Characteristics of your Blog Platform Options

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Friday, November 7th, 2008 Subscribe To Our Feed

There is no more common concern or question among both beginning and experienced bloggers alike: which blog platform should I use? Aside from learning how to blog, it’s an almost universal concern.

And there is no definitive answer. All bloggers NEED to own their domain names, but platform choice is largely dependent on the specific blogger’s needs. With that stated, I’ve compiled a list of pros and cons of the two primary platform choices below.

Hosted Platforms

Hosted platforms refer to services whereby a service provider grants you access to their software, network connection, and hardware, and you register a blogging account for use on that platform. With a hosted blog, you have access to an admin panel for your blog, and nothing else.

Popular hosted platforms include solutions like LiveJournal, TypePad, and Blogger.

Advantages of Hosted Platforms

Economical: many are free; some (like TypePad) are offered with multiple price points
Easy to get started: just create an account and then quickly learn how to create blog posts
Automatic updates: you don’t need to concern yourself with keeping hosted software patched and upt-do-date.

Disadvantages of Hosted Platforms

Inflexible: there are fewer personalization options with hosted platforms.
Fewer design options: you usually only get to select from a limited number of standard designs, and you often can’t make updates to them
Generic URL: some hosted platforms don’t have the choice to use your own URL
Less control: you are at the mercy of the platform
Migration issues: moving from many free hosted platforms results in a lot of effort and often the temporary loss of search engine rankings

Self-hosted Platforms

Self-hosted platforms consist of your own web hosting account with a host, and the blogging software you install on the host’s server. With a self-hosted blog, you have access to an administrative panel for your blog, but you also have access to a server account and the blog software where you can do nigh anything.

Common self-hosted software includes Movable Type, WordPress, and Drupal.

Advantages of Self-hosted Platforms

Design flexibility: you have full control over layout and design
Great software: killer software is available on self-hosted platforms
Custom URL: custom URL’s are common on self-hosted platforms
Adaptability: you can change your blog as your needs change
Easy migration: should you ever want or need to migrate to another platform or another server, migrating is a snap

Disadvantages of Self-hosted Platforms

Difficult setup: setup can sometimes be difficult, but this can be overcome with a good blogs how to
Cost: while the blogging software is free, the hosting platform will cost you money
Hosting issues: unless you choose a good host, you might have to suffer from down-time or poor support
Upgrades: you will need to keep your software patched

Most of of my blogs are self-hosted, and that’s what I generally advise anyone looking to create a professional blog. There are too many benefits to ignore, and you usually have the ability to host many blogs and domains on one account, lowering the cost per blog down to a small amount.

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