    Paul
  • I think a blog is still a good idea. I do believe there's a way to add a forum to a WP blog. Maybe you could go that route? A forum is a good idea, but if it were me I'd want a blog attached to the forum or vice versa.
  • I think blogger is not so good as wordpress. Wordpress is such blog where you can customize easily and its much better than blogger in my view.
  • Self-hosted WordPress gets my thumbs up every time!
  • Seh
    After reading this article I am definitely looking forward to add blogging to my video marketing system. I love the community effect that takes place on the blogs. Right now I mainly post video to video uploading sites. A great place to post for marketers is http://www.Adwido.com because it's free plus they target specific keywords to boost targeted traffic. This would even be a great way to create targeted traffic to videos on blogs.
  • i want to make a successful blog and im wondering what topics i could use.
    maybe show me a successful blog as an example.
  • Yes Wordpress is good platform to consider aside from blogspot.
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