Blogging softwares- do they make a difference (2)

Here is another article on the importance of blogging softwares.

Like the previous one, it makes some comparisons between the Blogger, LiveJournal and WordPress, but this article is better written.

There is also mention of other softwares like Drupal which looks to be a more advanced type of push button web publishing.  This is important becuz it shows a continuum of possible site types- from simple Blogger sites to more sophisticated ones that resemble dotcoms.  Thus we can suggest that the complexity of a blogshop business may go hand in hand with the type of platforms used, since we have observed that many blogshops have evolved into full e-commerce sites or dotcoms.

From Blogshop Magazine website: http://www.blogshopmagazine.com/different-types-of-blogging-platforms-for-blogshop-owners/ 

Different Types of Blogging Platforms for Blogshop Owners

by: aidan in Resources // No Comment

There are many blogging platforms available today that are suitable for Blogshop. Some of them are free, while others have a price if you want specific customization. Let’s discuss some of the most common blogging platforms that are used in Blogshop around the web and see which one you prefer.

Livejournal (Free)

LiveJournal (often abbreviated LJ) is a virtual community where Internet users can keep a blog, journal or diary. LiveJournal is also the name of the free and open source[4] server software that was designed to run the LiveJournal virtual community. LiveJournal's blogging features include those found in similar blogging sites (multiple authors, commenting, calendars, and polls). However, LiveJournal differentiates itself from other blogging sites by its WELL-like features of a self-contained community and some social networking features similar to other social networking sites.

Blogger/Blogspot (Free)

Blogger is a blog storage service that allows private or multi-user blogs with time-stamped entries. It is funded by on-screen ads. It was created by Pyra Labs, which was bought by Google in 2003.The service itself is located at www.blogger.com. Generally, the blogs are hosted by Google at subdomains of blogspot.com. Until May 1 2010 an FTP service allows pages edited through Blogger to be published to other hosts. If this service ceases, all blogger blogs will be hosted by Google, though domains other than blogspot.com may be used.

WordPress (Open Source)

WordPress is an open source CMS, often used as a blog publishing application powered by PHP and MySQL. It has many features including a plugin architecture and a templating system. Used by over 2% of the 10,000 biggest websites, WordPress is the most popular blog software in use today. It was first released in May 2003 by Matt Mullenweg as a fork of b2/cafelog. As of September 2009, it was being used by 202 million websites worldwide.

Drupal (Open Source)

Drupal (pronounced /ˈdruːpəl/) is a free and open source[2] content management system (CMS) written in PHP and distributed under the GNU General Public License. It is used as a back-end system for at least 1% of all websites worldwide[5], ranging from small personal blogs to large corporate and political sites, including whitehouse.gov nand data.gov.uk. It is also used for knowledge management and business collaboration.

Joomla (Open Source)

Joomla! is an open source content management system platform for publishing content on the World Wide Web and intranets as well as a Model–view–controller (MVC) Web application framework. It is written in PHP, stores data in MySQL and includes features such as page caching, RSS feeds, printable versions of pages, news flashes, blogs, polls, search, and support for language internationalization.

Custom CMS

A content management system (CMS) is a collection of procedures used to manage workflow in a collaborative environment. These procedures can be manual or computer-based. The procedures are designed to:

• Allow for a large number of people to contribute to and share stored data
• Control access to data, based on user roles. User roles define what information each user can view or edit
• Aid in easy storage and retrieval of data
• Reduce repetitive duplicate input
• Improve the ease of report writing
• Improve communication between users

In a CMS, data can be defined as nearly anything - documents, movies, pictures, phone numbers, scientific data, etc. CMSs are frequently used for storing, controlling, revising, semantically enriching, and publishing documentation.

Selection Dilemma?

If you wanted to set-up a blogshop quickly and readily, my advice to you is to use the free platforms that are available to you. You can start and play around with the free platforms until you have earned money or are ready for expansion. You can then move on to either hire a professional freelancer/web company to set up your own domain site with your own CMS to start your eCommerce shop, or you can do it yourself if you’re web savvy enough.