Some Answers to Questions About Blogging
In response to the recent posting about my successful upgrade to Wordpress 2.0, a comment was left asking some questions about blogging in general:
How did you set up this page, and what Blog are you using? Are all Blogs the same as far a setting them up?
This is all new to me, I’m an old fart still learning, and I have a lot to learn regarding computers, software, blogs, and etc.
Can you be of help?
Rather than answer it in the comment thread, I thought it might be best to bump it up & make a regular posting out of my response.
First, let’s clarify the terms:
- Blog — (see Wikipedia entry) — Basically, an online journal where, at the author’s discretion, entries can generate discussion threads in the form of comments.
- Blog “Engines” — (see Wikipedia entry) — The software that makes blogging both feasible and easy.
- Blog Provider/Host — (see Wikipedia entry) — A site that takes care of all the “behind the scenes” stuff, so that all the blogger has to do is provide the content.
- Feed Reader/Aggregator — (see good summary from Herr Schreiber) — software or a web service that affords easy reading of many blogs.
Ok, with those definitions out of the way, let’s start to make some generalizations/summary statements:
- The most common way to begin blogging is the easiest — sign up for a free account with a blog host like Wordpress.com, Blogger.com, or LiveJournal.com. This is the easiest way to dip your toes into the blogosphere since there is no cost involved, and you don’t need to worry about having your own domain. All you do is sign up, choose from one of the premade template/designs, and start blogging. Eventually, however, you might start to feel restricted by the limitations imposed by these all-inclusive services. If/when that becomes the case, then you’ll want to start thinking about…
- Running your own blog engine/software. This is also a common way of making your blog available to the world, albeit one that requires a bit more involvement, if not always technical acumen, on your part. If you choose to go this route, the first choice is that of which blog engine/software to use (and there are plenty!). The current leader is Wordpress, an Open Source application that is self-described as “a state-of-the-art semantic personal publishing platform with a focus on aesthetics, web standards, and usability.” I must admit that I am biased, in that I’ve been using WP for over a year now, and I think it is truly an amazing piece of software. There are others out there, including some you have to pay for, but if you want to know what they are, you’ll need to find them yourself, as I cannot in clear conscience recommend anything other than WP.
- Once you’ve made the choice of which blog software to use (subliminal: Wordpress :wink:), then you need to decide how to go about hosting your blog — self-hosting or using a commercial hosting service. Either way, you’ll need to have your own domain name (e.g., gpiper.org) which will cost some money in annual domain registration fees (generally less than $10/yr, esp. if you use a domain registrar like GoDaddy.com — and some hosting services, like mine, Dreamhost, will include a free domain name for as long as you use one of their hosting plans…).
- If you choose to host the blog yourself, then that means that you’ll most likely be engaging a whole different subculture — that of the Linux world. It’s a lot of fun, but it’s also a lot of work, and even for a gearhead like me it turned out not to be worth the trouble. Fwiw, when I did run my own host server, I used ClarkConnect Linux, which is, IMO, a great home server/gateway/router distro. In the end, however, I ended my experiment in self-hosting because I didn’t like the responsibility, the worries about downtime, and being at the mercy of Comcast’s broadband/cable service for folks to be able to read my blog. Thus, I decided to move to the next option…
- A commercial hosting service — This option will cost, for a reputable & reliable service host, an average of between $7 - $10 per month (depending on the length of time you’re willing to sign up & pay for up front). There are “free” & “discount” services out there, but IMO the savings you might get up-front are not worth the hassles you get in terms of branding requirements (e.g., you must include links to the host on all your pages), shoddy support & response to problems, and oftentimes severe bandwidth & space restrictions. In the end, I have found it to be worth the cost to get my hosting service from a reputable & responsible outfit like Dreamhost, and I’ve not been disappointed as they’ve been rock-solid & a pleasure to work with.
Well, that’s about it. I know that there’s quite a bit that I didn’t cover here, but at this point I figure that if anyone has any questions, they can leave a comment, and I’ll answer the questions there.
In the end, I think it comes down to this: Blogging is a hobby, albeit one with two complementary foci — (1) content provision & (2) nuts & bolts tinkering. How you want to engage either or both of those foci will determine how you go about “publishing” your blog.
-ghp
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