How to Compare and Choose a Blog Software (Community Server Blogs 2.0, WordPress 2.0, TypePad, Squarespace, Quick Blog 1.0 and Blogger) Part 2
Published February 4th, 2006 in InternetBlog Monetization
All of the different blog software under review provide the ability to add JavaScript code for AdSense to your blog. The issues arise when you try to add JavaScript code for AdSense to the content of a blog post.
Community Server 2.0 Blogs (Beta 3) will display AdSense JavaScript code in the side bar. You can also add AdSense JavaScript to a blog post, however AdSense will not display within the text of the post.
WordPress 2.0 will display AdSense JavaScript pasted inside a blog post. You can also add AdSense JavaScript to the side bar. A free AdSense plug-in AdSense-Deluxe Plugin allows you to manage your all your Google AdSense from one control panel or display new AdSense blocks easily in your blog post by pasting a simple tag. This plug-in makes WordPress the most advanced platform for displaying and managing AdSense in a blog.
TypePad will display AdSense JavaScript code in the side bar. You can also display AdSense inside your Blog post using JavaScript. However, you have to manage each AdSense block in your blog post individually and if you have several blog posts, the management of the ads will be a pain. TypePad also offers TextAds and Tip Jars as additional sources of income.
Squarespace (www.Squarespace.com) is similar to TypePad in AdSense display and management.
Quick Blog (www.GoDaddy.com) is similar to TypePad in AdSense display and management. At this time, you cannot add AdSense to the side bars as access to the page html is restricted.
Blogger is similar to TypePad in AdSense display and management. In addition, Blogger from Google offers you the ability to sign-in to your Google AdSense account from the Blog Software.
Web Traffic Analysis aka Click Stream Analysis
To analyze your blog traffic you need to add JavaScript code from a web analytics vendor like Google Analytics to each blog post or download and analyze your blog’s web server raw log file using a log file analysis program like Analog.
Typically, you will have the most options for web traffic analysis with blog software owned by you versus a hosted service. So, Community Server Blogs and WordPress will give you the best options for web traffic analysis since you have access to both your blog posts and your raw log files.
Since TypePad and Squarespace operate as hosted services you will have access to the web page and blog posts and you can analyze them using a JavaScript based solution like Google Analytics.
Blogger operates in a dual mode where your blog is hosted on your domain or hosted as a sub-domain on Blogger.
If you host your domain, then like Community Server and WordPress, you will have access to your raw log files and your page source for JavaScript based web analytics. If you host your domain on Blogger, your options will be similar to that of TypePad and Squarespace which means that you will only be able to analyze your blog traffic using a Service like Google Analytics.
Quick Blog at this time does not offer any access to the HTML source of your blog posts, hence you will not be able to use a third party web analytics service like Google Analytics or Analog.
Publishing and Promotion
In my view, Blogger has the most extensive list of features for fine tuning your blog post.
Quick Blog’s publishing and promotion features also caught my attention. These include trackbacks, CAPTCHA (completely automated public Turing test) protected comments, comment character count (counts the characters as you type a comment), subscribe to this entry, subscribe to this blog, comment spell checking, print blog post and a poll for each blog post!
Community Server Blogs 2.0, WordPress 2.0, TypePad and Squarespace have features for tracking your blog posts.
The standard installation of Community Server Blogs 2.0 and WordPress 2.0 do not come with as many publishing features as that of the hosted software services. However, these platforms are very extensible. WordPress 2.0 has a whole array of free tools that provide all sorts of publishing and promotion capabilities. To locate these tools, run a search for WordPress plugins in Google.
Appearance
All the blog software I reviewed come with themes and HTML templates making it easy to customize the skin or appearance of each blog.
WordPress stands out in the number of themes available. One of the websites lists more than 300 freely downloadable and customizable themes in 1 column, 2 columns, 3 columns and 4 columns layout. The downside, is that many of these themes will not compare to the makeover a professional web designer can give your blog,
TypePad seems to have a larger number of high quality professional themes and templates than WordPress.
The deal with themes and templates is that you have to use them as they are bearing in mind that your neighbor down the street may have a similar looking theme with a minor difference in Logo and company name. On the other hand, if you have a good knowledge of CSS and HTML you can use these themes as a starting point for creating a stylish site.
Customization
WordPress and Community Server Blogs are the easiest to customize because your access to the blog software source code is not restricted.
WordPress has the highest number of freely available plugins with which the software can be extended or customize to provide specific features for the blogger.
Community Server is also highly extensible through the use of modules known as HttpModules.
Tip:
To a limited extent, you can customize the browser behavior of all the blog software I reviewed by using your own JavaScript code embedded in the HTML of your blog. The exception to this is Quick Blog.
Blog Maintenance and Scalability
If you own the blog software, the responsibility for backing up the blog lies with you versus when the blog software is hosted and provided as a service to you.
Note:
Community Server Blog and WordPress offer you total access to your blog database and blog files and you can back these up as often as you want.
Note:
Squarespace offers a convenient backup of your blog’s comments in XML format.
The most scalable blog software in my opinion is Community Server Blogs which powers some highly trafficked blogs including MSDN Blogs at blogs.msdn.com and others.
Tip:
If you intend to run multiple blogs or a highly trafficked blog you may want to look into Community Server 2.0 Blogs.
Total Cost of Ownership
Basic cost:
Community Server Blogs has a free personal license version and a paid commercial license with more features. WordPress and Blogger are completely free.
Quick Blog has a very low monthly price at this time.
TypePad and Squarespace each have a set of plans with varying monthly billing prices.
Note that even though Community Server Blogs and WordPress are free, you still have to pay a web hosting company to host the blog software.
Multiple Blogs:
The free personal license version of Community Server Blogs allows you to setup and manage multiple blogs each pointing to separate websites or domains with multiple authors.
If you are going to be hosting multiple blogs (each managed by a blogger) on one domain or several domains, Community Server 2.0 may offer you the lowest Total Cost of Ownership.
Note:
Blogger offers you the ability to setup and manage multiple blogs each with a distinct domain on one account at no cost.
Extensibility:
WordPress has a large number of free plugins and themes for extending your blog. These plugins really do lower your Total Cost of Ownership by driving down custom programming and web design costs for your blog in the long run.
Recommendations on Cost: Consider Community Server 2.0 Blogs if you are going to be managing several blogs.
Consider WordPress if you are going to be extending the features of your blog considerably.
Consider Blogger if you want a free hosted blog software service.
Technical Support
Community Server Blog has a very active forum where you can get answers and help both from the community and the professionals who created the blog software.
WordPress is similar to Community Server in the type of online community system aka bulletin board where both users and blog software developers participate in answering requests for help.
Quick Blog 1.0 comes with Toll Free Phone Support and email support.
TypePad and Squarespace offer a helpdesk system staffed by the blog software vendor.
Domain Hosting:
can you use a domain (e.g. www.kdkeys.org) to navigate to your blog?
With Community Server Blogs and WordPress you have as much control over your domain as your web host allows you, which in most cases is 100%.
With TypePad and Squarespace mapping a domain to your blog is a bit more involved. You will have to deal with technical trivia like CNAMES (aliases), A record (address record) and MX (mail exchanger) records.
Blogger does not require a change to your domain records since the domain is hosted by you.
A new domain setup for Quick Blog was a breeze on GoDaddy.
In summary, I was able to use my own domain with each of the blog software, however, don’t trip over the CNAME, A and MX record part if you need to adjust it.
Checklist for Evaluating a Blog Software
I have compiled a list of questions for you to use in evaluating blog software. The questions are listed below and you can consider them in any order.
Please feel free to post additional questions for me to add to the checklist by using the comment feature on this blog.
- Can you easily add Google AdSense and other advertising services to your blog posts?
- If you have several blog posts with Google AdSense, will you be able to manage all the ads easily?
- Will you have access to your blog raw server log files for web traffic analysis?
- Will you be able to add JavaScript code to your blog posts for web traffic analysis?
- Will your blog readers have easy access to tools for printing, emailing, book marking and recommending your blog posts.
- Will your blog readers have easy access to tools for tracking future posts to your blog through an RSS or ATOM feed and through email?
- Will the blog software come with good quality themes?
- Will you have access to the HTML template using in generating your blog?
- Is it easy to extend the blog software through custom software modules or plugins?
- Will you be able to completely backup your blog when you want to?
- Will you be able to recover your blog from a backup?
- How many readers, domains and blog authors can your blog support?
- What is the Total Cost of Ownership for your blog?
- Will you have access to technical support for your blog?
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4 Responses to “How to Compare and Choose a Blog Software (Community Server Blogs 2.0, WordPress 2.0, TypePad, Squarespace, Quick Blog 1.0 and Blogger) Part 2”
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I think Blogger is blocked by Chinese government, so it cannot be accessed in China. I wonder if the other blog services can be accessed in China.
If you are hosting your own blogging software like WordPress or Community Server, your blog may be more readily accessible.
This page seems to be created by wordpress. It is full of XHTML style breaks, which make it distracting to read (to put it mildly).
I’d advise editing out those breaks for a more readable page.
Mike, you are correct about the style breaks. I would correct it and email you once the style breaks are removed.
Thanks for bringing it to my attention