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How to Pick Blogging Software

How do you go about picking one of the many different blogging software packages currently offered?

I just recently began experimenting with several different blog software packages. I looked at: blogger.com, typepad, B2evolution, Wordpress, and a couple of others. If you just want to have a blog online without having to pay, www.blogger.com is nice. It offers several different options. It also offers the ability to move it to your own server in the future it you decide to. The drawback of doing so though is you may lose a lot of your regular traffic.

I recommend that you purchase your own domain name (only costs about $8.00 or so). Having your own web host and domain name means that you have many more options available to your (and many more features and plugins to choose from!). I don’t get any kickbacks… but I recommend purchasing your domain name through Godaddy. Godaddy offers a good price and the ability to “point” the domain to any web host you choose. In fact, they offer free hosting if you can’t afford a web host (though it comes with an ad at the top of the finished web page… ).

My Two Favorite Stand-alone (Server Installed) Blogger Packages:

After looking at several that were difficult to install or that cost extra money, I found two that I liked a lot: B2evolution and Wordpress.

Both have extra plugins that can be installed to increase the functionality of the software. Wordpress though has a much larger community of users, site template designs, and plugins. The one feature that B2evolution has that Wordpress doesn’t have is the ability to have several blogs on one template (Wordpress now has “Wordpress Mu 1.0″ but each blog is separate and not on the same template).

Wordpress seems to be a little more user friendly on the “backend” where new posts are added. There are also many, many more free templates, and plugins to choose from than with B2evolution. In the end, after playing with both for many hours, I have standardized my sites on Wordpress (now version 2.05). Wordpress offers the ability to make as many extra static “Pages” as you desire. If you look at the top navigation menu for WCZone.com you will see the pages (tabs). You could really design an entire website using Wordpress if you wanted to.

Which Template Should I Use?

Find a good template is easy (well, given enough time… there are more than 600 different designs at the wordpress.org website.. all with demo’s to choose from). I was torn about which to use… but after trying out dozens, settled on one called “K2.” “K2” might look a little plain at first. I like the horizontal page tabs though. It is also very easy to add your own site logo/banner to the top of the page. The thing that really drew me to K2 though was all the extra built in functionality: rolling archives, live search, and a really nice “side column” functionality. You are able to customize allmost all aspects of the template without having to use Dreamweaver or another webdesign package. Desiding on what should appear in the side column is as easy as “drag and drop.” Names, etc. can all be customized in just a few minutes… without having to look at the code! The installation of Wordpress only takes about 5 minutes. I can install and customize (If I already have the logs/banner done) the site in about 25 minutes.

Permalinks: Wordpress does an excellent job of using permanent, search engine friendly links (very easy to customize).

Conclusion:

My first recommendation would be Wordpress. My second recommendation would be B2evolution.

What is your favorite blog software and why?

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