Top 4 Blog Platforms: Which One Do You Choose?

Have you been considering starting up a blog? Given the amount of respect that has fallen to the art of blogging, and the way they can be fully monetized to work as both an income generator and investment, now is an excellent time. Getting started isn't even very difficult; all you really need is a passion for your topic, and the dedication to work at it until you reach success.

But there are a couple of things to consider. A big one is what platform you will use, as more and more services open up to help people reach their blogging potential. There is no real "best" platform on the web; it really depends on what you will need, and which one best fits those needs.

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Not All Bloggers Can Design

This post was originally posted on BlogPressive.com for Impressive Blogging - http://www.blogpressive.com/not-all-bloggers-can-design/

I've been in the blogging industry for about two years now and I haven't always been able to design. I've used themes, ready-made CSS and have sometimes had help but I've never written about a great tool out there which hosts and creates a platform to use for your own website or blog that helps you include a discussion board all under one roof! The service I'm talking about is Squarespace. Squarespace is a CMS in itself that hosts itself and it's easy on the wallet. All you do is pay a monthly fee of $8 if you want to use a '.squarespace.com' domain or $14 and up if you want to use your own domain name such as 'davesjournal.com'. All plans include hosting, full access to help guides and customer support as well as GB's of storage and bandwidth per month. Squarespace was created in 2008 by Anthony Casalena and since then many haven't looked back.

Why Should I "Squarespace" my Website?

You should look into Squarespace for your site if you're not confident using CSS or coding your own website. Squarespace does all the work for you in its WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get) interface. Alternatively, after creating the basis of your website, you can add additional CSS within the 'Custom CSS' panel of the admin interface as well as adding additional pages, blogs or forums.

Is Squarespace easy to Setup?

Anyone could setup their website with Squarespace. Plenty of help guides are ready to be read as well as other 'Squarespacers' on the developer forums waiting to answer questions, help you with CSS code or anything that may be troubling you along with one to one customer support with tickets being answered every 5 minutes. Although Squarespace doesn't have a dedicated phone line for support, they don't need it with support 24 hours per day 7 days per week on Twitter and Facebook.

Alternatives?

There are a few alternatives but if you want to get down and dirty with code, Squarespace is your best bet. WordPress and Thesis is another great basis as Thesis a little like Squarespace but doesn't happen as you do it so it takes a bit of experimentation!

References?

If you're still wondering on what Squarespace can do, check out their website, TekSocial (which this blog post will be posted on) and if you're not great with code, try Simon Lunt for inspiration.

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Disclaimer: I wasn't paid by Squarespace to write this blog post.

Improvements I would like to see made to Squarespace

I have been a fond user of the Squarespace platform currently and in the past on my old 'JonnyisGeek' website. Though I have had a great experience so far, I would like to see some features being generated into the mix.

• Threaded Comments and Forum Posts - It's hard to reply to a certain user in the comments. There is no 'reply' button and yes, you may be able to @username them within the comments, but they don't get alerted about your reply.

• Social Buttons - A social widget has been out for a while now, but if you want to customize the list of networks you're on with images, you need to find those images and code them into your website. You could say, well website owners have experience with HTML, CSS and the rest of it, but some don't. As you could probably tell, some website editors are used to applications like Dreamweaver and iWeb, which Squarespace doesn't require you to use.

• Podcast Hosting & Playout - I've only recently started podcasting, but I would love, and it would benefit Squarespace so much, for them to host podcasts and define a player for them to play on. Websites such as TWiT and Revision 3 would benefit, as they are podcast and vodcast networks and bloggers like myself would benefit as sometimes posts can't be put into written words, images or video.

• Squarespace Version 6 - This hasn't been spoken about since Squarespace developer, Tyler Thompson tweeted out about it in September last year. Yes, nearly a full 10 months ago. It would be great to fork out a whole new management system and see if not all of the features spoken about in this post, some as it would attract more and more people into using Squarespace instead of using cheap, unreliable hosting.

Let me know your thoughts and let's see if we can get this post passed around some of the Squarespace team and developers.

Send this out if you would like to help. 

@Squarespace Check out this post from @JonnyRowntree containing beneficial features that could be added to the system - http://j.mp/jrsquare

My History of Website Solutions

I first started out on the internet back in 2007. As I learned more about the internet and decided to share my knowledge about computers, I opened up a website, jonnyscomputershow.co.nr. Of course, I didn't know about domains and hosting packages back then, so I decided to go with a free domain and a web host, which I found on the net and of course it was free. This website was run on a static html page, which displayed my live stream and WyldRyde chatroom.

As I become more a part of the net, I opened JonnyisGeek.com, which is still owned by me to this day, in 2008. At first, I run it on the not so popular now Freewebs platform for around 6 months until December 2008. On December 21, I then purchased a hosting package with my domain registrar, GoDaddy. It was cheap at just over £3 per month. I hosted my website with GoDaddy for quite sometime, until I switched around many webhosts with similar content management systems (CMS). These all included Joomla, Wordpress, Drupal and the list goes on. I stuck with Wordpress, as it was easy to use, themes were free and it had some really useful tools.

In July 2009, I found David (thecreativeone) who's blog I write on now, was using SquareSpace (and still is!). I decided to give SquareSpace a shot, and at that time, SquareSpace were launching their version 5 platform. I was amazed on how SquareSpace combined the static html service I was using a year ago with a CMS. I imported all of my Wordpress content into the new system and I designed my site within a few hours, as it took some getting used to. After a month had passed, I decided to switch back to Wordpress as my income didn't cover the SquareSpace costs and I couldn't cope with other things like going out and seeing friends. I felt bad about it, but it needed to be done. 

In October 2009, I purchased the domain, JonnyRowntree.com, which is my blog and will always be my domain. I used Wordpress for about 4 months on Phirefast and GoDaddy hosting packages before again, switching to SquareSpace as I could afford it again, seeing as I had enough cash to pay for it. I used David's coupon code (thecreativeone) to save 10% and I'm still setting up my site, but it's done for the most part. 

I have no idea how I remembered all of the switches and times, but I most submit 2 important points to this post.

1. Purchase your domain and select a web host. SquareSpace is the best, since it is very reliable.

2. Stick to that webhost for good.

Thanks for reading this long post and follow me on Twitter!

Opitions for Blogging

Blogging is seen as the most common thing on the internet today. Blogs can range from personal to news, and can range in categories. But, what if you want to start your own blog, and don't know where to begin. Well, as a blogger myself, I have 2 choices for you.

Wordpress is commonly seen on the internet, and it is used mostly for its ease of use, and it's huge range of plugins and themes, which allow you to control and design how your blog performs to your internet audience. Wordpress 2.8 was released last week. See the video below to see if Wordpress would help you start your blog.

Squarespace is another option, and if you are a social blogger with thecreativeone.tv, you are already using it! Squarespace makes it very easy, not only to make blogs, but a full website. The best thing about Squarespace is that you don't even need to know html or css, which many people can be scared of. If you start with Squarespace, thecreativeone.tv can offer you a lifetime discount on your account, after you have finished your 14 day free trial. Watch this promotional video to see if Squarespace better suits you!

Already have a Squarespace account and your 14 day trial is almost up? Just use the promo code 'thecreativeone' at checkout to receive a 10% discount on the life of your account!