Chapter 3

Choosing and Hosting Blog Software

In This Chapter

Choosing a domain name for your blog

Identifying a good web host

Deciding between hosted and nonhosted software

Getting your blog software in place

If you're serious about turning your blog into a visual masterpiece, you're likely to choose a blog software package that you install on your own web server. Hosted solutions are great, but you run up against the limits of customization quite quickly.

In this chapter, you can find information about choosing the right software for your situation. If you pick blog software that you need to install, you also need to purchase a domain name and web hosting platform where you will install your software.

Prepare yourself for strange new technology jargon while you explore what makes blogging exciting, frustrating, confusing, and rewarding — blogging software.

Having Your Own Domain Name

Clearly you are reading this book because you want to start a blog. But before you get too much further, you need to deal with the single most important decision of your blogging career: the name of your blog!

Your blog's name should tie closely into the domain name, or web address, that your visitors use to access your blog. If possible, your blog's name and URL, or domain name, should match exactly so that it's easy for readers to find you. For example, my personal blog is called Resourceful Mommy and the domain name I purchased is www.ResourcefulMommy.com.

After you have purchased a domain name from a URL registration service, you will likely choose to also pay for web hosting so that your blog software has a place to live on the Internet. Another option is to redirect your domain name to a free blogging service. This option is covered in depth in Chapter 4. In the following sections of this chapter, I walk you through the basic details of a purchased domain name and web hosting service.

As mentioned previously, a domain is the address (or main URL) that people type in their web browsers to get to your website. Think of a blog's domain as functioning much the same as an address of a house. Each house on a street has an individual address. When someone searches for your home address on Google, he or she finds a specific number and street name that defines your home's location. If you search for a website by using a search engine, the website address you find is the domain name or URL.

Picking a domain name

You can use any available, or not currently used, word or phrase as your domain name. You can make your domain name a company name, a nickname, or your favorite food group. For years, professional web designers and developers have been saying that all the good domains are gone, which is far from the truth. After all, new websites and blogs are launched all the time, and many of them have great, memorable domains!

 Even if a domain name is available, that doesn't necessarily mean that it is safe to choose that name for your blog and purchase that domain. You should also check to see whether that blog name has already been registered as a trademark so that you can avoid accidentally infringing on someone else's mark. You can search registered trademarks for free at www.uspto.gov.

For an example of a great domain name, check out Melanie Nelson's blog Blogging Basics 101 (www.bloggingbasics101.com), which provides new and seasoned bloggers with a plethora of blogging resources (see Figure 3-1).

Think up a phrase or sentence that says something about you and your blog as a starting place. Write your topic keywords on sticky notes and then move them around. That trick may lead to something great.

What exactly does a domain do for you? It has several plusses:

• Your readers can easily remember your site.
• Having a domain of your own looks professional; it's a nice marketing benefit at a small cost.
• You can change web hosts or hosted blog solutions with impunity because your address is actually a separate service. If — or when — you move your blog, your web host can help you use the same domain to get to your new server on the web.

Your domain should represent your blog's name and purpose, although at the end of the day, there are no hard and fast rules. Here are a few quick guidelines that you might want to follow. Try to choose a domain that

• Matches your blog name
• Is based on your topic keywords
• Is a play on words or slang based around your topic
• Is humorous or otherwise memorable

 If you're having trouble coming up with a name idea, consider using your name. In fact, even if you ultimately want to use another domain for your blog address, owning the domain for your own name is a good idea. You can use several domain names to reach the same website or blog, too, so using your own name as a domain might help people find you in search engines.

 Many online tools can help you choose a domain name if you're having trouble. Domain-name-choosing websites help by suggesting word combinations and coming up with randomly generated choices. One good site to use for this purpose is Bust a Name (www.bustaname.com), which is shown in Figure 3-2.

 Even if you end up using a hosted blog solution and therefore don't need to get web hosting, you can buy a domain and forward the address to your blog. This is handy to do because it makes your blog's address easier to remember. After you register your domain, check the Help text of the registrar to find out how to forward the domain to your blog's web address (URL). Instructions vary by registrar.

Registering a domain

Registering a domain is a straightforward process. First, use a domain registrar to buy your name. After you own the name, you just need to point your new domain at your web host. This process basically involves telling your domain registrar which web server your website is on; your web hosting company or domain registrar gives you the information and tools to make it all work.

You can use many domain registration services. The choice really comes down to the domain management interface — the tools that you get to manage your domain. Some management screens are incredibly difficult to work with. Finding a host that has a clean and easy-to-use interface makes a world of difference when you're updating or making changes to your web domain. Be sure to shop around, as well. The annual fee for domain registration varies widely, and for the most part, the price differences don't equal a difference in what you get.

 Domain registration services often offer coupon codes. Be sure to use your favorite search engine to locate applicable codes before purchasing your desired domain names.

You can choose to register for your domain for a single year or for multiple years at a time. Typically, registering for multiple years earns you a small discount. If you choose to register for only a year, you need to renew the domain in a year (assuming that you want to keep your website going). Registration services also allow you to choose an auto-renew option. Many domain registration companies also offer web-hosting and e-mail packages.

 Make sure that you keep your domain registration up to date. If you have any changes to your domain or contact information, including your e-mail address, update your domain information immediately. If your information isn't current, you can lose access to your domain or miss e-mail reminders to renew your domain. Print a copy of the login information and store it safely.

Visit any of the domain registrars in the following sections to check whether your domain is available, and then register it.

GoDaddy

www.godaddy.com

GoDaddy is a popular web host and domain registrar that provides a long list of web services, including domain hosting, web hosting, and e-mail address hosting. It has a good reputation and is easy to contact if you require assistance. Domain prices vary, but typically start at $12.99 for a year's registration.

To register a domain with GoDaddy, follow these steps:

1. Point your web browser to www.godaddy.com.
2. Type the domain you're interested in into the Start Your Domain Name Search text box.
3. Click the Go button.

   GoDaddy returns a page indicating whether your domain is available.

4. If your domain is available and you want to complete your purchase, click the Add button to add it to your shopping cart.

   If your domain is unavailable, use the Search for Another Domain text box to try a new name.

5. Continue shopping for other domains on GoDaddy or follow the instructions for completing the credit card purchase of the domain you select.

Network Solutions

www.networksolutions.com

Network Solutions is one of the granddaddies of all registrars. At one time, it was one of the few places you could register a domain. Services are varied and flexible, with a variety of available options. Domains are available for as little as $2.99 for one year of registration, making Network Solutions an affordable option.

Namecheap

www.namecheap.com

This domain registrar offers domains starting at the very low price of $3.98 per year and provides customers with a variety of payment options, including PayPal. Namecheap has grown in popularity recently owing to low pricing and good customer service.

Hover

www.hover.com

Hover promises to simplify the domain registration process for users and is known for its highly accessible customer service team. Domains start at $15 per year.

 Be prepared for a laundry list of add-on offers when purchasing a domain name. I typically decline all offers and proceed to check out, but be prepared to make a decision about the following offers:

• Additional, related domains: If purchasing a .com, for example, you will be asked to also purchase that domain name with additional suffixes such as .co, .net, and .org. Buy these additional domains only if you believe it is necessary to protect the blog name you've created.
• Private domain registration: If you're planning to blog anonymously, you need to purchase this additional service so that readers can't see the name and address of the person who purchased your blog's URL.
• Certified domain seal: Some website owners choose to pay for this seal with the intent of turning their site into an e-commerce site. This add-on is not necessary for a blog.
• Web hosting: Select your preferred web host prior to purchasing your URL. If you choose to host with your registrar service, you may be able to save money by purchasing both services at the same time.
• Upgraded e-mail: You will receive access to domain-related e-mail addresses when you register your domain, so unless you need an upgraded service for business reasons, you likely want to decline this offer.

Finding Web Hosting

With a domain in hand, you can turn your attention to web hosting.

If the domain is your address, web hosting is your actual house on the web. Your web host provides an online location for your blog's software, graphics, and other files. This location is known as your blog's web server. When people type your URL into their web brower, the web server provides them with access to your blog.

Doing your research

Your primary concern when selecting a web host for your self-hosted blog is to find a web host that meets all the requirements of your blog software. Most blog software uses a LAMP (Linux/Apache/MySQL/PHP) web server, a mix of several kinds of web server technology that is ideal for running dynamic websites such as blogs:

• Linux: A very common web server operating system. It's very stable and considered a standard for web servers. As a blogger, you probably don't need to make too many changes to the operating system, as long as it's in place for you.
• Apache: Apache is web-page-serving software, which means it looks at what web page is requested and then feeds the browser the appropriate file. It does most of the hard work of serving web pages to visitors coming to your website.
• MySQL: MySQL is the most popular database software for blogs. For any blogging package, you need some kind of database system to store all your blog posts and run the other functionality of the blog software. MySQL is the standard database tool for most blog software.
• PHP: PHP is the programming language that a lot of blogging and content management systems use. It sits between the blogging software and the database, making sure all the parts work together.

The preceding four technologies are considered the bare minimum that most blogging packages need to function. But you should consider these requirements, as well:

• Disk space: For blogging, disk space is important if you decide to store a lot of images on your blog or upload audio and video files. Uploading images is relatively easy to do, but you need the space to store those images. For the average blog that has a few photos, you most likely want about 500 megabytes (MB). Blogs that have a lot of photos require several gigabytes (GB) of disk space. Video blogs need a whole lot more disk space (unless you use an online video-sharing service) than text or photo blogs, so you want more than 10GB. Those files do take up a lot of space!

   Running out of disk space is an easily solved problem: Most web hosts allow you to add disk space when you need it for an additional cost. Check with your web host to find out what it charges for additional storage.

• E-mail management: You probably want an e-mail address with your new domain. If you want to use your blog for business purposes, having an e-mail address that matches your domain looks more professional. Some web hosts allow you to create multiple e-mail addresses under one domain, which is ideal if you would like to segregate contact inquiries from personal e-mails, for example.
• Backups: Consider how you plan to back up your data (including your database content) and whether the web host will also back up the files on your web-hosting account. Knowing this information can save you from disaster and data loss in the future. Daily backups aren't a bad idea!
• Bandwidth and CPU resources: Computers and networks can take only so many visitors and downloads, and hosts usually set a quota on how much bandwidth you can use for the particular web-hosting package that you buy. Ask about what happens if you exceed your monthly allowance of bandwidth. (Usually, you have to pay for the extra resources.) For most bloggers, this won't be an issue, but if you develop a very popular blog with lots of visitors, or are serving very large files like videos, bandwidth can become an additional cost.

Buying web hosting

After you purchase your domain, you should be able to pick a web host just as easily. But the reality is that web host offerings are all over the map, so you need to do your research, ask for recommendations from friends and colleagues who have websites, and compare the details of what different hosts offer. Remember to also look into the web hosting provided by your domain registration site. This may save you money and will also streamline the management of your blog.

 When comparing web hosts, always confirm the numbers provided in sales materials. Here are the top questions to ask a prospective web host about its web-hosting packages:

• What's your reliability and uptime guarantee? Most web hosts will tell you the amount of time in a given month that they guarantee your website to be available given normal traffic loads. None of them, however, can absolutely guarantee 100 percent uptime.
• What's your data transfer limit, and how much do you charge for additional bandwidth? Bandwidth/data transfer is used as visitors visit your website and download pages from your site to view them. If you have a lot of files being transferred, or a single file that thousands of visitors download, you may hit your limit and need to buy more.
• How much disk space does the package include, and what do you charge for additional space?
• What kind of technical support do you offer? What are your telephone hours? How do you handle e-mail support?

When you find a web host that interests you, check out the packages offered. Many web hosts provide a handy comparison chart that you can use to quickly compare pricing and features, as Nexcess.net (www.nexcess.net) does in Figure 3-3.

The following sections help you get started with your web-hosting search by discussing three top web-hosting services.

GoDaddy

www.godaddy.com

GoDaddy is a popular web host — and domain registrar — that provides a long list of web services. Its smallest web-hosting packages start at around $3.99 a month as of this writing, but this price changes periodically.

For a new blogger just starting out, I recommend the Economy Plan. It includes 100GB of disk space and unlimited bandwidth, in addition to daily backups and 24-hour phone and e-mail technical support. You can receive discounts if you sign up for a year or more at a time. If you anticipate creating more than one site, consider selecting the Deluxe plan, which allows you to host unlimited sites for just a couple dollars more each month.

Doteasy

www.doteasy.com

Doteasy offers a wide range of web-hosting solutions for bloggers, including hosting. Doteasy offers 24-hour e-mail technical support. Blog-friendly web-hosting options start at $1.95 a month — the cost of the Basic Hosting package, which includes 100MB of disk space and 1GB of bandwidth per month. Upgrade to the Unlimited plan for $3.95 a month and get unlimited disk space and bandwidth.

Hostgator

www.hostgator.com

Hostgator is one of the most popular web hosts used by bloggers. Even its smallest plan includes unlimited disk space and bandwidth and begins at $3.96 per month. Hostgator also offers an included web builder, making it easier for new bloggers to get started quickly.

Bluehost

www.bluehost.com

Another web host that is popular with the blogging community, Bluehost plans also offer unlimited resources and site builder software, and they start at just $3.95 a month. Technical support is available via both phone and live chat, and dedicated server upgrades are available should your blog traffic grow to need this feature.

 Want even more info about web hosting? Check out Peter Pollock's Web Hosting For Dummies (John Wiley & Sons, Inc.)!

Deciding on the Right Blogging Software

After you've made the decision to host your blog on a self-hosted web platform (alternatives are discussed in Chapter 4), you need to choose the blog software that you'd like to use. Choose wisely, grasshopper, and watch your blog software grow while you add more bells and whistles. Pick poorly, and be faced with the ultimate chore: migrating your blog from one blog software package to a better one. You can do this transfer, but you can't do it easily. Spend the time to find out about the available blogging tools and the functionality they provide now so that you can save yourself a lot of headaches later.

First, you need to recognize that all blogging platforms aren't created equal. Of course, blogging software packages, whether they're managed by you or by paid web-hosting technical staff, all share the same or similar functionality that you need for a typical blog. But each software package was designed with very different goals in mind.

Unlike software that you install on a desktop or laptop computer, blogging software requires a server environment to function. This server is provided by the web host you selected earlier in the chapter.

Bloggers can use either of two kinds of blogging platforms:

• Hosted blogs: Hosted blog services provide a unique situation in which you don't need to worry about the software technology at all. You can concentrate on worrying about what your next blog post will be about, rather than how to configure a web server. To use hosted blogging software, you log into the editing tool, write a post, click the Publish button, and log out.

  You don't need to think about how the software is managed, just as long as it's there the next time you want to post something. Many bloggers consider this setup the deal of the century. One popular hosted solution is Blogger (www.blogger.com), which I discuss in detail in Chapter 4.

  Extra bonus: If you choose hosted software, you don't have to worry about web hosting — the software company is providing that service for you! See the section “Understanding Hosted Blog Software,” later in this chapter, for a more in-depth discussion of this option.

  But beware! The content on hosted blogs is technically owned by the hosting site and not by the blog author . . . you. If content ownership is more important to you than ease of use, hosted blogs are not the right option for you.

   Social networks allow you to connect with current friends and make new ones while sharing photos, videos, and text. They've exploded in popularity in the last few years, and many of them have added a blogging tool. I cover how blogging fits into social networking in Chapter 18.

• Non-hosted blogs: You might want to run your own blogging system right from the beginning. This type of setup is known as non-hosted or installable blogging software. By installing blog software on your own web server, you take on all responsibilities related to maintaining the blogging software and the data created when you blog. Strictly from a technical point of view, this type of setup for a new blog might be a little on the difficult side and cause more stress — especially for the nontechnical folks who are figuring things out while they go — but you ultimately get more flexibility when you use a non-hosted setup. For example, Serious Eats (www.seriouseats.com), a blog that covers food news from all over the blogosphere, uses Movable Type, a blogging solution that you install on your own server.

  Although hosting your blog through your own web host is a bit more difficult than creating a blog on a hosted platform, available blog software (that is often free!) can make the process nearly as easy to manage. If you love a challenge or want all the bells and whistles, consider hosting your blog yourself. Later in this chapter, the section “Understanding Blog Software That You Install on Your Own Server” explains the details of how non-hosted blog software works.

Budgeting for software

Many of the hosted services available to bloggers offer a basic blogging package at no cost. A great number of the non-hosted blogging software packages are also free, but the web server that you need to install them on most definitely isn't. How much money you can commit to your new blog can help you figure out what platform you should acquire.

 Consider how much financial commitment you want to dedicate to your new blogging life. Costs can be associated with

• Blogging software: Some packages are free; others aren't. In some cases, the blogging software might be free for personal use but can cost money if you use it for commercial purposes.
• Upgrades: When you choose a software package that has a price tag, be sure to note the costs for upgrading that software down the line. Blog software is in flux, and you'll need updates!
• A domain name: Regardless of whether you choose a hosted or non-hosted solution, you can buy a domain name (also called a web address) and point it at your blog.
• Web hosting: If you choose a blogging software package that needs to be installed on a web server, you need to find web hosting.
• Support costs: If you have questions about your blog software or web hosting, getting answers might cost you. Find out what the support policies are for both software and hosting before you buy.
• Web designers: If you choose to hire a web designer or developer to produce a design, install the software, and get your blog started, you have to pay those folks.
• Special bells and whistles: You might find that you can purchase and use extra add-ons with your blog, from cool functionality to exciting designs.

 It is possible to start a blog completely for free by opting for a hosted blog with a free basic package and choosing not to buy a custom URL.

Making sure you get the basics

Most blogging packages include a variety of options. Some options are designed to trick out your ride, making your blog into a thing of beauty and delight. Some options are really less optional by definition and more a necessity. Good blogging software must have the following five features:

• A usable publishing interface or control panel: Check out how the control panel looks before you commit yourself. A good user interface is important, and if you can't make sense of what you see, chances are good that you won't enjoy using the software.
• Comments: A blog isn't a blog unless your readers can leave comments on your posts. You don't have to use the comments, but blogging software without comments takes away a vital element of blogging — allowing your readers to cultivate discussions.
• Spam deterrents: Spam comments are a part of every blog, but that doesn't mean you have to live with them. Like e-mail spam, comment spam tends to be an automated process that posts on your blog useless information and includes links to all kinds of other sites. Look for blogging software that has functionalities in place to help you moderate and block spam.
• Pinging: A blog software package that uses pinging services is a great idea. Pinging is an automated notification system for search engines and newsreaders, letting those services know that you've updated your blog. Because search engines tend to rank “fresh” content highly, letting them know when you have new content means that your blog may be more likely to appear, and appear higher, in search results.
• RSS feeds: If your blog software doesn't have an RSS feed, move on to different blog software. If you're at all interested in building traffic to your blog, an RSS feed is the single best built-in software feature that you can use to meet that goal. An RSS feed is a computer-readable version of your blog, standardized so that it can appear in newsreaders and on websites and blogs. For more information about RSS, read Chapter 16.

I highly recommend two other features, although not all bloggers use them:

• Categories: Blogs often jump from topic to topic. Categorizing your posts gives your readers a quick and easy way to sort through your content, focusing on what most interests them. The Finer Things in Life (www.amysfinerthings.com) uses categories, called topics here, to sort blog posts; Figure 3-4 shows the categories in the horizontal navigation bar above the blog posts.

  Categories are high-level organizational tools. For example, a food blog might have posts sorted into categories like Vegetarian, Dessert, Main Dish, and so on.

  

• Tags: A tag is a term associated with a blog post. (For example, when I write a blog post about a trip to Disneyland Park in California, I tag that entry “Disneyland.”) Tagging has proven to be one of the best ways to sort through blog data quickly.

  Tags are like keywords that you might use when doing a search on a search engine website, and they tend to be more specific than categories. A blog post on a food blog might use categories as I describe in the preceding bullet, and then tag individual posts with more specific terms, such as chocolate, hazelnut, and brownie. To differentiate between categories and tags, think of categories as describing a group of blog posts, and tags as describing individual posts.

Upgrading with bells and whistles

You can implement a number of cool toys on your blog:

• Trackbacks: Trackbacksare a useful technology that allows bloggers to link to blog posts on related topics. If your blog software is trackback-enabled, you can link to another blog simply by using the URL of the original posting. In this automatic process, your blog software lets another blogger’s software know that your blog has referenced a post so that the software can create a link on the original post.

   Trackbacks can also be a source of spam, and as a result, they're not as important in the blogosphere as they used to be. So although they're nice to have, if the blog software package that you want to use doesn't offer trackbacks, don't automatically eliminate that software from consideration.

• Spam blacklist: Most blogging packages have some kind of blacklist protection against spam comments. These blacklists are often centralized lists of e-mail addresses, URLs, and IP addresses that spammers use, which the blog software prevents from commenting in any blog post on your blog. With an up-to-date blacklist, you can stop a lot of spam before it becomes a comment.
• Spam whitelist: Some blogging software includes the capability to use a whitelist, in which you preselect the users who can comment. Spam-filtering systems and blog user accounts are quickly replacing this type of system, however.
• CAPTCHAs: CAPTCHAs are images that display letters and/or numbers that a person can read but a machine can't. When someone wants to leave a comment on a post, he or she must correctly type these letter/number combinations into a text box, which proves to the blog software that the commenter is indeed a human and not a computer spam system. This process blocks out the comment spam and lets through the valuable feedback. Variations on CAPTCHAs include simple math problems that a user needs to solve in order to post a comment. Clotilde Dusoulier's Chocolate & Zucchini blog (http://chocolateandzucchini.com) uses one form of a CAPTCHA, as shown in Figure 3-5.

  

 You can tie together more and more web services these days, from your photos on Flickr, to your Twitter updates, to your . . . well, you have a lot of possibilities. Some blog software allows you to automate those kinds of connections, so if that interests you, keep an eye out for software with these features. I walk you through some possibilities in Chapter 18.

Understanding Hosted Blog Software

Hosted services take a whole lot of responsibility off the blogger. The blog software company manages the data, software, and web hosting; the blogger manages the content. Some services, such as Blogger, do it all for free, whereas other services, such as TypePad, charge a monthly fee to run your blog. Yet other services, such as WordPress, offer a level of free service with the option to upgrade when your blogging requires a little more power. Hosted blog software allows you to make someone responsible for the entire gauntlet of technical tasks that don't excite you.

 Seasoned blogging veterans may recommend that new bloggers start by using a hosted service that's free. The reason is simple: If you find the idea of having a blog appealing, but you have never tried blogging or played with blogging software, you might not like it all that much in reality. A free blogging service allows you to test drive blogging before making a huge time or monetary commitment. A word of warning: Free blogging platforms come with pitfalls and restrictions such as a ban on paid ads on your site. Be sure to read terms of service documents carefully!

Reaping the benefits

An upfront cost of zero is very attractive to new bloggers. If you want access to blog technology and have a limited budget, free looks just about perfect. Not all hosted software is free, but most of them generally have quite reasonable costs. A hosted blog that charges a monthly fee is still a minimal investment, on par with other inexpensive hobbies.

But free or inexpensive isn't the only upside to hosted blog services. They really take the complication out of starting a blog. For the technophobe, a hosted solution is ideal because you have very few technical issues to worry about. Hosted services take care of

• Web domains
• Software maintenance and updates
• Data storage and backup
• Template design and management

Hosted solutions are also generally quicker to set up than is software you have to install on your own server, so you can start blogging sooner when you choose one of these solutions. Plus, should you choose to migrate your blog to a self-hosted server in the future, free software is available to make this process possible.

Updates on hosted blogs are generally free, and the software is available to the end user 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Sounds like a really good deal, huh?

Living with the limitations

Before you sign yourself up, be sure you understand the tradeoffs that come with using a hosted blog service. Ultimately, you don't control your own blog. If the company goes out of business, takes servers down for maintenance, or decides to change its offerings, you're pretty much stuck with the results.

A free hosted solution, for example, might suddenly decide that it should start charging; one that already charges can always raise its rates.

Most hosted solutions let users make some modifications and tweaks, but you can install only a limited selection of plug-ins and extras. In many cases, the level of customization is quite limited. With hosted blog software, that ubiquitous WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) acronym is a double-edged sword: You can't actually do more with less.

 If you blog on behalf of a company or business, you might want to cross a hosted solution off your list for a couple of reasons:

• You probably need to make your blog part of an existing website, integrated into the look and feel of the company brand. Hosted blogs don't allow this customization or integration.
• With a business blog, you need control of the data. Putting the blog on your own server removes any doubts about security or data ownership.

 When you think about whether to use a hosted solution, be sure you understand the terms of service of that host. Some hosts reserve the right to cancel or remove your blog or blog posts.

Make sure to read all the fine print for the host that you want to use! You don't want to run into legal restrictions that mean you can't actually use your blog the way you want to, and you definitely don't want to suddenly find your blog missing if the hosted software company decides you're in violation of its rules.

Choosing hosted software

In the following sections, you can take a look at some of the most popular hosted platforms to see which might be the best fit for you and your new blog. These blogging software packages have been around for quite a while and are regarded as some of the best that the blogging community has to offer.

Blogger

www.blogger.com

Blogger is the quintessential hosted blogging platform. Started in 1999 at Pyra Labs, Blogger weathered the rough Internet waters at the turn of the century to become the most well-known hosted blogging platform. The Blogger service became incredibly popular, and eventually, Google purchased it. Since then, Blogger has introduced many new features and remained one of the premier blogging platforms. Blogger has many features that allow bloggers to publish multiple blogs:

• All blogs are free and hosted for you, with no hassles and no mess.
• Blogger offers a wide variety of free templates to get you going, which you can customize in a number of ways.
• The publishing tool includes Google AdSense (a blog advertising program) and other neat elements, such as polls and lists, integrated into it, allowing you to add functionality to your blog.
• Because it is owned by Google, Blogger links seamlessly with your other Google accounts, including Gmail and Google+.
• If you don't want Blogger to host your files, you can save all your blogging files to another server.

 I show you how to get Blogger set up in Chapter 4. Because you can use it so easily and set it up quickly (and because it's free), I encourage all new bloggers to use Blogger as a learning tool, even if you plan to use other blog software for your real blog.

WordPress.com

www.wordpress.com

In 2005, the popular WordPress blogging platform launched a hosted service, in addition to software that you can install on your own server. WordPress.com, shown in Figure 3-6, offers a clean, easy-to-use interface, and bloggers tend to see it as more flexible than anything else on the market. Now that WordPress.com has added new functionality and additional themes, you can set it up very quickly.

In short, WordPress.com

• Is free to use (although some premium levels are available with additional functionality)
• Has many options for design templates, letting you choose a look that suits your content
• Includes features such as tags and categories, permitting easy organization of your posts
• Offers spellchecking, rich-text editing, and photo uploading
• Lets you measure your site traffic and statistics to help gauge your popularity
• Provides a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) posting and editing environment, which means you don't need to know HTML
• Includes tools that allow you to insert photos, videos, and audio files into your blog posts
• Integrates an excellent spam-fighting tool, Akismet

  

 On WordPress.org, you can get software to install WordPress on your own website. I talk more about WordPress.org later in this chapter, and in Chapter 5, you can find out more about both versions in detail.

TypePad

www.typepad.com

TypePad was launched in 2003 to great fanfare. It allows you to do more than just blog; it was one of the first blogging platforms to offer the capability to create static content pages. TypePad pricing starts at $8.95 a month and ranges upward, depending on the services that you include. TypePad also offers a 14-day free trial for new users.

TypePad offers

• A WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) posting and editing environment, which means you don't need to know HTML
• Tools that allow you to insert photos into your posts quickly, automatically resizing them and adding thumbnails to blog posts
• Tools that allow you to quickly place videos and podcasts into your blog posts

Tumblr

www.tumblr.com

Tumblr, which was purchased by Yahoo! in 2013, is a fun and really easy-to-use hosted blogging service — and it's free. Tumblr blogs are a little different from other major blogging platforms in that it is really easy to re-post material from another Tumblr blog to your own blog, so sharing is a big part of the Tumblr experience.

Tumblr offers:

• The ability to run several blogs from a single dashboard interface
• The ability to quickly post text, photos, quotes, links, music, and videos from your browser, phone, desktop, or e-mail
• Many different themes that let you customize the way your blog looks so that it's personal to you

 Discover more about using Tumblr in Chapter 6, where I cover everything from signing up to posting content on a Tumblr blog.

 Remember to read the terms of service carefully when selecting a hosted blog platform. You may not actually own the rights to the content you are posting!

Understanding Blog Software That You Install on Your Own Server

If technology freaks you out, you can make life easier by using hosted solutions, but bloggers who require more flexibility than hosted solutions offer may choose non-hosted blogging packages. Configuring software to your own tastes and requirements can really improve the overall quality of your blog, making it more attractive to readers and ultimately more successful.

 Flexibility can make or break your blog. If you have the money and the skills to install your own blog software, doing so can give you better tools and control over your blog, enabling you to do things like customize the design, add third-party widgets for serving ads, or dabble in customizing the publishing interface.

Choosing a non-hosted blog isn't a plug-and-play solution. Unfortunately, choosing to install blog software, rather than to use a hosted service, means that you need a whole bunch of other technical services to make it all work.

Reaping the benefits

If you use non-hosted blog software, you're in full control. You can do just about anything to the software after you install it:

• Personalize the design: For those who have web design skills, stand-alone blogs generally are very adaptable. Some blogs have incredibly diverse and clever designs, many created by the author of the blog to match the style and topic of the blog. Installing the software on your web server gives you access to every part of the blog software's innards, from templates to graphics, so you can make your blog look exactly as you like.
• Customize functionality: A lot of the blogging software available is open source (meaning the code for the software package is available to developers so that they can manipulate it). Programmers can add, remove, update, and improve functionality for each package. Some packages offer many different options, and independent programmers might also offer additional functionality either for free or at a low cost.
• Look smart: The blogging world, like any other world, has social divisions, and at the top of the blogging heap, you find geeks. If you want to play with the cool nerds, you need to install your own blog software. Technical bloggers will recognize your prowess and give you props.

Living with the limitations

The first stumbling block you discover when installing your own blogging software is . . . installing your own blogging software. Somehow, you have to get the software files onto your server, run the scripts, modify the code, and generally muck about in the ugly innards of the software. This process can either be simple or a complete nightmare, depending on your technical savvy and the complexity of the blog software package that you choose.

 You can shortcut this issue by choosing a web-hosting company that offers blogging software. Most blogging software companies provide a list of web hosts who have in-house expertise in handling their software; just browse around on the software company's website to find that list. You can also have the blogging software company install the software for you. For a fairly reasonable fee, you can put that job into the hands of an expert. This solution makes sense for one big reason: You need to install the software only once. If you don't already know how to do it yourself, you don't have to spend hours beating your head against a wall to obtain knowledge you'll probably never need again.

Of course, all software requires some level of maintenance, and most web hosts don't handle software upgrades and tweaks. Be prepared to handle those requirements when they come up by doing them yourself or finding an expert who can handle them for you.

Using non-hosted software has some other downsides as well:

• Design personalization and code customization: Making your blog look pretty sounds great, but you need a cornucopia of associated skills to make that happen — everything from graphic design to HTML coding. If you don't have these skills yourself or access to someone who does, you don't actually have the ability to customize your blog, despite your software. The good news is that online resources are nearly unlimited if you want to learn these skills!
• Domain registration and Web hosting: Unlike the hosted systems, you can't avoid spending money to host your own blog software. Several costs automatically kick in, such as domain name registration and web hosting (explained in the sections “Registering a domain” and “Finding Web Hosting,” earlier in this chapter).
• Technical support: Even if you pay to get the blog software installed for you or sign up with a web host that does it automatically, if the software breaks (and doesn't all software break at some point?), many web hosts can't or won't fix it.
• Backing up: If you install your own software, you're responsible for making sure that the software and data get backed up or for finding a web host that includes backups as part of the hosting package.

Choosing non-hosted blogging software

If you're ready to make the leap into the deep end of the blogging pool, the following sections give you recommendations for a range of well-respected non-hosted blogging tools.

WordPress

www.wordpress.org

Since 2003, WordPress has provided a solid platform for new and experienced bloggers who want the control of installing blog software on their own computers. Many bloggers say that WordPress is the easiest blogging platform (aside from hosted blogging software) to set up and configure. I cover installing and using WordPress in Chapter 5.

 The interface acts exactly the way the hosted WordPress.com system works. That said, if you're considering using WordPress, sign up for a test blog on WordPress.com to get a good preview of how WordPress works.

Here are some of the highlights:

• WordPress is free!
• It offers many, many user-submitted and user-prepared designs, ready for use.
• It includes tags and categories, allowing you to organize your posts easily.
• It has editing tools (such as spell checking), offers common text styles, and gives you easy ways to include photos, videos, and other media.
• It displays statistics about your visitors to help you understand the traffic to your blog.
• It fights spam with a range of anti-spam tools.

Movable Type

www.movabletype.com

Movable Type is the grandfather of all installable blogging platforms. Released in 2001, it quickly became one of the most popular blogging software packages, for geeks and pundits alike. Movable Type was the first blogging software that permitted contributions by multiple authors, and bloggers highly regard it for the many ways that you can leverage it to create easily updateable websites and blogs.

If you're serious about looking at hosting your own installation, Moveable Type is a strong contender. Movable Type offers

• A WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editing environment that saves you time and effort
• Easy tools for categorizing your posts, inserting photos and multimedia, and spell checking
• Automatic generation of RSS feeds to give your blog longevity
• Searchable content, tags, and other cool tools
• A range of licensing options for personal, commercial, and educational use

Pricing varies, but the basic commercial installation is $595, and you may qualify to use the free Blogger license if you are an individual blogger and not setting up a blog for an organization or business.

ExpressionEngine

www.expressionengine.com

Back in 2001, a company called pMachine released a blogging software package called pMachine Pro. pMachine Pro quietly hatched a following based on clean interface, solid performance, and flexibility in both design and layout. From that success, pMachine built the content management system and blogging software ExpressionEngine, an exceptionally powerful platform.

Today, pMachine (now known as EllisLab) supports all kinds of sites by using ExpressionEngine, which it offers in both commercial and personal flavors. As is Movable Type, ExpressionEngine is highly regarded by web developers because it offers great blogging tools, but it's flexible enough to be used to develop all kinds of websites — not just blogs.

ExpressionEngine users have

• The capability to run multiple blogs that have many contributors
• A powerful templating engine
• Additional modules and community plug-ins, including mailing lists, forums, and photo galleries
• Strong comment moderation and prevention tools
• Different levels of user access, allowing administrators to control what blogs and templates users can edit

ExpressionEngine's commercial license runs you $299.95, the nonprofit/personal version is $149.95, and there is a Freelancer license for smaller-presence websites for $99.95.

Installing blog software

After you purchase your domain and web hosting, you can get into the nitty-gritty technical task: installing your blog software. To get started, look for installation instructions on your blog software company's website. Each blogging package has a set of instructions for doing the job yourself and details about hiring company technical support to do the job for you.

 Keep in mind that installing blog software is a one-time task! When you finish, you never need to do it again, and you probably don't need the skills necessary to install the software in order to use your blog.

Unfortunately, the steps that you need to take to install a particular blog application vary dramatically from software to software, so I can't give you detailed step-by-step directions. Each blog software package has its own particular requirements for installation, but the general process follows these steps:

1. Download the latest version of your blogging software.
2. Uncompress the package and upload it to your new web host by using FTP (file transfer protocol).
3. Execute the installation application associated with your software.

To make your installation experience as trouble-free as possible, watch out for the following common problems:

• File location: When you upload your blog package, make sure that you upload it to the correct location. All web hosts tell you where to place your web files and software so that visitors can find your blog. If you put your files in the wrong place, no one can access your blog.
• Database requirements: Sometimes, you need to create a database prior to installing your blog software. Each web host has a different procedure for creating a database, so if your installation instructions mention this requirement, consult the web host documentation or support materials to find out how to set things up properly.

Sound like gibberish? The truth is that almost anyone can use blogging software, but only quite technically advanced computer users can install it themselves. If you're a web designer or developer, you may be able to install the software yourself. If you aren't technical but want to be, this project gives you the chance to really get your hands dirty.

However, if tech stuff makes you cringe, you can investigate having someone else install the software. My main advice is to find a professional, which you can find among the following:

• Web designers: Many people who build websites for a living can help would-be bloggers get blogging software installed and running. Of course, you need to pay these folks for their time, so shop around for several quotes to get the best deal.
• Blogging software companies: The best blogging software companies offer inexpensive solutions to this problem: They install the software for you on your own website. Check with the blogging software company to see whether it offers this service.
• Web-hosting companies: Some web hosts install software for you if you ask (and pay them), and some even offer a one-click installation. These one-click installations can save bloggers from headaches, pain, and midnight crying sessions. You just click a button to install the desired blogging software on your web server. If this option sounds appealing, check with the web host you're eyeing before you sign up to see whether it offers one-click blog software installations.

 Many blogging software companies have figured out that installing blog software creates a real barrier to the nontechnical customer. As a result, you can often go to a blogging software company's website and find a list of web-hosting companies that offer one-click installation for a particular blogging platform.