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Blogging: Choosing The Right Platform

Guest post by: Jamaal Abdul-Ali

Article Overview: We discuss what a blogging platform is, the many options available, the pros and cons of the industry leaders.

Blogging: Choosing The Right Platform

When we speak of blogging platforms we are referring to the device you use to design everything from the look, feel, color schemes, font sizes and graphics. This is where you get creative and personally brand yourself and set yourself apart from the rest of the Blogosphere . Branding is a very important part of your online success. To get a accurate picture of the major players in this arena let's take a look at the blog platforms of choice among the top 100 blogs as listed by Technorati, (a blog search engine). Surprisingly, there were only 12 platforms making up the 100, which speaks volumes to the awesome effectiveness of those chosen. For this article, we will focus on the best of the best which brings us to only four that garnered double digits usage ou tof the 100 spots. They are as follows, Word Press with 27, TypePad with 16, Blogsmith with 14 and Moveable Type with 12. As you can see, these four superstars took 69 of the top 100 spots. Word Press is the clear leader among the leaders. Very impressive. When choosing your platform you'll also need to decide on hosted versus non-hosted features. Hosted simply means the blog is housed on that platforms server, whereas, non-hosted means your blog would be housed on your own sever which is usually a third party vendor you pay a small monthly fee to host, the latter choice gives you more control and ownership, so, if you're blogging for profit there's only one way to go. Of course, there are pros and cons to both of these methods and they differ slightly depending on the platform you choose . But generally speaking the pros of the hosted platforms are, for starters, they are extremely easy to set a up and interface with. Almost all come with very efficient how to tutorials and, again, generally speaking, "are free". A few of the cons to be noted are they don't appear to be as professional, there is not as much room for personalization, branding, search engine optimization suffers and you could very well lose all your content because it's not on your own server. The pros of using a non-hosted platform are many, but in my humble opinion, the main one is that unlike the hosted version you own and control the content you produce and in general have more control of your entire blogging experience, and believe me, control is good. Personalization and branding capabilities are only limited by your imagination and non-hosted versions can be fully optimized for the search engines. This may sound a little bias, but, in my humble opinion, unless you are a seasoned techie you'll be hard pressed to find any cons, for the average user there is no need for concern. So, as far as platforms go, Word Press seems to be the clear cut overall leader and for several reasons but mainly because of it's all around excellence, as in ease of use, making changes, upgrading and the ever growing extensive variety of plug-ins to make your blog more efficient, the seemingly endless selection of themes in which to personalize your blog. Word Press also gives you an option of the hosted or non-hosted versions. Word Press. com is the hosted version and Word Press. org is the non-hosted version. This is the third in the series of five on the marketing magic of blogging.

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Article Tags: blogging, blogging platforms, industry leaders, pros and cons, wordpress
Referred by: http://jaykubassek.com



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Blogging for Entrepreneurs - If you run a small company, you may find that the world of blogging for Entrepreneurs is a world that you want to be a part of. Blogging is a great way to get the word out to consumers about your product or service, and it can even be useful for inspiring employee loyalty and helping you keep your workers at peak morale. If you are looking for a way to take your business to the next level, consider what starting a blog might be able to do for you. Blogging for entrepreneurs has a lot in common with all other types of blogging, but it has its own unique pitfalls and strengths. The key to having a successful blog as a business owner is keeping your goals clear and concrete at every step of your blogging adventure. It can be all to easy to get sidetracked, especially if you are just learning about the exciting possibilities of blogging technology, but if you want your blog to succeed you need to stay focused. Write up a plan for how often you will update, how you will promote your blog and retain readers, whether you will feature photographs or video, and other aspects of your blog, and then stick to it with the same kind of determination that you used when you built your company.
Re: Best Internet Marketing Strategy - Hi David, I agree about the Blogosphere. You have a smaller group that Blog, but do so on the premise that they think they should, but have never really considered the purpose of their Blog. Then I think there are a few SEO or Internet Marketing types that see Blogging as just another link building strategy. But the largest group of Bloggers, tend to be people who enjoy writing and discussing their topics of interest. Blogging is good for link building, but the true Blogger is a breed apart from the rest. They want to dialog, to debate, to have feedback and they are very willing to link to other worthwhile conversations that are relevant to their topic. I agree with you. These group of Bloggers obviously are passionate about their writing and together, they create huge conversation trails interactive and travel from Blog to Blog. But the evidence is clear with this group that loves what they write about. With comments enabled on a Blog and having a Blog tuned to a specific purpose you already have the evidence of original Social Media.
Use of Blogging For Promotion - Blogging might not be the easiest promotion and advertising method however it certainly is one of the cheapest methods. All you need is a hosting package and a domain. Actually you could do it through Blogger and it would be free of charge.
Site promotion and Blogging - Blogging might not be the easiest promotion and advertising method however it certainly is one of the cheapest methods. All you need is a hosting package and a domain. Actually you could do it through Blogger and it would be free of charge


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