Question

Topic: Social Media

Best Software To Launch A Blog

Posted by Anonymous on 11/12/2009 at 2:54 PM ET 250 Points
I'm a one-person, part-time marketeer for a small B2B software business. We want to start a blog to improve SEO and engage our community. I don't want to spend the little time I have figuring out Wordpress. I need an affordable solution that will make it easy, turnkey, for me to start this blog, support the blog authors, and leverage the blog. I need to buy some expertise instead of developing it. Any suggestions for vendors who offer this type of product at an affordable price for small business?
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by Inbox_Interactive on 11/12/2009 at 3:11 PM Member
    Wordpress is pretty easy to install and use.

    I can set up a new blog on our server in about 15 minutes, and I'm by no means a tech guru.

    If you have FTP access to your site, you can add Wordpress to it very quickly -- and free.

    I believe Wordpress will install it for you for some nominal fee, if necessary.

    What is it, specifically, that you think you can't do?

  • Posted on 11/12/2009 at 3:12 PM Moderator
    rriehemann,

    Having started out with Blogger, I can tell you this... You will appreciate the time that you will put into WordPress upfront. With WP there is the All in One SEO plugin that is FABULOUS!

    There are a TON of WP consultants on Twitter. How about I tweet out your question here and see if we can get some folks to help you?

    Beth Harte
    Community Manager, MarketingProfs
    @bethharte on Twitter
  • Posted by SteveByrneMarketing on 11/12/2009 at 3:22 PM Member
    I agree with the input from Paul and Beth. I currently use both wordpress and blogger, and wordpress is the one I recommend to clients. I have average tech skill and have learned as I go on wordpress. When I get stuck, I just go to their support section and get a quick answer to my question.

    Don't forget you can point a domain name to your blog.

    Steve
  • Posted by mgoodman on 11/12/2009 at 3:23 PM Moderator
    I think you may have under-rated Wordpress for your purpose. I've been using Wordpress for several years now and can't imagine anything easier/better for what you want to do. Don't write it off quite so quickly.
  • Posted on 11/12/2009 at 3:23 PM Member
    I just saw Beth's tweet on Twitter. Wordpress is really simple to use and install and I'd be more than happy to walk you through it. What is it that you can't do on Wordpress? Is your blog set up and you just need to have wordpress installed with plugins or are you starting from point 0?

    Nick (@shinng)
  • Posted on 11/12/2009 at 3:35 PM Author
    It's not so much that I don't think I can do it, it's the opportunity cost of all the many many other things that won't get done while I get up to speed on something new that under ideal conditions would be really fun to learn. I need something WISYWIG, easy template for design, for multiple users that I can easily plug into other social media like Facebook, etc...
  • Posted by Gary Bloomer on 11/12/2009 at 3:40 PM Accepted
    Dear Rita,

    Wordpress and Blogger are both great platforms and I know lots
    of people who won't use anything else.

    Much like you, I'm one person "doing" marketing pretty much
    part time for a small group of clients, and for myself.

    I run a modest blog—it's nothing fancy and it's not going to win any design awards.

    But it's been positively commented on by several people, it's also doing what it's supposed to do: be easy to set up and update, be easy to post video and text to, and it's all hosted remotely.

    I didn't have to install any software, I made one or two tiny changes to the HTML code, and I installed an auto responder script.

    That's it.

    My blog is hosted by www.tumblr.com and it's free—I'm not sure
    it's possible to get much more affordable than that. There are lots
    of themes to choose from and it's possible to host a Tumblr site
    away from Tumblr's main site with your own domain name, which is
    something something I need to do for my small site.

    Technically, Tumblr is a microblogging site.

    But whatever it is, it might be just what you're looking for.
    Here's an interesting article that might help:

    https://www.heavy-backpack.com/archives/articles/what-is-a-tumblr

    And here's another:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tumblr

    And yet more; these both include snippets from the media:

    https://www.tumblr.com/about

    https://www.tumblr.com/why-tumblr

    There are numerous designers who I'm sure would be willing to help you set things up, one of whom is www.tumblize.com (which is part of www.metalabdesign.com).

    So, there you go. Tumblr is low cost. Simple. And fun. Try it out. It might be a great fit.

    I hope this helps. Good luck to you.

    Gary Bloomer
    Wilmington, DE, USA

    Follow me on www.twitter.com @GaryBloomer


  • Posted on 11/12/2009 at 3:53 PM Member
    Hi rriehemann,

    Beth is right about the All-in-One-SEO. Its a great starting point.
    However, as we all know in SEO, one has to cover as many bases as possible.

    I help people with all types of blog questions. Please take a look at my profile and let me know if you would like to discuss further.

    nextsteph
  • Posted by Dragonsearch on 11/12/2009 at 4:04 PM Member
    Our firm does this for clients often. Installing Wordpress is a small task, but there are recommended plugins, and best practices to implement. Email me at dragon@Oxclove.com and we can discuss the best solution for you.
  • Posted by lindap on 11/12/2009 at 4:06 PM Member
    I feel the same way you do. I had someone set up my WP blog for me, my look and feel, all the plugs in I need but had no idea to ask for. Took less than a week and cost less than $1000. Now I just use it happily - without any training I might add, and it does not cost anything.

    www.partnersinc.biz/blog

    Happy to pass you on to my blog-master if you want.

    Lynda
  • Posted by excellira on 11/12/2009 at 8:35 PM Member
    One serious issue with hosted solutions is that you will be building marketing equity on a platform that is not transportable. If you decide to build your own blog at some point then you can't take it with you. You start all over again. Not true with a self-hosted WP installation.

    We develop and search engine optimize websites and web applications on Drupal, Wordpress, Joomla, Magento, and Ubercart on the LAMP stack. If you are purely blogging, Wordpress is very difficult to beat. It's weak as a CMS but it is one fantastic blog and it's very simple to use and configure. If you find the right developer they will patiently train you and get you up to speed very quickly.

  • Posted on 11/18/2009 at 1:02 PM Member
    Sorry I am late in seeing this question, but I think an important clarification needs to be made. Wordpress comes in two flavors, the self-hosted WordPress.com, and WordPress.org, which you host. Wordpress.com is free, but it comes with some significant limitations. First, you only have access to a handful of templates. No customized templates allowed. Second, to help cover the hosting costs, Wordpress can serve up ads on your Wordpress.com blog, and you have to pay (I believe it's $30 a year) if you want those ads removed.

    So if you hear someone saying you should go with Wordpress because you'll have access to thousands of templates and plugins, etc, understand they are talking about Wordpress.org. For that, you'll have to provide the hosting, and the setup is a bit more difficult.

    Now if you or your tech department can handle that, then fine, but if you want something straight out of the box that's self-hosted and that you never need to tinker with, I would go with Blogger. But if you have the expertise and money to self-host, I'd definitely go with Wordpress.org, or even Movable Type.
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