Tees In A Pod: Blogging Platforms: Which to Choose?

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Blogging Platforms: Which to Choose?

There are so many blogging platforms out there these days that I think it is important to go through the pros and cons of each. From regular blogging platforms such as Blogger or Wordpress to micro blogging platforms like Twitter and Tumblr the choices are nearly unlimited. Let's look at why you should be using these platforms and the potential drawbacks of each.

Blogger- The great thing about Blogger as a blogging platform is that it is free and easy to use. Designing your blog isn't that hard as they have buttons for everything and even doing html is not that tough. Blogger makes it very easy to add links or images to your posts. What I like about it the best is that it is easy to setup and start posting. It is a bit more difficult to get a lot of SEO traffic from blogger as compared to say Wordpress but you can still get a big following if your content is fascinating. You can also customize your blogger blog with different themes although they are not nearly as advanced as Wordpress. One major drawback to blogging on blogger is that you do not have your own domain. Having your own domain is much better for friendlier rankings in search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing. If you are just starting out in blogging I recommend blogger till you get your feet wet or have money to invest.

Wordpress- Wordpress is the blogging platform of choice for most professionals who want to make money with their blog. Wordpress blogs can be hosted on your own domain if you pay for it or there is a free version. I think if you have your own domain paying for Wordpress is the way to go. Wordpress has many great themes that you can use such as the themes available at Theme Forrest. Another huge advantage of wordpress is all the plugins available to make your blog hum. There are many SEO plug ins that will get your blog more easily found by the search engines. There are plug ins that integrate with twitter and facebook to automatically post to each respective site. The list of plug ins go on and on. Some negatives of wordpress is that it is a bit harder to operate and setup. You might have to do some research or find a wordpress designer or specialist to help customize your blog as best they can. The other negative is if you use Wordpress on your own domain you will have to pay. If you have the funds though I highly recommend paying for Wordpress on your own domain.

Posterous- Posterous is another great free blogging platform. It's really easy to setup and maintain. Posterous makes it easy to add video, pictures, links and more. It is pretty similar to blogger in terms of positives and negatives.

Twitter- Twitter is a great micro blogging platform. I love it the most for networking as you can get to know new people by chatting with them in 140 characters or less. Using twitter you can find and comment on blogger blogs, wordpress blogs, and any kind of blog really. Using a simple twitter search should do the trick. The drawback of twitter though is that you are trying to have paragraph long conversations with someone you should look elsewhere. It really shouldn't be a problem though as most people on twitter are willing to network via email, facebook, or other blogging platforms as long as you are polite and care about what they care about.

Tumblr- Tumblr might be the most underrated and underused of the blogging platforms. It is a micro blogging platform that gives you more room than twitter but is not designed for long posts. Tumblr posts can go viral due to the reblog feature. If you post a cool video or image and others like it they are likely to reblog the video or image on their blog. Unlike twitter which has a follower limit Tumblr allows you to follow as many people as you want. You can also like someones post just by hitting the heart button. If you follow those on tumblr who are funny and interesting tumblr can be very entertaining. If you don't like internet memes don't go on tumblr. Internet memes are born on tumblr and thrive there.

Written by Timothy Fox, Soge Shirts graphic t shirts