Starting a Blog: How to Choose a Host

Filed under administrative

People ask me all of the time how I decided on WordPress as my blog provider and which provider I think is right for them, so I thought I’d more or less copy and paste the response I sent to a friend the other day who wondered if she should get a blog or stick to posting on Facebook.

Facebook: First, I think you have to decide if you want to do the little bit of work it takes to get a blog going. With Facebook, your audience is built-in; to get them to read your updates and notes, you don’t have to do anything except have not beaten them up in high school. The tradeoff is that since most people have protected profiles on Facebook, there’s no chance someone’s going to stumble onto you while searching for glory holes (the #1 search term used to find me) and forward your stuff to their friends in the publishing biz. With a blog, you have to get people to look at your posts. Unless you’re already super-famous or just really, really good-looking, people are going to need a reason to follow you. You have to comment on their blogs to get your name out there and then keep writing great stuff that will get them to return.

I also think how much you plan to post is important. If you really think you’re into posting for the long haul, then definitely go for a blog. But a lot of people seem to wimp out pretty quickly or only post a couple of times a month, which I think is more appropriate for Facebook.

Tumblr: If you just want to post a photo or one snappy paragraph and don’t mind possibly feeling like you’re talking to a void, Tumblr is for you. It’s awesome for beginners because the interface is so easy to get the hang of, and the “like” function on each post makes it so people can let you know they dig your stuff without having to think of an actual comment to leave you. The lack of a built-in comment system is a major drawback if you want to actually build community with your readers, though; you’re not going to get to know someone personally, as I have with a lot of the bloggers I read, if all of your interactions are just “liking” each other’s posts. And since you have to be a member of Tumblr to do anything but read posts, you’re never going to get any “likes” from non-Tumblr-having-people who stumble onto you. It’s great if you want to talk about yourself but don’t want to bother with getting feedback.

WordPress.org: For me, conversation is sort of the point of this, so being able to receive comments and reply to them is an absolute must for me. I went with WordPress.org because it’s extremely customizable, and someone out there is making a WordPress plugin for absolutely anything you want your blog to do. The fact that you get an e-mail every time someone replies to one of your comments or that you see a list of related posts from my blog at the end of each of my posts or that I can create a simple poll on IS IT PEE-PEE? is thanks to a free plugin someone wrote. The drawback is that you have to pay a company to host the server you store your blog on, and it’s a little expensive if you won’t be making any money on the blog.

Blogger: So if you want comments but don’t want to spend anything, Blogger is great. They have tons of layout options, the comment system is built in, and they have a Google Connect feature that makes it easy for you to follow other people’s blogs and for them to follow you while still allowing non-Blogger-users to comment on your posts. It doesn’t have nearly the plugin library that WordPress.org does, but there are a couple of free Blogger add-ins that make it possible for you to reply to comments and for the commenter to get an e-mail with your reply so they can come back and continue the conversation. My best friend and I use Intense Debate for that, which you can see in action on our low-carb blog, UNBREADED, at the bottom of any post. I don’t see any drawbacks to Blogger once you install something like Intense Debate; without it, I’m annoyed by the fact that you have to post a new comment in order to reply to someone else’s, which doesn’t ensure that they’ll ever see it.

WordPress.com: This is the free version of WordPress.org that needs no additional setup nor server space on your end. Intense Debate isn’t available for it yet, it doesn’t have the Google Connect community-building of Blogger, and only a handful of customization options are available until you upgrade to a paid account. The only upside to using it that I can see is that its user interface is better-looking than Blogger’s.

So to sum it all up, my advice is:
• Tumblr for lazy egoists.
• WordPress.org for OCD chatterboxes who are really, really into blogging, maybe even professionally.
• Blogger for everyone else!

17 Comments

  1. ells says:

    Intense debate! Yay! This so saves me the time of having to ask you personally how to do that.

    • Oh, awesome! I basically think it’s the best thing to come to blogging in forevs and am mad when people don’t have it. Get it get it get! And then actually blog.

  2. ells says:

    I know, right? I don’t have the internet at home right now, and I don’t understand how people can stand the iPhone blogger apps. I should probably play with it some more, but so far, it’s so torturous I refuse to use it.

    • Oh, yeah, I tried to do WordPress on my BLACKBERRY once. Ridiculous. You need to find some free wifi on the double. Or just stay late at work to blog as if you’re a lonely lady with one waiting for you at home but your cats.

      • ells says:

        Free wifi! In the country! Surely you jest.

        Also, plan B ain’t so appealing, considering that 1) by boyfriend is hot and smart and likes to say nice things to me and grope me [haha! No warning on that TMI!] and 2) I have dogs, not cats, and they do stupid shit when you leave them in the house too long. Like poop in the dining room and 3) I work for a software company that admits they “closely watch” our internet use. I’m sure they’ll LOVE being introduced to your blog, though!

        • Dude, even the McDonald’s a few miles outside of my hometown has free wifi, and we’re considered a village. Surely you can’t be more country than that.

          My software company threatened a couple of months ago to install Big Brother software on our computers. I’m excited for the forthcoming revolt. But hello out there, Elliepie’s co-workers!

        • Also, I fully welcome your TMIs and consider them a sign that you’re happy, despite the lack of southern hospitality.

          • ells says:

            Oh. We do have a McDonalds. But I never considered, like, going there. And sitting down. There’s also the libarry. But I don’t really want to leave my house …

            Also. Yeah. Happy-ish. And there’s not a total lack of hospitality. Kinard does a damn fine job. Almost makes up for all of the jerks out here.

            (But not quite)

  3. caropal says:

    No love for LIVEJOURNAL, which is basically where you got your awesome start????

    (Kidding – I actually don’t care about that! Hooray!)

    • I actually totally considered mentioning it for a second! But then I realized that absolutely no one in the world is like, “Which is more popular these days–Blogger or LJ?”

      Okay, maybe the Russians are. But only the Russians.

  4. Tim D says:

    Interesting MoveableType or Typepad didn’t make your list for review. Includes some support for Intense Debate. Guessing thats due to costs.

    • You know, I looked into both of those while I was deciding what to use for this blog, and I can’t even remember why I chose WordPress at this point, but yeah, I figure anyone just starting a blog probably doesn’t want to pay for it. I had been on LiveJournal for years before I switched over here, and the price was worth it to me for the control.

      Do you have any experience with those two that you’d like to share with this eager audience?

  5. Tim D says:

    I’ve toyed around with MovableType and WordPress. I have a bit of a domain hoarding issue so I have hosting already for personal enterprises.

    MovableType is PERL based which makes it a bit unique to work with not sure if that eliminates some free hosting options. WordPress is PHP based and is more open source-y so if you want to add your custom stuff WordPress is more open. Additionally if you want to go with revenue generation the free MoveableType license isn’t usable you have to move up to a commercial license from how I read it. MoveableType does have nice multi-editor features probably why folks like brownstoner.com or SeriousEats use them.

    • You should’ve gotten donuts4dinner.com first and tried to sell it to me for $1200 like the person who owned donutsfordinner.com.

      Interesting info about MovableType. I could obviously never use it, though, since moveable is spelled all weirdly. Says the girl who’s now spelling doughnutswithout many of its necessary letters.

  6. I am bookmarking this post for the next time someone says to me, “I want to start a blog! Whatever do I do?!”

    I’ll just say, “Start here. But don’t bother if you’re not as good a writer as Katie Ett.”

    By-the-by, I nominated you for a Best Writing Bloggie Award.

    • Hey, thank you! I remembered this comment and checked the Bloggie site today to see if there was still time to nominate you, but I’m afraid I got there too late. I’m sorry! I need to pay better attention next year so an actually-good blog can be nominated for once.