| The blogging platform wars are getting really | | | | Greymatter, Blogger, and b2. Wordpress recently |
| interesting and much of the discussion I find myself in | | | | upped the ante when Yahoo recently included them |
| lately revolves around what is happening with various | | | | on their hosting packages, in addition to MT. I have |
| CMS systems. The market can essentially be defined | | | | to admit I am finding myself more and more digging |
| into 3 major camps: remotely hosted, self hosted, | | | | WP and will likely convert Profitpapers to WP as I |
| and community based systems. I have used pretty | | | | get time (it can be a biznitch). Wordpress is |
| much every blogging platform available and each of | | | | free.Movable TypeAside from maybe Greymatter |
| them has its ups and downs. In this article I will cover | | | | (the original open source blogging tool), Movabletype |
| the best options for each area taking into account | | | | dominated the blogging market share in 2002-2004. |
| price, usability, market share and of course SEO | | | | Released in late 2001, Perl based Movable Type by |
| potential.All of these products are either open source, | | | | Sixapart has maintained a large portion of the |
| completely free or have a functional free version. | | | | blogging market share, due mainly to the fact that |
| Links were stripped from this article so you may | | | | there is a free version (supporting up to 3 weblogs) |
| want to check out the original best blogging software | | | | and that it is incredibly powerful, intuitive and easy to |
| article at ProfitPapers.Remotely Hosted Blogging | | | | customize. Template driven Movable Type also sports |
| Software | | | | one of the largest communities of developers and |
| (Note: I cannot really recommend any of these from | | | | blogging enthusiasts around, meaning lots of support, |
| an SEO stand point as optimizing a domain you do | | | | idea sharing, and of course plugins. Movable Type can |
| not own or control is obviously not a good marketing | | | | be configured to dynamically generate HTML, PHP or |
| plan.) BloggerBlogger is completely free and currently | | | | any other kind of pages you like, meaning it is |
| owns the majority of the remotely hosted user | | | | incredibly scalable, fast, and loved by spiders. It is |
| base, but not by a land slide . Bought out by Google | | | | perhaps the most well known blogging software for |
| in 1999, Blogger essentially fired up the blogging trend | | | | SEO purposes and it what currently powers |
| we see today. It is by far the easiest overall solution | | | | Profitpapers and several of my other projects. |
| to use and if you are a novice user looking to throw | | | | Moveabletype is either Free with 3 authors, 1 weblog, |
| up some recipes or poetry, this is for you. Blogger is | | | | and no support or $69.95 with unlimited weblogs, |
| completely free and includes some great features like | | | | authors and full support.TextpatternTextpattern is |
| comments, photo blogging, and a basic community | | | | the brainchild of Dean Allen and was written to ease |
| feel with user profiles. Because it is so dumbed down | | | | publishing of content for those not inclined to learn |
| there are some features you may not find with | | | | HTML. Like WP and MT Textpattern runs on PHP and |
| Blogger that are only available through 3rd party | | | | mySQL for easy administration, backups, and power. |
| add-ons. As a side note Blogger weblogs do quite | | | | What really sets textpattern apart from the others is |
| well in the search engines and this was recently | | | | the integration of Textile. Textile is a tool for easily |
| exploited with it being the first choice for spam blogs | | | | formatting content for those who do not know |
| or splogs. A splog is a weblog used for the sole | | | | HTML. WP & MT have modules for textile as well but |
| purpose of gaining inbound links or generating | | | | it is native to the Textpattern system. Another |
| thousands of keyword stuffed pages with Adsense | | | | bonus of the app is its superior handling of comment |
| and the like. The recent Google Jagger update | | | | spam due to its smaller market share. On a blogs I |
| cleared a large portion of this up. | | | | maintain running WP and MT I often find myself |
| Free.TypepadReleased in 2003 Typepad is a product | | | | clearing out spam every day, whereas on some very |
| of Sixapart, the makers of Movable Type. it is largely | | | | busy textpattern sites I receive only manual |
| based on MT but there are some major | | | | comment spam (not bot driven). TP is open |
| enhancements and differences. Your blog can | | | | source.Mentions: Blosxom, LifeType, |
| accomodate one or more photo albums with auto | | | | Serendipity.Community based Blogging |
| thumbnail generation. You can easily add music, | | | | SoftwareSlashWaaaaay back in 1997, Rob |
| books, and other media to Typelists, which grab a | | | | "CmdrTaco" Malda launched a website known as |
| thumbnail from Amazon and other retailers for easily | | | | Chips & Dips, supplied via his student account at |
| displaying in your sidebar. Typepad is also a great deal | | | | Hope College in Michigan. In 1999 Andover.net |
| more technical than Blogger so a bit of HTML know | | | | acquired Slashdot. Shortly after, the underlying code |
| how is recommended. On that note editing your blog | | | | was released as open source software called Slash. |
| to look the way you want it also quite easy and | | | | Like Movable Type and Greymatter, Slash runs on |
| Typepad blogs are known for being very eye | | | | Perl, but it also has established hooks into MySQL and |
| pleasing, intuitive and easy to navigate. In Sixapart's | | | | a very strong track record of scaling to enormous |
| business model Typepad is aimed at regular home | | | | traffic levels. To give you an idea, the term |
| and small business users while Movable Type is | | | | 'slashdotted' originated from acquiring a link on this |
| targeted at larger businesses or for internal intranets. | | | | now infamous and very popular tech news website - |
| Price: Basic, $4.95 a month; premium, $8.95 to $14.95 | | | | and consequently watching your servers melt. If you |
| a month.XangaThese guys originated back in 1999 as | | | | have never messed around with Slash, you really |
| a site for sharing book, music and movie reviews. | | | | should as it is quite a powerful platform. Slash is open |
| Although it quickly morphed into a full blown blogging | | | | source.ScoopAnother well known Perl based |
| tool Xanga still maintains the ability to run a powerful | | | | community blogging software is Scoop. Scoop is the |
| review site. Xanga pulls data from several retailers | | | | software that powers Kuro5shin, DailyKos and many |
| like including thumbnails, pricing and a cover. The | | | | other busy community weblogs. Scoop took the |
| software also is very usable by novices with a | | | | Slashdot idea and expanded on it, making the |
| powerful WYSIWYG editor allowing for easy HTML | | | | discussion rather than the news the focus of the |
| editing, adding smilies, links, and other symbols. By | | | | application. Where Slashdot entries tend to have a |
| using Blog rings it is also easy to interface with | | | | link with added commentary pointing readers off the |
| Xanga's other 3 million users to share interests, ideas, | | | | site, Scoop points to stories written by members of |
| and of course traffic. Xanga comes in a free and $25 | | | | the community keeping the reader within your own |
| flavor.Mentions: Blogsome, Blogster, MindSay, | | | | weblog. Scoop is also well known for handling large |
| Multiply,Self Hosted Blogging | | | | volumes of traffic and a large very technical |
| SoftwareWordPressWordPress originally began as a | | | | community. Scoop is free .DrupalDrupal is a well |
| mod of an older open source package known as B2. | | | | known open source community blogging platform |
| WP is MT's biggest competition and is often the bain | | | | with a very large community of users and |
| of endless Wordpress vs Movabletype style threads | | | | developers. Not only is Drupal free but it is damn |
| around the internet. Although launched just over a | | | | powerful. Instead of Perl, which is quite hard to |
| year or so ago WP has really taken the blogosphere | | | | decode at times, even if you are a fluent coder, |
| by storm. And with good reason - Wordpress is | | | | Drupal uses a PHP/mySQL platform. Drupal is also a |
| completely free under GNU licensing and is packed | | | | very community focused application with a built in |
| with many featured you will not find anywhere else. | | | | forum, download area, and hundreds of other home |
| It is also much easier to install and get blogging for | | | | brewed mods and hacks. If you are looking for a lot |
| novice users and has a very large and helpful | | | | of functionality give Drupal a check - the project has |
| community. WP runs on PHP/mySQL and is quite | | | | become quite mature. It is also much easier to use |
| scalable judging from some of the very large and | | | | and customize than either Scoop or Slash. Drupal is |
| trafficked sites I see using it. It also sports utilities to | | | | also another open source project.Mentions: |
| import files from Movable Type, Textpattern, | | | | LiveJournal, PHP Nuke. |