Blogs are everywhere
It seems that in today’s world; every topic, subject and anything of interest has some sort of blog. From complaining about your favorite football team, to finding a solution to a computer problem; blogs are all over. They can be very helpful and you may want to start one yourself, but you may not know where to go. If you look around on the Internet, you should find that they are fairly easy to setup and there are many places that can provide whatever you need. All you need to decide is if you want to setup and host it yourself; or if you want to choose between the many free services. In this “blog” I will discuss they ways that you can do just that.
What is a blog and are there different types?
First off, what exactly is a blog? From one of my favorite websites, Wikipedia, they say, “a website where entries are written in chronological order and commonly displayed in reverse chronological order.” So, it is just a place to write a post and let others see your comments. They are setup where the newest entry is listed at the top of the page. It is a fairly easy topic to understand, you can read about it more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog.
There are also a couple of kinds of blogs. There are some that are just the blog; you type in the address and it goes to the blog like a regular website. Another way is to combine the website with a blog. If you already have and mange your own site, you can easily incorporate a blog. Such software as: b2evolution (http://b2evolution.net/), lets you do this. This is an open source piece of software that you can install to your site and now you have both.
Free Solutions
Now, you must decide where you want your blog to be hosted. The easiest, and cheapest, way is to go to one of the many free blog hosting sites. Here is a short list of some of the common ones:
These are very easy and anyone can setup one of these. First, pick the one that you like the best and simply follow the instructions (it is that easy). They start off by asking you to create an account, once that is done it is time to name your blog and choose what kind of template you want. After that, you are set to go and your new blog site is setup like a pro. By using one of these free services, the blog is hosted on one of their servers and you can administer that by the login they give you. This is best for beginners and there is not much to worry about. If you like something a bit more complex and would not mind paying for this service; going to a hosting company and setting up your own could be right for you. I will explain this in the next section.
Pay Solutions
So, if you have decided that the free services are not enough; paying for your blog may be the best fit. The software that you need to install for your blog is free, but having it hosted will cost some money. The downside is cost, but you have the benefit of having complete control of the blog. Not only can you use an administer interface, you will actually have access to the root folder of the site. A popular one is called Wordpress (http://wordpress.com/). This is an easy download that you can have your hosting company install for you. It does require a MySQL database and this may result in higher prices.
Once the install is complete you can configure the blog to your liking. There are different skins to look at and the site is very configurable. There is also an admin section where you can install plugins, such as; password protection and spam prevention. Since there are many people working on this product, it is constantly improving. I do recommend this product and if you are up for the work, it is well worth it (selfless plug: check out our AWH Blog hosting).
All in all, blogs are fun and are now easy to setup. From the many free solutions, to hosting it at a company of your choice; the options are limitless. You have many options on how you want your site to look, as well as who you want to view it. Look around and see for yourself, I’m sure you will find something you like.
Additional Resources
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog
Filed under: Technical Articles on October 2nd, 2007 |