Blogs - Multipurpose Publishing Platforms? - Online Consumer Forums Digital-Boards.com The Consumer Network

Cobalt · 02-21-2007

In the past, I've used blog platforms such as Wordpress for a number of different types of website. Not only have I used them as blogs in the traditional sense of the word, but also as a primitive content management system. If I've had an undeveloped domain, more often than not I've got the ball rolling by installing a blog and publishing related content and links regarding the topic in an attempt to start generating traffic.

The ease of which you can get a site up and running is incredible - the so-called famous five minute install of Wordpress barely takes that after a little practice.

What do you use blogs for? Presently, I have me own blog, my other half has her own blog, but also she runs a small craft-related blog which is used to publish cardmaking and scrapbooking tutorials, craft techniques, craft articles, links to partner sites and so forth. So far this has been pretty successful, and whilst traffic is only modest, we have spent nothing advertising the site so far and are already gaining interest - we've even had one or two newsletter signups which is fantastic.

Lloyd Brown · 02-21-2007

Very informative post Cobalt, and right on the money.

Do you host your own blogs or use a free hosting service?

pp2 · 02-28-2007

I agree with you, Cobalt, blogs are of great use as free space on the internet. Such sites as blogger.com -a Google service, provide users with a tremendous amount of webspace at no cost whatsoever. You can even use your own domain url for this one.
In fact, there are so many blog sites which allow free accounts it is quickly becoming difficult to maintain a list of them.
I chose to use Blogger.com which is actually addressed as iFactFindersbecause they have a number of features such as image add ons and youtube video hosting which some of the others do not offer.
So far, I have been extremely happy with the level of service provided by Blogger. It is sometimes surprising that you do not always get what you pay for. In the virtual world, many times a user will get a lot more for the money than the physical world!

Cobalt · 02-28-2007

I always host my own blogs as I like to use them a lot to develop domain names. With a little back link building and Search Engine Optimization I managed to generate traffic and hit PR4 in not too long at all. Regular, fresh content played a big part too, though!

Many hosting services are actually petty good with minimal or no ads. Wide choice of themes too. I just have plenty of hosting and VPS accounts knocking around so it's almost as easy for me to install a fresh copy of Wordpress or whatever.

Lloyd Brown · 02-28-2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cobalt

Many hosting services are actually petty good with minimal or no ads. Wide choice of themes too.

So you are using free hosts? Not concerned with their traffic skim?

Lloyd Brown · 03-01-2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by pp2

I agree with you, Cobalt, blogs are of great use as free space on the internet. Such sites as blogger.com -a Google service, provide users with a tremendous amount of webspace at no cost whatsoever. You can even use your own domain url for this one.
In fact, there are so many blog sites which allow free accounts it is quickly becoming difficult to maintain a list of them.
I chose to use Blogger.com which is actually addressed as iFactFindersbecause they have a number of features such as image add ons and youtube video hosting which some of the others do not offer.
So far, I have been extremely happy with the level of service provided by Blogger. It is sometimes surprising that you do not always get what you pay for. In the virtual world, many times a user will get a lot more for the money than the physical world!

They offer nothing being hosted by them that you wouldn't have if you hosted it yourself.

There are too many downsides, and hosting is too cheap to risk my time and energy to using a free host service.

Cobalt · 03-01-2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lloyd Brown

So you are using free hosts? Not concerned with their traffic skim?

Not at present - I have used them in the past before I had hosting accounts practically lying around spare. These days, you can pick up hosting for a few dollars a month and it simply isn't worth using free hosts unless you genuinely cannot afford it.

I do have the occasional look round friends accounts - a lot use the likes of Blogspot I believe it is, and services certainly have come on a bit. As you pointed out they still aren't anything that you couldn't do yourself with a bit of work, though I suppose they still are an option for those less technically minded who don't relish the idea of trying to set up a database.

tgoforth1984 · 03-07-2007

I use my blog to talk about things going on in my daily life. I sometimes give product reviews to help others out. They are just basically a way for me to vent my frustrations or talk about the things I am excited about.

randle · 03-13-2007

blogging is a wonderful way to network and meet no people its more about how and where you blog though. I dont like wordpress, I guess thats due to me not really liking the bladness of the site.

jimberan · 03-13-2007

I use a couple of different blogs for my web publishing company. We use the blogs for creating inbould links to our main websites. If you write interesting blog posts and they get published on other sites or atleast linked to then its great for getting page rank on the main websites.

02-21-2007	#1 (permalink)
Cobalt Consumer Join Date: Feb 2007 Posts: 50	Blogs - Multipurpose Publishing Platforms? In the past, I've used blog platforms such as Wordpress for a number of different types of website. Not only have I used them as blogs in the traditional sense of the word, but also as a primitive content management system. If I've had an undeveloped domain, more often than not I've got the ball rolling by installing a blog and publishing related content and links regarding the topic in an attempt to start generating traffic. The ease of which you can get a site up and running is incredible - the so-called famous five minute install of Wordpress barely takes that after a little practice. What do you use blogs for? Presently, I have me own blog, my other half has her own blog, but also she runs a small craft-related blog which is used to publish cardmaking and scrapbooking tutorials, craft techniques, craft articles, links to partner sites and so forth. So far this has been pretty successful, and whilst traffic is only modest, we have spent nothing advertising the site so far and are already gaining interest - we've even had one or two newsletter signups which is fantastic.

02-28-2007	#3 (permalink)
pp2 Consumer Join Date: Feb 2007 Posts: 3	Blogs as multi purpose platforms I agree with you, Cobalt, blogs are of great use as free space on the internet. Such sites as blogger.com -a Google service, provide users with a tremendous amount of webspace at no cost whatsoever. You can even use your own domain url for this one. In fact, there are so many blog sites which allow free accounts it is quickly becoming difficult to maintain a list of them. I chose to use Blogger.com which is actually addressed as iFactFindersbecause they have a number of features such as image add ons and youtube video hosting which some of the others do not offer. So far, I have been extremely happy with the level of service provided by Blogger. It is sometimes surprising that you do not always get what you pay for. In the virtual world, many times a user will get a lot more for the money than the physical world!

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02-21-2007	#2 (permalink)
Lloyd Brown Administrator Join Date: Sep 2006 Posts: 518	Very informative post Cobalt, and right on the money. Do you host your own blogs or use a free hosting service?

02-28-2007	#4 (permalink)
Cobalt Consumer Join Date: Feb 2007 Posts: 50	I always host my own blogs as I like to use them a lot to develop domain names. With a little back link building and Search Engine Optimization I managed to generate traffic and hit PR4 in not too long at all. Regular, fresh content played a big part too, though! Many hosting services are actually petty good with minimal or no ads. Wide choice of themes too. I just have plenty of hosting and VPS accounts knocking around so it's almost as easy for me to install a fresh copy of Wordpress or whatever.

03-07-2007	#8 (permalink)
tgoforth1984 Consumer Join Date: Mar 2007 Posts: 80	I use my blog to talk about things going on in my daily life. I sometimes give product reviews to help others out. They are just basically a way for me to vent my frustrations or talk about the things I am excited about.

03-13-2007	#9 (permalink)
randle Consumer Join Date: Mar 2007 Posts: 35	blogging is a wonderful way to network and meet no people its more about how and where you blog though. I dont like wordpress, I guess thats due to me not really liking the bladness of the site.

03-13-2007	#10 (permalink)
jimberan Consumer Join Date: Mar 2007 Posts: 21	I use a couple of different blogs for my web publishing company. We use the blogs for creating inbould links to our main websites. If you write interesting blog posts and they get published on other sites or atleast linked to then its great for getting page rank on the main websites.