Posted on March 12th, 2010Welcome to the Blogosphere! In your journey into this world, your first key decision will be which platform you want to use. Get this choice wrong and your blogging life will soon become more hard work than you imagined; get it right and you’ll be flying, focusing on your writing and having fun.
The all important blogging platform is the software that manages your blog. Its control panel is the heart of your site, allowing you to create and edit your posts, manage comments, customize the layout and add widgets and gadgets that augment your blog. Choosing the right platform has serious repercussions on your whole blogging experience, and it is well worth shopping around the different platforms to find the one that works for you.
Some platforms are more user friendly than others, and for the less computer-savvy, you need one that is adaptable enough to allow you to produce professional looking pages easily while still being individual. This is going to take some time, but don’t rush into it; try the different versions before finally settling on the right platform for you.
To help you choose the right platform you need to prioritize your needs and compare and contrast the platform features. For example, is ease of use more important to you than the ability to customize graphics and layouts?
If you are looking for a highly customizable blogging platform, then Movable Type delivers the good; but you need technical knowledge of HTML and Javascript to get the best out of it. If you have experience in web design and are comfortable working with code, then this is ideal for you.
For those who are new to blogging and more comfortable working within templates, then WordPress is a highly automated platform that is extremely user friendly. Even with no previous blogging experience and no web design or HTML skills, you can be up and blogging in minutes.
There is no “best” blogging platform; it is very much an individual choice. While one blogger swear by Movable Type, another may disagree and insist that his platform of choice is superior.
Blogging is a highly individualized activity, and there is no one platform that will meet the needs of every blogger; and because the needs of bloggers are so diverse, there are many platforms out there to choose from. It will always be that the best platform will be the one that meets your needs and level of technical expertise.
To help you choose your platform, browse the many review sites you will find online. But, be wary of their opinions. A blogger’s needs are varied, and the fact is, no one blog platform can meet the needs of every blogger.
So, give weight to those reviews where the writer’s needs are similar to your own, and the features they recommend are those you are looking for yourself.