A lot of bloggers vamp on this topic: What would I do differently if I were able to go back and start my blog again? Here's my take on the occasion of my 50th post here:
A couple of things come to mind, such as getting control of my domains/URLs and keeping them straightforward instead of having TypePad or Blogger in the mix.
I do appreciate both of these services, but think I'd have been better off on the bigger sites using WordPress and a host. Seth Grodin, who writes one of the world's top blogs on TypePad, has said the same. Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of TypePad. Just wish it was free.
WordPress brings its own set of problems and certainly throws up barriers for bloggers who aren't tech savvy. When asked for advice these days, I recommend Blogger for personal/hobby blogs; TypePad for non-tech people who want to build some kind of active business blog; and WordPress for those comfortable with, say, FTP and HTML. CSS helps a lot.
With TypePad you get tired of hearing, "It doesn't do that like that." Blogger just doesn't do that. With WordPress, you get tired of figuring out how to do that.
I just updated my Download Movies 101 blog to the latest WordPress, quite the adventure, only because I spaced one freaking detail. That's the thing with WordPress -- make an error, pay the price. I didn't find the help forums any help. Just kept trying to figure it out until I did. Took three days. Learned a lot while clanging around, though.
On TypePad, there's great tech support and an even better auto-help. Blogger is so simple, it's tough to screw up.
Back to doing things over: I started my DVD blog without giving the content's structure much thought. Made up categories as I needed them. Ended up with a rat's nest that had to be blowtorched.
Darren over at ProBlogger just posted a handy "mindmap" that should prevent this sort of thing. Self-explanatory, simple, essential. Don't forget the part about writing series.
Anything else? Oh yeah, I'd have read more blogs about blogging. Starting with this one. (Say what?)
1 comments:
Thanks for the advice. I'm a sworn Typepad user myself, and although tempted, I don't thinks I will ever switch to a different platform and here's my reason.
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