Common Blogging platforms

When you decide to make your own blog, there are many choices to be made. The very first choice is which blogging platform to use. Blogging platform means, which blog service (which blog service provider) you are going to be used? The most popular blogging platforms are Blogger, WordPress (WordPress.com/WordPress.org), Typepad, and Movable Type. There are some other blogging platforms are as follows.

· Lycos Tripod

· Squarespace

· Blogsmith

· Gawker Media platform

· Drupal

· Bricolage

· Expression Engine

· Scoop

· Gawker

· Serendipity

· LifeType

· Flatpress

· Wheatblog

· Eggblog

· Loudblog

When choosing your blogging platform, you’ll need to determine whether you would prefer a hosted or non-hosted blog platform. A hosted platform is one that is hosted on the platform’s server. In other words, if you have a Blogger blog, your blog is hosted on the Blogger server for free. A non-hosted site is a blog that is hosted usually a third-party you have to pay for the hosting. For example, if you use WordPress.org as your blogging platform, they do not host your blog for you. You will have another company host it.This article will explain the basic differences of these most common blogging platforms.


Blogger


Blogger provide free blog hosting on its own servers. Blogger will let you host a blog on its domain (yourblog.blogspot.com). With Blogger’s quick initial setup and point-and-click template switching, Blogger most resembles WordPress. Blogger has the ability to modify templates, allowing you to drag and drop 12 different page modules onto them. You can also drop in external RSS feeds such as Yahoo news feeds, AdSense ads, blogrolls, and third-party HTML and JavaScript applications. You can even customize your CSS by hand. Comments, and feeds, and presents them in a simple interface that clearly explains what each does.

Sometimes you just want to share a photo. There's a button for uploading photos in the Blogger interface. Just click the photo button to upload a photo from your computer. If the photo you'd like to put on your blog is already on the web that's fine too. Just tell us where it is.
You can also send camera phone photos straight to your blog while you're on-the-go with Blogger Mobile.

Blogger Mobile lets you send photos and text straight to your blog while you're on-the-go. All you need to do is send a message to go@blogger.com from your phone. You don't even need a Blogger account. The message itself is enough to create a brand new blog and post whatever photo and text you've sent.

Later, if your want to claim your mobile blog or switch your posts to another blog, just sign in to go.blogger.com and use the claim code Blogger sent to your phone
We support most popular mobile carriers in the US and worldwide. If Blogger Mobile is unavailable from your provider, you can still send posts to your blog using Mail-to-Blogger.

Blogger is a great option for anyone who wants to trick out a blog with third-party ads and applications, or who wants to blog for dollars through Google's AdSense program and other money making programs. If it ever lets you use its design customization on third-party servers, it will be a fantastic way to run a blog on your own site without having to maintain and update blog software. And remember Blogger is totally free

WordPress


WordPress.com offers versatile and free blog hosting on its own servers, or you can install its open-source code software (WordPress.org) on your own server. WordPress will let you host a blog on its domain (yourblog.WordPress.com) or use a domain or subdomain (blog.mycompany.com).

The widgets are limited, however, to items approved by WordPress.com, meaning you can't embed third-party JavaScript-based widgets or news feeds. Custom modification of CSS templates is possible, but that feature costs $15 per year.

You get no way to preview an entry before publishing as blogger gives you, which can be frustrating when you want to decide whether a page is ready for posting or needs more editing. WordPress offers 50MB of image storage, substantially less than Blogger allows.

WordPress is a great option for people looking to host a blog on their own domain for free. It also has a very dedicated set of users who contribute code to the product and answer questions in its forums. If you want to make money from blogging, however, you should look elsewhere for a hosted offering that allows ads, or find one of the many hosting providers that will install the full WordPress software on their servers.

TypePad


TypePad is the hosted version of blog software pioneer Six Apart's powerful Movable Type blog platform. TypePad services start at $5 per month a steal considering its professional interface and excellent design options.

Starting a new blog is simple. You can choose from 50 different themes and nine column layouts. You can also map a sub domain or a full domain to your hosted blog if you upgrade to the $9-per-month plan. You cannot, however, install third-party JavaScript, as Blogger allows you to do. Also, TypePad cannot create static pages. Text ads are allowed on TypePad blogs, but they must be from Kanoodle, a Six Apart partner. TypePad features a clean, professional design that is distinctly different from Blogger and WordPress's more playful interfaces.

TypePad, with its clean interface and multimedia features, is a great choice for a small-business or professional blog. However, its low bandwidth limits (2GB at $6 per month and 5GB at $9 per month) and its inability to create static pages limits its usefulness as a full content management system.

Movable Type
Movable Type makes it simple to start a blog, manage entire websites and build an engaged community of readers and customers.

Want a simple new way to install Movable Type? Try Virtual Movable Type by JumpBox. It’s a virtual application that makes it easy to get your Movable Type website or blog up and running fast.
· As your site grows and becomes more successful, the platform scales to accommodate your fluctuating traffic needs.
· Movable Type is supported. We offer optional support for bloggers, online support for businesses, and premium support for enterprise and high-traffic bloggers.

You could get detailed information about common blogging platforms from this article. Next we will discus what is the best blogging platform for you.