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Topic: Blogging Software
| Author | Message |
| EQL | Posted – 7/10/2007 9:14:05 AM | show profile Hi! I am thinking of starting a blog and I want to be sure to own all my content and not have it reside on a server that may go out of business, change hands,etc. I read about the numerous blogging software programs and am a bit confused. Could someone recommend a blogging program as well as a way to have the blog also reside on my computer as well as a server. Thank you, Liz |
| Cyrus | Posted – 7/10/2007 10:18:49 AM | show profile Hi Liz, In many cases, companies that host Web sites also include access to blogging platforms like Moveable Type, WordPress, etc. in their packages. In those cases, all you have to do is merely activate the blog and designate how you want it addressed. (I.E. it's usually done through a subdomain like blog.liz.com, etc) While what you're referring to is software in a sense, it's more like a hosted service in that you don't have to do any maintenance to it other than updating your content. All the updates to your blog platform are installed automatically by your provider. ------ Cyrus Afzali Astoria Communications www.astoriacomm.com |
| chucho | Posted – 7/10/2007 10:33:48 AM | show profile EQL: Cyril is kinda right, though even with hosting services all the content is on a server. Blogger recently unleashed a beta version of a backup application, which was something now allows people to save their blog content. Other than hosting your won website on your PC (the Internet is filled with instructions on how to do this though keep in mind that a.) it's a little complicated for people who aren't very familiar with technical stuff or how to use MySQL and Apache, and b.) you would have to leave your computer on all the time and handling high traffic might require an investment in actual server hardware (not just you PC connected at all times). The best thing to do is buy a host, register a domain and familiarize yourself not only with Wordpress but how to navigate and edit the server's PHP admin database (MySQL). It's relatively straighforward. By being familiar with the PHP admin, you can back up all of your content, including comments than you can keep on your PC at home and move to different servers should you change hosing services for whatever reason. Knowing Wordpress alone doesn't do this because all of the content (your posts, blogroll, commets, etc.) is stored on the host's PHP admin server. In other words: Wordpress is the interface that makes posting and editing easy and the thing that make your blog look pretty -- or ugly ;) -- but Wordpress "calls" and "posts" to the PHP admin database when it loads your content. You have to learn how to back up that database, which is not done through Wordpress (or any other blogging tools). Best way to think of it: Wordpress is like Microsoft Word for blogs, but the actual text files of your award winning screenplay are stored in a place (a folder) on your computer. In the blogging world, MySQL (via a PHP admin interface) is the place where all your content is stored in dry and ugly "text only" format. Wordpress simply edits that information and displays it with your pretty lines and logos that decorates your blog. You have to back-up the MySQL database files to ensure that you can preserve your content and transfer it. |
| EQL | Posted – 7/10/2007 11:37:44 AM | show profile blogging software Hi! Thank you for your replies. I have several domain names and am in the process of purchasing Web site hosting probably from yahoo or 1&1. . Given that I will have a Web site, would you still recommend Wordpress? Is there software where I would not have to learn a programming language. I am not interested in high tech -- just a basic blogging site. What do you think of the blogger version that you can back up. That sounds great. Thanks, Liz Lipton, M.A. |
| Cyrus | Posted – 7/10/2007 1:01:25 PM | show profile Don't know about 1&1, but Yahoo! Gives you access to WordPress, Moveable Type and others. It's very easy, files are backed up regularly and you can also move them to your local system via FTP, since everything resides in the blog directory of your domain. I personally like this option better than Blogger, as I've found it to have reliability problems occasionally. But of course, YMMV. ------ Cyrus Afzali Astoria Communications www.astoriacomm.com |
| chucho | Posted – 7/10/2007 2:59:59 PM | show profile I'd stick with Blogger. It's free and now allows you to back up your content. Again, just to be clear: backing up your Wordpress or Moveable Type files WILL NOT back up your posts, comments, blogroll, etc. If you simply download all your Wordpress files and then switch hosts, when you upload yoru Wordpress files to the new host, you will have a blank blog with none of your posts, comments, etc. that you intended to migrate. To migrate your content you have to log into your web hosting service (if you go that route) and then log in again to a MySQL database site. Then you can download that information to your computer, upload it to your new host, and your blog will have all the stuff it had before. In fact, when you configure Wordpress, one of the very first steps is establishing a link to a database, if you configured your own Wordpress (or other blogging apps) then you know what I'm talking about because you had to establish a database before you could get Wordpress to work. They way I did it though my host was 1.) log into my host's website dashboard (where you edit your website, check stats, etc.), 2.) log in again to an external database editor, usually something called PHPadmin or just MySQL admin, 3.) create a new database and name it (it's easy), 4.) open the Wordpress file and enter that database and password. This now links your blogging software to a location where your posts, comments and settings are stored. Blogger, on the other hand, does all this for you which is why most people just use Blogger. |
| EQL | Posted – 7/10/2007 6:16:26 PM | show profile Blogging Software Thanks for your replies. Cyrus, do you use blogger's new backup feature? Does it back up everything so you could migrate the blog to another location or do you have to go through the steps Chucho mentions? Thanks, Liz Cyrus wrote: Don't know about 1&1, but Yahoo! Gives you access to WordPress, Moveable Type and others. It's very easy, files are backed up regularly and you can also move them to your local system via FTP, since everything resides in the blog directory of your domain. |
| chucho | Posted – 7/11/2007 8:09:46 AM | show profile I haven't tested Blogger's beta version of its new backup feature. My big question about it would be if it allows you to easily migrate the content to a non-Blogger service. Here are two other methods for backing up a blog: http://www.httrack.com/ (Basically, it a simple site copier that downloads an entire website to your computer.) http://asprise.com/product/blogcollector/ (Claims to make converting a blog into a book format easy). To be honest, I don't think I'd worry too much about backing up your blog. Some might disagree. Blogger is owned by Google and I don't see it disappearing anytime soon. Some have reported rare incidences where blogs get erased because they show up as a "false positive" as a phishing scam, but I question if this is a real concern. |
| EQL | Posted – 7/11/2007 8:52:06 AM | show profile Blogging Software Thank you for all the information, Liz |
| Cyrus | Posted – 7/11/2007 3:52:04 PM | show profile Liz, I actually use Blogger as a sort of "mirror" for my blog. In other words, the one you'll find linked on my Web site and that I actively promote is part of my Web site. IOW, I would rather not send people away from my site when I can integrate a blog on my own. Since it's part of my own site, the files are stored in my Web space. Those are regularly backed up by my provider and I pull them down to my local system regularly as well. Given that, I've never investigated any of Blogger's backup options. For a while, accessing Blogger was a very slow process for me, even on a 10MB/sec connection, which turned me off relying on them solely. Also, while I enjoy reading blogs, I don't really find them crucial to business development. I have never gotten even one unsolicited contact from my blog. In fact, the one time I did interact with a person that became a client regarding blogs was in a listserv posting to say I thought they were overrated :) Now, my Web site I take seriously because I keep it updated with all my client placements and market it. ------ Cyrus Afzali Astoria Communications www.astoriacomm.com |
