After creating a traditional static website as a new solo entrepreneur in 2008, I quickly discovered it’s limitations. In Journey to Blogging, Part 1: Static Websites, I discussed the path I took and tools used just to get on the web.
But now I wanted a blog-site, a dynamic website powered by a blog and fashioned into a more traditional looking website with tabs and pages. These pages would house information such as the services my entrepreneurial venture offered, a contact page, an about page so prospective clients can find out a bit about who they’re about to hire, and other informational pages. I found out that this is commonly referred to as a content management system powered by a blogging platform.
There is an overwhelming amount of information out there and after an exhaustive search, I whittled my choices down to five of the major open source platforms WordPress, Blogger, TypePad, Joomla, and Drupal.
Blogger – it doesn’t get any easier
If you want to get on the web, start blogging and get noticed (by search engines), it doesn’t get any easier than Google Blogger.
I dove in. With a Gmail account, you can literally go live on the web and start blogging with a few clicks. Create a Blog. It’s easy, and only takes a minute, Blogger proclaimed. Well, it took a bit more than a minute, but I picked a cool custom template, customized the fonts and color, added a few page elements or widgets and was up and running in a couple of days. I was even able to add my custom domain without having a web hosting account.
This satisfied my blogging needs – sharing, connecting and communicating, but I was a solo entrepreneur offering services. I needed pages to tell my story and tabs so visitors can access those pages.
After going on a CSS/HTML crash course combing forums, blog posts and leafing though instructional books at Barnes and Nobles and Borders, I was able to fashion a few pages and tabs. With this rudimentary site, I received my first inquiry a week later, quickly followed by my first online client. My blog posts made me discoverable to search engines allowing those seeking my services to find me. The About and Services page provided the information they needed to click on my Contact page and email me.
But again I was getting restless. I wanted a more robust system to handle the ever expanding pages, forms and charts I was adding to the site. One that didn’t require that I learn (and re-learn) bits of code to implement.
In part 3 of this series, I will briefly discuss my experience with content management systems (CMS) Joomla and Drupal. And in part 4, conclude with my journey to WordPress after quickly dismissing TypePad.
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Great article! The problem with “professional” how tos is that they can be so wordy an impersonal. Not this. Nice job!
http://www.chungkitblog.wordpress.com
Thanks, AJ! I agree – as a novice seeking information and advice, the information that I found was voluminous and somewhat technical. It’s one of the reasons I decided to break this up into four parts so as not to overwhelm with too much information at once and share my experience as a journey rather than techie-laden jargon.
Drifting down the memory lane.
Try to recall the time I started blogging. I was not having much platform choices at first, thought I would stick with Blogger for good but then glad to have met with Wordpress.org. The plugins rock so it won me over eventually. I’ll be interested to learn about your experience with Joomla and Drupal since I didn’t get a chance to venture into that. Thanks for sharing, Tim.
@wchingya
Social/Blogging Tracker
Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts, Ching Ya. Your thoughtful and expert use of blogging and other social media platforms continue to inspire me. I’ll have to inquire one day how you learned coding. I’m learning – and forgetting and learning again – on the fly. No formal training – no time for that and would probably be bored anyway
Dang you sir, for telling me about part ///. Now I am waiting. Joomla and Drupal stories are some of the best and funniest I’ve come across
Yes I’m commenting late. It was a busy day and I couldn’t get to my blog reading. Tomorrow looks to be much busier though so at least my busy schedule has some symmetry
Ha, John! That note at the end about parts III and IV was for me – as a motivational tool to wrap up this series in a reasonable time – hopefully, by Saturday.
You’ve been quite busy lately with work, eh? Good thing you have weekend barbeques to unwind.
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