Which blogging software should you use?

You’ve been researching and thinking about having your own blog for ages, and you’re ready to go do it. As you start looking at all that’s out there, confusion starts to grow. Should I use Wordpress, Blogger, Typepad, Live Journal or something else entirely?

While many beginner blogs start off using Blogger, or sometimes hosted Wordpress (wordpress.com), if you’re serious about your blog, and particularly if you’re using it for your business, having the Wordpress software installed on your own hosting is the way to go.

There are many good reasons to choose WordPress over the competition, including full open source (access to the code) and search engine optimisation ability. If you’re trying to decide which way to go, here are some reasons why I use Wordpress every time.

1. Personalisation – Wordpress is all about you. Self hosted Wordpress gives you the best flexibility out there to skin and theme your blog. There are hundreds of free themes available to personalize your blog spot, and you can also have one developed to match you exactly, and provide an internet presence that represents who you are as a writer.

Wordpress themes are flexible and can be customised to your audience and products or services. If you want to change your theme, all you need to do is upload a new one and switch. All your content remains and your blog has a brand new look.

2. Plugins! Plugins! Plugins! – Get the idea? Plugins are another way to customize your blog. Popular plugins include contact forms, site statistics, search engine optimization, and photo resources. Wordpress currently offers thousands of free plugins to make your Wordpress site do just about anything you want, and is adding to their plugin resources daily.

3. Using Pages – Back in the early days of blogging, blogs appeared as online diaries with one post following the next and comments intermixed between. With Wordpress you can  create pages to separate your material or to provide additional information.

You can also create additional pages such as ‘Contact Me’, or ‘About Me’ pages. This functionality also makes Wordpress the perfect platform for many small businesses websites, not just bloggers.

4. Performance – Not every blogger is an expert at web design. Creating your own website or presence can be a daunting task for anyone. Wordpress provides easy to use functionality with a built in admin area to help manage your site. With a few plugins, Wordpress can be made to be very search engine friendly, and can have your site ranking in Google within weeks, or even days.

Also, because of its popularity Wordpress has many resources available to their users including online forums, help references, and support teams.

5. Permalinks – When you create your blog, you want the world to be able to connect to that specific blog quickly. Introducing permalinks!  For every blog entry you post, WordPress creates a unique permanent link to that specific posts. By making subtle changes to how these permalinks are created and displayed, you can enjoy search engine traffic for months and years to come. Have a look up above how this page is which-blogging-software-should-you-use.html – a keyword rich, static HTML page address, automatically created for a dynamic blog post.

6. Ping Back to Me – What is auto pinging? It is a tool that allows you to notify the search engines that you have posted a new entry. By simply adding the correct plugin and adjusting your settings, Wordppress has the ability to ping your blog automatically. This gets you more search engine spider visits, and you’re on your way.

7. Pathways Back – Have you ever commented on another person’s blog? Many times the blog will only post your user information when you leave a comment, but if you use Wordpress and you are commenting on another Wordpress blog, then Wordpress has the ability to automatically provide a link back to your blog for anyone to see. A great and free tool to increase your readership.

This is only a small list of why you should use Wordpress for your next blog. There are lots of resources here on Oz-E-Wahm.com on how to get the most out of your blog, and so browse around and have a look.