Blog Sites

Probably not the right place for this but the forum that gets the most views -

I have been blogging on Weebly for years but recently have had trouble. First I got locked out and having resolved that I find the dashboard has been completely redesigned, is unrecognizalbe and apparently doesn't work to boot. This is the third time I have had this experience. So now I am looking for a new blog home.

I just create text and images on what I have done or plan to do, no comments enabled, not really interested in gadgetry or tracking my popularity - I just like to provide a resource for others.

What I am looking for is a stable platform, one that doesn't have huge changes every few months or years, so I can learn it and use it with confidence. Ideally one that works like a familiar editor like Word or Word Perfect instead of a software programmers tool. I've heard of Googles Blogger and Wordpress and several others ut have no experience of them.

What are your experiences with blogging?

 

I build and maintain websites. Often I build them and just turn the operation and maintenance over to the owners. Others I maintain in an ongoing basis.

All the site in the last few years have been self hosted using the Wordpress platform. That means they have their own domain names and they are free to do whatever the want on the site. Some of the sites are primarily blogging platforms while others are exclusively content managemant, not using the WP blogging features at all. One site remains from years ago written in HTML and CSS.

The Wordpress.org platform is very good. The complexity of setting up the site would depend greatly on which theme you chose and how many plugins you felt you needed. My usual drill is to visit each of the sites I maintain once a month and install whatever updates have been issued. On average it takes 15 min or so per site, although sometimes longer.

One of the great features is the ability to set up automated backups. Sites can send automatic backups to Dropbox(free) which then automatically downloads the BU to your computer. You get a BU in your hands and one in the cloud effortlessly.

The interface sometimes changes with updates to WP. There is a learning curve, but it isn't terrible. You can set things up so that you can post to your blog by sending an email to a designated email address.

A domain name and RELIABLE annual hosting would run about $125.00/yr.

You could also put your blog on Wordpress .com which is the free hosting version. I do not have any direct experience with WP.com but most of the workings are similar although there are often features available for self hosted sites that aren't available on the free site.

Again while I have no direct experience with the platform I feel comfortable recommending blogspot. I follow several site that are hosted there and they have been up and running for a very long time. I assume they would have moved them if they were dissatisfied with the platform.

Those are probably the three best options. Since this thread is somewhat misplaced here feel free to PM me if you have any questions.

 

I'll give Weebly a little longer to sort it out since it has been a good expeience overall then I'll try your suggestions. Thanks, and apologies to any who felt this thread was misplaced.