An important decision to make early on is to determine what platform you will be working on. For most bloggers this simply means deciding on a blog software package, however if you are doing any additional development work, you may need to also consult with your developer to work out what language and environment they work in.
There are a number of software packages you can use to build a blog. These packages are often called blogging platforms, or more generally Content Management Systems (CMS). For professional bloggers, you should be looking for a package that you host yourself on your own web server. This is opposed to hosted options, which are usually much easier to set up but may provide far less flexibility.
The overwhelming favorite blog CMS in recent years has been WordPress, and many articles for bloggers will simply assume that's what you are using. Nonetheless, there are other options and in some cases they may provide features that can be useful in developing beyond just a blog.
WordPress is the world's most popular open source (and hence free) blogging platform and with good reason. It's exceedingly easy to use, is regularly updated, and has an enormous community of developers and designers making themes and plugins for it. If you are unsure of what platform to use, this is probably your safest choice.
One thing to know about WordPress if you are planning large scale development is that while quite a stable platform, many developers feel it's not very well built internally. So you may have trouble deeply integrating it into a big project. Ask your developer if you are planning something major.
There is also a hosted version of WordPress available at WordPress.com that is free to set up, which means you don't need your own web host. As with all hosted solutions, you should probably stay away from this option as it comes with a lot of limitations.
Blogger is a hosted platform and while it is a decent product, the fact that it's hosted imposes many limitations on what you can do. A great many bloggers who start out on Blogger find themselves moving to another platform because they need more flexibility. TypePad, like Blogger, is also a hosted solution. However, unlike Blogger and WordPress.com, it's a for-pay system. Nonetheless, like all hosted solutions, it's limited in its long-term potential.
MovableType is a powerful, feature-rich blogging platform from SixApart. It's written in Perl and isn't nearly as popular as WordPress, however it is a worthy alternative and often vies with WordPress with respect to new features and releases.
Joomla and Drupal are respectively the second and third most popular open source CMS products after WordPress. They are actually more general CMS products than WordPress, which focuses almost exclusively on blogging. Joomla and Drupal offer a range of features that can make adding membership and community features to your site a lot easier.
Neither is as easy to use as WordPress or as well-supported in themes and developers. However, both are very well known and you should be able to find help on either relatively easily. You can learn more about specific features they each offer at their respective websites.
Expression Engine is a very popular non-open source product which, like Joomla and Drupal, can be used for a blog, but can also do a lot more. Because it's a paid product there is lots of support from the company behind the product and because it's quite popular, it's moderately easy to find developers who specialize in the product.
Microblogging is generally for shorter, less involved blogs. However, recently the two most popular platforms – Tumblr and Posterous – have been gaining traction and popularity, and in some cases being used even for full-scale blogs. Nonetheless, both are hosted systems and are much more limited in features when compared to WordPress or MovableType.
There are literally hundreds of places you can start a blog and dozens of self-hosted platforms you can purchase or simply download for free. Hosted platforms range from the very professional SquareSpace to more amateur fare like Blog.com. As always, unless you have good reason, you should avoid hosted platforms.
Self-hosted options can include blog platforms created in different languages and environments such as Mephisto, which is built in Ruby on Rails, or which are simply more niche in use such as TextPattern, which is a very minimalist solution.
If your product is purely a blog, then the development environment is likely to be dictated by the software you are using. For example, WordPress is a PHP/MySQL solution and will require a hosting package that supports PHP/ MySQL set-ups. If you are building something more than a blog, then an important consideration is the environment and language your developer works in.
For example, if you are hiring a .NET developer then you will probably need Microsoft hosting for them to work in that environment. This might then affect what blog platform you use as well. Speak to your web developer to assess what is appropriate for your requirements and their services.
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Note: This article was sent to us by: Sharon Reed at 02152011
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