Tuesday, December 04, 2007
Blogging prediction was almost true
Back in January I suggested that the blogging company Six Apart was going to be sold. A representative of the company soon contacted me and told me that I shouldn't read too much in the reports I'd read and added a comment to my blog entry. However, today I read that Six Apart has indeed sold off one of its blogging platforms, LiveJournal. So I was nearly right...!
What's interesting in the coverage of this sale is that it has gone to Russia, where other blogging platforms, like Blogger or WordPress have failed to gain any substantial users. Maybe LiveJournal supports the Russian alphabet more easily than Blogger or WordPress. Maybe Six Apart has had some really vocal fans in Russia that have helped them gain popularity for LiveJournal. Maybe I was right all along - that SixApart is selling up.
There are several different blogging platforms, from Blogger, to WordPress, Microsoft's offering Live Spaces as well as those from SixApart, including LiveJournal and Movable Type. There are dozens of others, as well as scripts you can download to set up your own blogging system on your own web site.
Much debate goes on in the blogging world as to which is the best system. Indeed, the sale of LiveJournal has sparked a debate, with some disgruntled customers suggesting SixApart always gave higher priority to their other blogging services. Whatever the truth of the matter, worldwide Blogger is the most popular system. It has its critics, true, and it has its problems. But, for anyone starting a blog - and for those wishing to easily integrate a blog into their own web site (such as this one) - it is by far the most straightforward system there is. It's not "No. 1" in the blogging hit parade for nothing.
If you want to integrate a blog into your business, don't let the renewed debate sparked by LiveJournal's sale, misdirect you into various dead ends of testing all the various systems out there. Just choose one you like and get going; for most people Blogger will be the solution as you can have your blog up and running within five minutes.
Labels: blogging
Add this story to:
| BlinkList | BlogMarks | del.icio.us | Digg | Furl | Google | LinkRoll | Lycos |
| ma.gnolia | Netscape | Newsvine | Ning | reddit | Simpy | Spurl | Squidoo | Wink |
Email this story to your friends: 
Readers' Comments:
At
December 05, 2007 1:40 PM 
said…
At
December 05, 2007 11:07 PM 
Graham Jones said…
Rob, my web site is made up of three different blogs all stitched together to make it look like one web site. It is remarkably easy to do using Blogger.com
I've recorded two videos on how to do it which you can view by going to:
http://www.changingblogger.com
At
December 29, 2007 10:02 PM Damien Senn said…
Hi Graham
I can't tell you how grateful I am to you for creating and sharing your videos at www.changingblogger.com. They're brilliant!
Before stumbling across your videos, I'd been scouring the web for months trying to find out how to integrate a blogger blog into an existing website without success.
You can see the result that I have been able to create with your step-by-step advice below...
http://www.peopleyoushouldmeet.com/recordings.htm
Thanks again and keep up the great work!
Damien
Graham
You've raised an interesting point which I've always wondered about - how DO you actually get a blog on your own website without getting one expensively built for you by web developers?
Is it easy to do, or is there help provided by Blogger or the various other platforms? Personally I can chuck together a brochureware site but wouldn't call myself a competent web designer (I don't yet fully understand CSS for example), so is it easy to add a blog?
Rob