Blog Software Comparison
USC Annenberg’s Online Journalism Review just published a comparative review of popular weblog software. The article covers the most popular hosted services (think Blogger) and DIY web applications (like Movable Type). It also gives definitions of common blogging jargon and provides a handy comparison chart with a feature-by-feature run-down of the products.
If you’re just getting started with a weblog and considering your many options, or if you’re looking into changing platforms for your existing weblog, this is a good place to start for up-to-date and detailed information.
(Props: ProBlogger)
Updates
- 8/3/2005 @ 7:36 AM — Jay Allen of Six Apart has spotted a few errors in the comparison chart that accompanies the article.
Technorati Tags for This Post
WordPress, Blogger, Typepad, Blogware, Movable Type, ExpressionEngine, web applications
It’s interesting to note that there are many blogging platforms and thus many choices for the serious blogger to consider. A phenomena many people, businesses and even celebrities are starting emply is that of multi-blogging. Typically a multi-blogger does this because they want to focus on very different topics for a varied audience; or maintain ‘media type’ blogs where one might for text/content blogging while another is for podcasting and a third might be for photo-blogging. Yet the variety that will likely appeal to most, is multi-blogging ’similar-topic’ original content to multiple target audiences. This variety allows a content publisher or author to compose one content stream (like perhaps, weekly articles on a topic of broad interest) and then have a ‘rules-based’ software help target and personalize that content stream for many different niche audiences.
I used to run one blog that was a “one-size-fits-all” internet marketing tips blog. My challenge was that my potential audience came from many different companies and were not attracted by such a broad scoped ‘generic’ approach. Bloggers want to read about marketing tips for ‘bloggers’, while web site owners want to explore internet marketing tips for ‘web site owners.’ Affiliate marketers want traffic, franchisees want traffic, network marketers want traffic, and woman business owners want traffic… but guess what, even though my articles could help all of them, they won’t read what’s not targeted to them!
This challenge led me to create a specialized software (I call it Blog-zilla) specifically for true multi-blogging. Blog-zilla is a blog publishing system that takes a core article (blog content) and personalizes and customizes your content for each blog audience. It posts across many blog platforms and can even augment your content with matching RSS feeds (if desired).
I now easily maintain 100 targeted blogs in about the same time it would take me to run 2 blogs the old fashion way. It would be interesting to know if others have had the same challenge (or need) and what solutions are out there to address this need.
In the end, I think both blog publishers and the blog readers benefit. I expect multi-blogging to become as popular as podcasting; especially for online businesses and entrepreneurs.
Heres a Yahoo news story on the Blog-zilla software I created.
I would love to hear from you and others.
Comment by Dan Hollings — July 22, 2005 @ 5:09 pm