Posted on February 19th, 2010In order to chose what blogging platform to use you need to have a good idea of exactly what you want to accomplish, and will need to find a platform that can do that for you. You should also take into consideration your own personal skills when it comes to writing code and editing things like templates, should you be looking to create a more personalized blog or one that contains a higher level of sophistication.
The great thing about blogging is that absolutely anyone can do it. You can get a blog post published in less than ten minutes even if you have had absolutely no experience at web design and haven’t the slightest clue about HTML. A lot of blogs let you choose things like background color, title font and layout with one click of the mouse, so that you’re left to doing nothing but clicking. It’s as easy as that. For an absolute beginner in the world of the web, platforms that offer this kind of simplicity can be a godsend. They also allow you to pick up more knowledge along the way and eventually you may find yourself writing a few lines of simple code and doing things, known as hacks, to really customize them making your blog that extra bit special.
If you are an absolute beginner, it is a good idea to check the reviews of the blogging platforms available and also have a look to see what sort of problems people are facing in the help forum. Don’t be put off if you see too much technical jargon, but look out for people that are having difficulty doing really simple things like changing the background color, as this may be a hint that the blog is not so straight forward as it could be. Two great blogging platforms that beginners often start out with are Blogger and WordPress. However, even these differ quite a bit and you might find one to be more suitable than the other.
The best way to see whether a blogging platform is right for you is to try it. Just create a blog and see if you can do simple things easily, and that the platform is user friendly. Doing a quick comparison to another platform by starting another blog – (just a brief one-liner post might do it) may instantly tell you which is better for you.
If you are approaching blogs with more knowledge about writing code and producing web pages then you may feel a little restricted by some of the easier blogging platforms. This will really depend on what you are using it for though. Sometimes the simplicity can be a relief and if you’re just after a straight forward journal or somewhere to stick some pictures on, then it makes sense to use this type.
The level of customization and the restriction to the code you can add differ on various platforms, so it’s worthwhile doing a little bit of research and testing a few out before you jump straight in with one. You wouldn’t want to get frustrated later on because it won’t do what you want it to do.