Any recommendations for blogging software?

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Harvey Raybould on October 29, 2010 at 9:11

Hi Dave,

I hope you are well.

Without hesitation I would recommend WordPress, it is very easy to use, flexible and has lots of great features including image resizing etc.

WordPress is available in two formats, self hosted and hosted by WordPress.

If they are not worried about SEO or the site is not for business use, then I would recommend just setting it up on Wordpress.com. However, if you want greater flexibility, then our Bargain plan comes with a 1 click install for WordPress.

A couple of other recommendations would be blogger.com and blog.com

I hope this helps

Regards

Harvey

Permalink Reply by Dave Cooper on October 30, 2010 at 9:09

Thanks Harvey. I've installed Wordpress for a play and it's certainly impressive. Now (of course!) I'm wondering what else I can use it for!
What's the downside to just using a free blog on Wordpress, does anyone know? There must be limitations (otherwise the entire internet would be on there!), but the WP website seems to be a bit coy on the subject.
Right now I'm exploring Movable Type, but I've got bogged down on the setup, which isn't the cruise that WP was. I'll persevere a little bit, though: it's pretty big, must be lots of functionality in there.
Dave

Permalink Reply by Harvey Raybould on October 31, 2010 at 10:43

Hi Dave,

Fundamentally they are they same pieces of software, however a self hosted WordPress site gives you far more flexibility when it comes to design and plugins.

The great part about WordPress is the multitude of free plugins that are available. Small pieces of software that can make WordPress do anything that you want it to. SEO features, ecommerce store, social media, image manipulation, image galleries, to name but a few.

http://wordpress.org/extend/

The link above will take you to the plugins and themes section.

The hosted by wordpress.com option does not let you add plugins, to my knowledge, and therefore you are a little stuck with expanding the site, however it does allow you to install additional themes.

So for a commercial/business site I would always recommend having wordpress as a self hosted arrangement. For personal use, a free WordPress.com site is more than adequate.

Google loves WordPress, so we use this constantly because for SEO it is fantastic.

I think you can see that I am in love with this piece of software, it does everything and anything you want it to. It can be customised via css and php code, it is free software and once you get the hang of it, it is very easy to use.

Regards

Harvey