Best Blog site?

[RedRoseSAI]

Originally posted by AlphaGam1019
movable type....but you have to be a bit technically oriented to use it (unless you get someone else to install it).

I'm building a travel journal web site, and I've recently decided it might be cool to add some blog features (mostly the ability for people to comment on individual entries). Can you recommend any resources where I could learn the ins and outs of moveable type?

[Sistermadly]

Originally posted by RedRoseSAI
Can you recommend any resources where I could learn the ins and outs of moveable type?

Teach Yourself Moveable Type in 24 Hours: http://www.samspublishing.com/title/067232590X

[SilverTurtle]

I was/am a LJ user for awhile. I've all but stopped updating that, and moved to blogger. (I will post a link to the new blog every once in awhile to keep my account, because I've got some friends on LJ and I want to be able to post on their journals still, etc.)

The change was spurred by some computer issues, not LJ itself.

I've found blogger to be quicker & easier to update, and more useful. I have a "main" blog - where I'm not identified and can vent, bitch, muse, be creative, etc. I have a personal web page as well, and a separate blog that posts right to the sight with atom capabilities and some iframes. (This is my "mom-safe" & "coworker-safe" blog... and since the site is sort-of professional, that blog stays on topic - music - and pretty boringly professional). Blogger has a partnership with someone that provides free image hosting (I don't use it, so I don't remember who it is...). They have templates, you can modify them if you want, or you can design your own. You can also use FTP to import your blog to a web site.

As for the community aspect - I think this really is a lot of the fun of blogging/LJ'ing/etc. It took me a couple days to figure it out, but with blogger If I click on someones profile, it will pull up a list of interests. If I click on one of those interests - "play-do" - I'll get a whole list of blog users who have play-do as an interest. You can also create team blogs, where multiple users can post to them. If there is one thing I wish blogger had, it's a "friends" feature like LJ.

Overall, I'm really happy with blogger.

[bcdphie]

I started on blogspot.com but moved to msn spaces, which I am currently using.

[valkyrie]

This is kind of related -- I have a blog on Live Journal and I also have my own website. I think there's a way to export (or whatever the term is) my LJ to my site, or, if there isn't, there's a way to put a blog on my site. Does anyone know how to do this?

[Sistermadly]

Originally posted by valkyrie
This is kind of related -- I have a blog on Live Journal and I also have my own website. I think there's a way to export (or whatever the term is) my LJ to my site, or, if there isn't, there's a way to put a blog on my site. Does anyone know how to do this?

Sis,

Wait a while. Now that LJ has been bought by the people who run Moveable Type (blog software) there may be some changes to come that will allow you to export your entries as a text file for importing into MT or some other blog software.

[RUgreek]

Originally posted by RedRoseSAI
I'm building a travel journal web site, and I've recently decided it might be cool to add some blog features (mostly the ability for people to comment on individual entries). Can you recommend any resources where I could learn the ins and outs of moveable type?

I went traveling and had a journal on my website. Originally I put on movable type and it was working fine, but the features were not easy to customize unless I was at my home computer. I then decided to use wordpress, which was better and easier to manage "on the road."

With movable type, you have to rebuild and re-index all your pages when you want to modify something. With wordpress, it was just a click of a button and plus I liked the ability to send posts by email to my journal.

If you want to stick to an online journal not hosted on your own, I think livejournal does the job. For photo albums, gallery was also a very easy and mobile choice.


RUgreek

[PureGoldF2K1]

I'm a MySpace junkie!

I'm either here, on myspace, or on thefacebook when I'm online

[AXiDMeesh]

Hey als, here's another old thread getting bumped LOL

I figured that I'd piggyback off of this thread rather than making a new one.

It is now 6 years later and there are more blog clients and people who actually keep a blog, so I was wondering if anyone would like to share their opinions on their favorite sites.

I've used Blogspot/Blogger for the past 3 months, and I decided to look for something that gave me more flexibility and cuteness. So I started a new blog on Tumblr yesterday, which I think is a little too flashy, but its features are nice and it has a lot of convenience.

So I'm looking for a client that is kind of in between Blogger and Tumblr.

Any thoughts/opinions?

[annabella]

It really depends what you're using it for—if it's just a personal blog, I'd recommend a Tumblr. It's super-easy and customizable.

For my clients, I typically put them on a Wordpress or Blogger (it really depends on their industry). I personally like Wordpress—the plugins seem a little more developed and it's simple to integrate the blog into a website.

[gee_ess]

I have read this thread with interest and was wondering if someone would give me a Blogging101 course overview. (I am 49 years old, so you can see what my problem is!) The concept is really appealing to me, so this is a serious question. Please tell me:

1)Why do people blog? ( I was interested to note that someone recommends it for clients??)

2) Should a person have a special interest before blogging? Is it better to have a mission/purpose to your blog?

3) How do you get people to read your blog (and for that matter, how would I start reading other's blogs?)

Thanks! I think it sounds like something I would like, but it also kind of intimidates me.

[ISUKappa]

Originally Posted by gee_ess

I have read this thread with interest and was wondering if someone would give me a Blogging101 course overview. (I am 49 years old, so you can see what my problem is!) The concept is really appealing to me, so this is a serious question. Please tell me:

1)Why do people blog? ( I was interested to note that someone recommends it for clients??)

2) Should a person have a special interest before blogging? Is it better to have a mission/purpose to your blog?

3) How do you get people to read your blog (and for that matter, how would I start reading other's blogs?)

Thanks! I think it sounds like something I would like, but it also kind of intimidates me.

1) Some people blog because they like to write. Some are "show and tell" blogs (cooking/photography/crafty things). Some are geared towards a certain community (pets/mothers/homeschoolers/sports). Some people blog because they like to think they're more important than they are!

2) You don't have to, there are plenty of blogs out there which are just someone posting about their daily lives. But having a certain angle can definitely help drive site traffic. You have to first figure out what you want your blog to do for you.

3) There are blogging support sites and blogging conferences that are great resources for spreading the word about your blog and finding similar blogs to keep up with.

Some great blogs I read on a daily basis:
www.thepioneerwoman.com
www.bakerella.com (she only posts once a week)
www.pawcurious.com

There are a TON more out there.

[gee_ess]

Okay! I am kind of excited! Keep this info coming!

So, after the thread info - did we decide to LJ or Blogger?

My husband and I always joke about writing a book that is a his/hers version of our lives - Men interpret things differently than women. For example, he says I had an epidureal during L & D; trust me, I DID not. Maybe this is my creative outlet!!

[ISUKappa]

Originally Posted by gee_ess

Okay! I am kind of excited! Keep this info coming!

So, after the thread info - did we decide to LJ or Blogger?

My husband and I always joke about writing a book that is a his/hers version of our lives - Men interpret things differently than men. For example, he says I had an epidureal during L & D; trust me, I DID not. Maybe this is my creative outlet!!

Nowadays I would say most bloggers use Blogger or Word Press. Blogger is more user-friendly for the first time blogger; Word Press is more customizable.

[AXiDMeesh]

Originally Posted by gee_ess

I have read this thread with interest and was wondering if someone would give me a Blogging101 course overview. (I am 49 years old, so you can see what my problem is!) The concept is really appealing to me, so this is a serious question. Please tell me:

1)Why do people blog? ( I was interested to note that someone recommends it for clients??)

2) Should a person have a special interest before blogging? Is it better to have a mission/purpose to your blog?

3) How do you get people to read your blog (and for that matter, how would I start reading other's blogs?)

Thanks! I think it sounds like something I would like, but it also kind of intimidates me.

I just want to add my $0.02

1)Why do people blog? I started blogging because I like to keep logs of things in my life, such as dreams, significant events, etc. I had been doing this for years in notebooks and such, then in January I decided to put it in electronic form. Then it just took off and evolved into my everything space. I vented, posted music, wrote reviews on stuff I recently bought or used, and I realized that it was a good way to review myself, so at the end of every month I go back and read all of the posts, and evaluate myself from there. When my first blog started getting too personal (and I deleted my facebook account) I got a new blog @ Tumblr, which I intend to be less personal but still a way for my peeps to know whats going in my life.

2) Should a person have a special interest before blogging? It all depends on what you want to do. Like I said earlier, mine (and a lot of peoples) blogs are just accounts of their daily lives. If you are trying to generate a lot of traffic and readers for your blog, it might be good for you to have an interest in mind.

Is it better to have a mission/purpose to your blog? It all depends on what you want to do People will read it if your posts are interesting and/or informative.

3) How do you get people to read your blog (and for that matter, how would I start reading other's blogs?
When I first started blogging, I had my Blogger based blog set as public, which means that everyone and their mom could read it at their leisure. When it started getting more personal I changed it to invite only, which means that in order for someone to be able to access my blog I had to email them an invite, then they had to register as either a guest or a user. As far as people knowing about it, I talked about it a lot and I had a link to it on my Facebook profile. Right now on my Tumblr blog I have it set to public, and in order to find my friends' blogs I had Tumblr search my email contacts to find people by their emails. I'm pretty sure all blogging clients have some sort of "follow" feature, so once you start following people they will hopefully follow you back