The blogging platform wars are getting interesting, and much of the discussion I find myself in lately revolves around what is happening with various CMS systems. The market can essentially be defined into three major camps: remotely hosted, self-hosted, and community-based approaches. I have used pretty much every blogging platform available, and each of them has its ups and downs. In this article, I will cover each area’s best options, considering price, usability, market share, and, of course, SEO potential.
These products are either open source, completely free, or have a functional free version. Links were stripped from this article, so you may want to check out the original best blogging software article at ProfitPapers.
Remotely Hosted Blogging Software
(Note: I cannot recommend any of these from an SEO standpoint, as optimizing a domain you do not own or control is not a good marketing plan.)
Blogger
Blogger is free and owns the most remotely hosted user base, but not by a landslide. Bought out by Google in 1999, Blogger essentially fired up the blogging trend we see today. It is by far the easiest overall solution to use, and if you are a novice user looking to throw up some recipes or poetry, this is for you. Blogger is completely free and includes some great features like comments, photo blogging, and a basic community feel with user profiles. Because it is so dumbed down, there are some features you may not find with Blogger that are only available through 3rd party add-ons. Blogger weblogs do quite well in the search engines as a side note, and this was recently exploited with it being the first choice for spam blogs or splogs. A splog is a weblog used for the sole purpose of gaining inbound links or generating thousands of keyword-stuffed pages with AdSense and the like. The recent Google Jagger update cleared a large portion of this up. Free.
Typepad
Released in 2003, Typepad is a product of SixApart, the makers of Movable Type. It is largely based on MT, but there are some major enhancements and differences. Your blog can accommodate one or more photo albums with auto thumbnail generation. You can easily add music, books, and other media to Typelists, which grab a thumbnail from Amazon and other retailers for easily displaying in your sidebar. Typepad is also much more technical than Blogger, so some HTML know-how is recommended. On that note, editing your blog to look the way you want is also quite easy, and Typepad blogs are known for being eye-pleasing, intuitive, and easy to navigate. In Sixapart’s business model, Typepad is aimed at regular home and small business users, while Movable Type targets larger businesses or internal intranets. Price: Basic, $4.95 a month; premium, $8.95 to $14.95 monthly.
Xanga
These guys originated in 1999 to share book, music, and movie reviews. Although it quickly morphed into a full-blown blogging tool, Xanga still maintains the ability to run a powerful review site. Xanga pulls data from retailers like Amazon.com, including thumbnails, pricing, and a cover. The software is also usable by novices with a powerful WYSIWYG editor, allowing for easy HTML editing and adding smilies, links, and other symbols. By using Blog rings, it is also easy to interface with Xanga’s other 3 million users to share interests, ideas, and, of course, traffic. Xanga comes in a free and $25 flavor.
- Mentions: Blogsome, Blogster, Monday, Multiply,
- Self Hosted Blogging Software
WordPress
WordPress originally began as a mod of an older open-source package known as B2. WP is MT’s biggest competition and is often the bain of endless WordPress vs. Movabletype threads worldwide. Although launched just over a year or so ago, WP has taken the blogosphere by storm. And with good reason – WordPress is completely free under GNU licensing and has many features you will not find anywhere else. It is also much easier to install and blog for novice users and has a huge and helpful community. WP runs on PHP/MySQL and is quite scalable, judging from some of the huge and trafficked sites I see using it. It also sports utilities to import files from Movable Type, Textpattern, Greymatter, Blogger, and b2. WordPress recently upped the ante when Yahoo included them on their hosting packages, in addition to MT. I have to admit I am finding myself more and more digging WP and will likely convert Profitpapers to WP as I get time (it can be a biznitch). WordPress is free.
Movable Type
Like Greymatter (the original open-source blogging tool), Movabletype dominated the blogging market share in 2002-2004. Released in late 2001, Perl-based Movable Type by SixApart has maintained much of the blogging market share. There is a free version (supporting up to 3 weblogs) that is incredibly powerful, intuitive, and easy to customize. Template-driven Movable Type also sports one of the largest communities of developers and blogging enthusiasts around, meaning lots of support, idea sharing, and, of course, plugins. Movable Type can be configured to dynamically generate HTML, PHP, or any other kind of pages you like, meaning it is incredibly scalable, fast, and loved by spiders. It is perhaps the most well-known blogging software for SEO purposes, and it is what currently powers Profitpapers and several of my other projects. MovableType is Free with three authors, one weblog, and no support, or $69.95 with unlimited weblogs, authors, and full support.
Textpattern
Textpattern is the brainchild of Dean Allen and was written to ease content publishing for those not inclined to learn HTML. Like WP and MT, Textpattern runs on PHP and MySQL for easy administration, backups, and power. What sets Textpattern apart from the others is the integration of Textile. A textile is a tool for easily formatting content for those who do not know HTML. WP & MT have modules for Textile as well, but it is native to the Textpattern system. Another bonus of the app is its superior handling of comment spam due to its smaller market share. On a blog I maintain running WP and MT, I often find myself clearing out spam every day, whereas, on some bustling Textpattern sites, I receive only manual comment spam (not bot-driven). TP is open source.
- Mentions: Blosxom, LifeType, Serendipity.
- Community-based Blogging Software
Slash
In 1997, Rob “CmdrTaco” Malda launched a website known as Chips & Dips, supplied via his student account at Hope College in Michigan. In 1999, Andover.net acquired Slashdot. Shortly after, the underlying code was released as open-source software called Slash. Like Movable Type and Greymatter, Slash runs on Perl, but it also has established hooks into MySQL and a solid track record of scaling to enormous traffic levels. To give you an idea, the term ‘slashdotted’ originated from acquiring a link on this now infamous and viral tech news website – and consequently watching your servers melt. If you have never messed around with Slash, you should, as it is quite a powerful platform. Slash is open source.
Scoop
Another well-known Perl-based community blogging software is Scoop. Scoop is the software that powers Kuro5shin, DailyKos, and many other busy community weblogs. Scoop took the Slashdot idea and expanded on it, making the discussion rather than the news the focus of the application. Slashdot entries tend to have a link with added commentary pointing readers off the site; Scoop means stories written by community members, keeping the reader within your weblog. Scoop is also well known for handling large volumes of traffic and a large, very technical community. Scoop is free.
Drupal
Drupal is a well-known open source community blogging platform with a vast community of users and developers. Not only is Drupal free, but it is damn powerful. Instead of Perl, which is hard to decode at times, even if you are a fluent coder, Drupal uses a PHP/MySQL platform. Drupal is also a community-focused application with a built-in forum, download area, and hundreds of other home-brewed mods and hacks. If you want a lot of functionality, give Drupal a check – the project has become quite mature. It is also much easier to use and customize than Scoop or Slash. Drupal is also another open-source project.