Blogging is a mainstream activity and has been for some time, no longer is blogging the preserve of geeky teenagers sitting in their room documenting their thoughts about the love interest in school they’ll never even speak to, blogging is widespread, relevant and in some cases essential. Indeed some believe that it won’t be long before blogging overtakes traditional journalism as the primary source of news and opinion dissemination, and it is not hard to see why.
Blogs are far more current, they can be updated instantly and on the scene. There are many different types of blogs from text-based, to photo and video-blogs and they can be shared and spread across the net far more rapidly than newspapers and magazines can ever be written and distributed.
This is why blogging is fast becoming the primary medium for producing and consuming up-to-the-second information and comment. But what about the tools? It is all very well having great, timely, compelling content, but if you don’t have the means to display and document it, does it lose some value? The answer is yes, probably; the good news is that there there are plenty of blogging platforms out there to make getting your content ‘out there’ a quick and painless process.
There are four major blogging platforms, Blogger, WordPress, Typepad and Tumblr. These vary in their makeup and cost, but for me WordPress and Tumblr are the two most intuitive platforms available at present, and the two I’m going to focus on in this article. They differ most in that WordPress is a downloadable program as well as net-based tool, while Tumblr is just available as the latter.
WordPress, when downloaded as a program, is highly customizable and has thousands of pre-made themes to give your blog the look you desire, as well as having the function to design your own theme. Everything about the blog including the layout, presence of social widgets and backend options like the ability to turn no-follow links on and off is right there, making it the ideal option for businesses.
Tumblr on the on other hand is more geared towards the individual user, and while it has less customization options it has to be said that Tumblr is much more ‘social-centric’ with its ability to follow other people’s blogs and have them reciprocate. This is most event however in Tumblr’s dashboard which functions more like a Twitter page or RSS feed than a series of buttons and widgets a-la WordPress.
Of the two Tumblr seems more forward thinking and equipped for the impending social revolution, it must also be said that some of the free themes on offer are beautiful compared to WordPress’ cruder options. Both offer excellent add-on features like the ability to track blog traffic in Google Analytics.
Your choice of platform really comes down to individual preference, though if you are a corporation I would highly recommend WordPress. My advice is to test-drive both and see which works out best for you; produce the content and publish on both platforms, as you forge your blogging adventure you will quickly learn which you prefer aesthetically, technically, and which generates the most traffic.