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[Tracey Hausel Company: Numis Network Contribution Level: 2]

Hi guys and gals! Is Wordpress best to use or something else? I am a complete newbie to blogs and want to start one. Thanks in advance for your help!

[Leonardo Saraceni Contribution Level: 3]

Hi Tracey,

I agree with Alex that blogger is really easy to use, and it will give you an idea of how to maintain and update a blog.

However, there's no discussion today that Wordpress offers the most flexible, creative and effective solution.

If you don't feel comfortable having your own hosted blog (which is the way to go), you can log on to wordpress.com and create a free blog for yourself. It will probably take you a bit longer to get used to all the tools and possibilities, but the learning is well worth the effort.

The most important thing to consider, if you're planning on monetizing your blog, is that no free platform will allow you to have AdSense or to sell Banner Ad slots. Use the free platforms to learn, and then get your own domain.

I have a couple of tutorials on setting up your own hosted blog, once you decide to go that route.

To groovin' bloggin'

Leo Saraceni

[Jeremy Williams Contribution Level: 1]

I have to agree Blogger is very easy to use. Wordpress looks great but I find it confusing. You can also create some nice material on Weebly.

[Juanita Waterman Company: Empower Network, LLC Contribution Level: 9]

www.tumblr.com http://juanitawaterman.tumblr.com/

http://hubpages.com/profile/JuanitaWaterman

Hubpages.com is the Easiest I have found to use. check it out.
Your friend for life Juanita Waterman

[Michael Hoffert Contribution Level: 1]

Blogger is very easy and user friendly. But if you have a little time and want to wow people with your blog WordPress is the way to go. It is not as user friendly, but the applications and pluggins are endless, in my opinion it is worth the time to learn WordPress. Maybe start on Blogger so that you get the ball rolling and go through wordpress on the side. Again, just my opinion.

[Steve Rodgers Contribution Level: 3]

I would suggest you use a Wordpress blog. However use wordpress.org and not wordpress.com

There may seem to be some overwhelming stuff at first, but you'll very easily get used to the control panel and how to maintain your posts and pages.

I'm sure the others mentioned here are great, however wordpress does not require you to look less professional by have a link like yourblog.blogspot.com

For instance, your site can be at http://www.yoursitename.com/blog or it can be at your domain name without the blog extension. It's up to you and has a professional appearance to it.

Because wordpress is an open source platform, programmers are constantly designing plug-ins to help make your blogging experience more customizable. For instance, I use plug-ins to make sure I'm optimizing my site for Search Engine Optimization purposes.

Another big plus for using wordress is that you can use it as a Content Management System (CMS). Basically what that means is you can host and organize your entire site all through wordpress, instead of just having a website with a blog attatched to it.

As mentioned already, there is some feeling your way around, but I will happily assist you and help you around some of the things I had to figure out the hard way. Feel free to get in touch through my profile.

-Steve

[Lane Romero-Reiss Contribution Level: 2]

Since no one else has mentioned it, there is also Squarespace. They don't offer as much flexibility as Wordpress, but they are a lot easier to use for the newbie. The price starts as low as $7/month, which isn't much more than you would pay for hosting in most places. Later, if you want to move over to Wordpress or something else, I know Squarespace allows you to export your blog in its entirety.

Here is one example of a Squarespace blog. If you're a Renegade University student, Mike offers an entire training series on setting up your blog with Squarespace in the professional back office. If you follow his training, you will have your own blog by the end of the series. Then, you can point anyone in your organization to the same training, so it's nice from a duplication standpoint. Of course, there are also trainings on Wordpress you can point people to. There is just a steeper learning curve there.

Lane Reiss

[Steve Rodgers Contribution Level: 3]

Oh just so you know... The only reason I'm suggesting starting with wordpress, is that if you plan to use it later, you might as well start with it.

Things like search engine rankings are a result of compound interest. What that means is that it would be in your best interest to start there so that you don't have to set up all kinds of crazy redirects of content later. If that makes sense?

Hey Lane, your blog recommendation costs more than the 'Facebook' Chat to Text Service
just kidding, bro

-Steve

[Kay R Company: Xocai Healthy Chocolates Contribution Level: 1]

The easiest platform to start with is Blogger -hands down ... but in terms of power and flexibility, a self-hosted WordPress installation is best... Don't sweat it too much because migrating from Blogger to WordPress is pretty easy.

I suggest you start with Blogger, see how well you "take" to blogging. If it's not for you - and it isn't for everyone - there's no point in going to the time and effort to learn the WordPress interface. The point is to get blogging now. Get content up there, start getting traffic. If you like blogging and find it effective, then you really should migrate to WordPress eventually. WordPress has a built-in feature that can import posts from a Blogger blog. I've done it and it works fine.

If you start on Blogger, I would suggest that you register a domain and use URL forwarding to point to your Blogger blog. That way if you change to a self-hosted WordPress installation your blog will still have the same web address.

HTH.

[Matt Belock Contribution Level: 2]

Wordpress. Without a doubt, there are so many capabilities. I have learned to get a post on page 1 in 1 day time.