Deciding Which Blog Solution to Use
There are many ways to start a blog, and more are made available every day. You must decide between two blogging scenarios:
� A hosted blog solution: You blog, and the publishing interface that creates it resides on the server of a blog company.
� An independent blog solution: You install a blogging package on your own Web server.
A hosted blog solution is one where all the technical headaches are taken care of for you. If you’re a technophobe, or even just very pressed for time, using a hosted blog solution gets you started blogging quickly, and you don’t have to invest much time in set up or learning new skills. The financial investment required to use these services is usually quite reasonable; some are even free.
If you want control over all aspects of your blog, an independent blog solution may be a better choice for you. If you go this route, be prepared to buy, install, and customize blog software on your own server. You’ll have a very powerful, flexible blog solution that you can tweak to your heart’s content, way beyond simply getting the company logo placed at the top of the page and customizing the link color. All that flexibility comes with a price tag, however.
When you sign up with a hosted blog company, such as Blogger or TypePad, you purchase space on their servers and use of a blogging tool to make entries. With most of these solutions, you can make changes to the design and code if you have the skills to do so, but they’re designed to be used by people who are new to blogging.
The best part of a hosted blog the fact that someone else takes care of the technical issues — can also be the worst part. You get the benefit of all the technical development the blog maker put into the product, but you’re also subject to any technical problems the blog may have, such as server downtime. There are nontechnical risks as well, because companies (especially Internet companies) come and go — and your data could be gone with them.
Nonetheless, for many companies, a hosted blog is a great alternative to learning a bunch of new technical skills or hiring a techie to install software on your server.
Though blog software (both hosted and independent) is designed to be easy to use, hosted blog software is simply more accessible to users with little to no technical experience. Using a hosted blog means you have access to some tools other people built and a customer support e-mail address or phone number for when you get stuck. Consider the following points:
Your previous Web experience means you might be able to puzzle through installing independent blog software yourself, and you may even be excited about learning some new skills. But setting up an independent blog can take time.