From static websites to the ever popular Blogger and through slick content management systems (CMS), the journey concludes with exploring platforms whose function is blogging first, and a CMS, second.
I had a brief interlude with WordPress.com when tiring of Blogger and made a note to check out the self-hosted WordPress.org, which seemed to be the way to go. But first I wanted to see what the deal was with TypePad and Movable Type which I kept hearing about.
TypePad and Movable Type
“ Blog like a Pro…Start your free trial now” greeted me on TypePad’s homepage. Free trial? There is a free version, but I don’t want to use a platform knowing that I’m not tapping into it’s ultimate capabilities. Strike one.
Blog URL ends with typepad.com. Mapping to a custom domain is only available with a paid account. Strike two.
It took some digging around to figure out the relationship between Movable Type and TypePad. According to Wikipedia, TypePad is based on Six Apart’s Movable Type platform, and shares technology with Movable Type. Huh? Movable Type says they are sibling platforms that have been developed in parallel. Okay.
This, together with other factors like limited plugins and lack of a dynamic community that other platforms touted, resulted in strike three. Eager to quickly narrow my options, I discarded these.
Coming home to WordPress
WordPress.com or WordPress.org? It felt like deja vu all over again. I had some experience with the .com version during my earlier research for Blogger alternatives. The only appealing feature of this version over Blogger was the easy Page creation and Navigation/Menu feature.
In a nutshell, WordPress.com blogs are hosted on their servers with no access to the vast array of custom themes and plugins except the ones that come with it. I needed more than that. I needed WordPress.org.
Note to WordPress: this will forever cause confusion, especially for potential new users. How about coming up with a new name for WordPress.com?
So, I signed up with web hosting company, BlueHost, installed WordPress, bought a custom theme (after trying out a host of free options), imported my blog and had myself a spanking new site. This process, once deciding to go with WordPress didn’t take hours, or even days. It took weeks of trial and error:
- Web Hosting – I tried DreamHost and quickly switched to BlueHost. They both offer low monthly rates but BlueHost offers the best with unlimited domains. But what really distinguished Bluehost was it’s ease of use. It was just more intuitive, and I needed all help I could get.
- Premium Themes – After testing out a few of the over 1,200 free themes, many of them excellent, I decided to research premium themes. Over the next few months, I purchased the amazing StudioPress, Thesis and Headway themes. I’ll cover the details in a follow-up post, but I think with these three I’m pretty set for a long time.
- Plugins - WordPress claims that it’s infinitely extensible. And they’re not kidding, closing in on 10,000 plugins and 100 million downloads. And these are just the free plugins! It’s this vibrant and generous community that sets WordPress apart.
As I came to the end of my Journey to Blogging and the current platform that I use, a new one began – simply, blogging. The path may vary and each may have their own unique strengths and preferences, but all end up at this point — the beginning of the journey of Blogging Your Voice. See you in the Blogosphere.
In a new two-part series coming soon, I’ll share my WordPress journey, covering Plugins and Themes.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
lol, Wordpress.com and .org have indeed been both a confusion and worse yet is when a person has one and doesn’t know which one. I have to go through a game of ten questions to figure it out.
LoL, John! It’s terrible from a marketing standpoint – I could see potential users wanting to move beyond Blogger, getting confused and remaining there. I almost did. There’s also a certain arrogance that comes with these platforms – the creators, contributors, etc. And it’s not exclusive to WordPress. Not pretty.
{ 4 trackbacks }