Whether you’re looking to publish your philosophical musings or just want a place to post cute pictures you find on the Internet, blogs are a great way to record your thoughts. But which host is the right one for you? Tumblr, WordPress, Blogger… it’s enough to make your head spin.
To help you decide, here’s our cheat sheet:
WordPress(http://wordpress.com) is probably the best choice if you’re looking to publish lots of text-heavy posts.
Features include its easy-to-work with posting layout – you just title, type, and publish – and its partnership with Askimet that keeps spam out of your comments. WordPress automatically saves drafts of your work as you type, and supports integration with Twitter, Flickr and Meebo.
That said, the user interface is a bit complicated to get around. You have lots of options (looking at statistics, showing references, etc.) and the sheer amount of information available makes it hard to find what you’re looking for. Another drawback of WordPress is their layout options. As a free regular user, you have access to 108 themes. Although that may seem like a lot, the designs are all very similar – minimal decoration with maximum space for your posts. Other than sidebars, widgets and upload-it-yourself headers, you’re restricted in customizing your blog’s appearance.
If your priority is how the blog looks, Blogger (http://blogger.com) is the site to use. (Side note: when you make your blog, your URL will be chosenaddress.blogspot.com.)
Not only can you use one of their predesigned layouts, but you can create your own using HTML coding. If you’re not tech-savvy, you can find a design you like on a non-affiliated site like http://btemplates.com/ and copy/paste the coding into Blogger’s “Edit HTML” feature. Blogger shows statistics in a simpler format, and can even show you on a map what country your viewers are from.
Cons of Blogger mainly resolve around its clunky interface. The website is not super sophisticated nor is it technologically advanced. Our biggest complaint is that the composition page does not lend itself to long posts. Although you can expand the text box, the formatting border will stay in place. Not to mention, all of the features on the composition page are just small. It may be easy to add pictures to your post, but is it worth the squinting?
Unlike WordPress and Blogger, Tumblr (http://tumblr.com) is all about images.
The most unique thing about Tumblr is its follow feature. On your dashboard, aka homepage, the site displays posts from your followed bloggers in a neat format that enables endless scrolling. Tumblr also offers premade blog layouts, but there are a lot more and varied.
Other cool features include the ability for you to call in and record an audio post, their Facebook application and the directory, which displays popular blogs in categories. Tumblr is essentially effortless to use – following someone just takes a click.
The biggest downside: almost everything you see on Tumblr is a repost (called a “reblog”), so there’s not much original content. This also means that it’s probable you’ll see the same post multiple times. Tumblr provides a community blogging experience and isn’t very private. Additionally, since Tumblr is basically made for images, many of the blog templates don’t display text well. A final caution: Tumblr is notorious for ‘going down’ multiple times per week, which can get very frustrating.
May you choose the blog host that suits your fancy that is truly right for you.
HC love, bloggers!