Blog Platforms: Choose One that Fits Your Need

You have bitten the bullet and decided to add a blog to your ecommerce site and make it a part of your marketing mix. You made the strategic decision about why you want to blog, determined your core message, and identified the audience you wish to target. Now, you have to make some tactical decisions, the most important of which is choosing a blog platform.

There are more than 60 such platforms on the market today. Most provide similar functionalities, and many could serve you well. Some require more technical expertise than others, so it is important to find one that best fits your technical skills and budget.

In this article, I will review several of the most popular blog platforms and detail their advantages and disadvantages.

Blogger

Blogger was one of the earliest blog platforms and has helped bring blogging to the masses. It is without question the most popular platform in use today. But does that mean it’s appropriate for business use? Let’s take a look.

Blogger is extremely easy to set up and use. Within just a few minutes following a simple three-step process, you can have a blog online and ready to go. The interface is very intuitive and offers both WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) and HTML editing options. In other words, it requires no HTML knowledge, but if you have some (and I recommend gaining some basic knowledge), you can click the “edit HTML” tab and work with the source code.

Not only that, Blogger is free to use. But that comes with a price, albeit not a monetary one. Because Blogger is a hosted platform, every blog in its system has a search bar at the top of the page that links to Google (Google owns Blogger), along with a series of buttons, including one that links readers to other blogs in the network. The platform also offers several attractive templates, and you can switch them at your leisure. If you have the skills, you can also integrate the platform into your own website, thereby branding it with your own look and feel.

The chief disadvantage of using Blogger is that it lacks some basic blog features found on other platforms. Even inserting images requires downloading a third-party application. In my opinion, Blogger is an entry-level platform more designed for personal use.

Typepad

Typepad is also a hosted solution and, like Blogger, is very easy to use, though not quite as intuitive. It is very popular with both personal and business users.

Typepad is not a free solution, but the fee is minimal, as little as $4.95 per month for the basic option and $14.95 per month for the pro version. If you pay a year in advance, you get additional savings.

Typepad offers all the features you would expect in a blog platform, including the ability for readers to leave comments, syndication of your content via a companion technology known as RSS, and archiving content by category and date. Placing images in a blog post is simple and is one of Typepad’s most salient features.

One component that sets this platform apart is Photo Albums. This feature is so popular it’s often the main reason people choose the platform. One particular jewelry store owner I know uses this feature extensively to showcase her jewelry. Even though she doesn’t sell online, customers and prospects can see what she offers before visiting the store.

Until recently, Typepad’s design templates were somewhat lackluster and required considerable customization to make them aesthetically pleasing. They have added several new templates in recent months, many of which are quite attractive and rival those found in Blogger.

Customizing the platform to match the look and feel of your website is easy. You can set colors and fonts to match those used on your site and upload a banner graphic to the header. However, matching the site design exactly will require extensive knowledge of HTML and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). It will almost guarantee the need to hire a web designer with specific blog expertise to implement it.

Both Blogger and Typepad target personal users. If you want a platform specifically designed for business use, then the following two, Movable Type and WordPress, may be worth considering.

Movable Type

Moveable Type is Typepad’s elder sibling. Both are products offered by SixApart and result from the company’s efforts to reach both personal and business markets.

Movable Type, or MT as it’s often referred to, does require some HTML knowledge. The posting interface lacks full WYSIWYG capability, though it does offer some WYSIWYG features. If you want to use a block quote or a bulleted list, for example, you will need to know the HTML code for them. Inputting images is not nearly as simple either and requires several steps. Again, some HTML knowledge is required.

Unlike Blogger or Typepad, Movable Type is a server- side platform. In other words, it runs on your own server and requires assistance from either your server administrator or an IT person to deploy and configure. (One word of caution: Just because someone has technical knowledge does not always mean they understand the inner workings of MT. I recommend hiring someone who has experience with the platform to install and configure it.)

MT does not come with a built-in set of templates, though it allows external templates. It is designed to be customized to match your website template and can be built within it, though that also requires someone with experience to implement it. The platform is available for commercial use for a one-time fee of $199, covering up to 5 users.

WordPress

I highly recommend WordPress. It is easier to use than Movable Type and is free. The one downside of WordPress is that it requires a Linux server. It uses the open-source scripting language known as PHP, which is not compatible with Windows-based servers.

Note that neither WordPress nor Movable Type integrates with osCommerce.

So, which platform is right for you? If you merely want to give blogging a try and are less concerned with matching the exact look of your website, Blogger is the obvious choice. If ease of use is most important, I recommend either Typepad or WordPress. If money is a concern, Typepad is the platform I would recommend for its low cost and robust functionality.

However, if you want to customize the blog to match the exact look of your existing website and don’t mind spending a few hundred dollars to hire a developer, then consider either Movable Type or WordPress.