Choosing the best Blog/Wiki Platform
Blogs are quickly becoming one of the easiest and most popular ways for people to share their opinions with the world. Anyone with internet access, even from a cell phone, can be a blogger and obtain their very own home in cyberspace. Many people like the fact that blogs allow you to customize almost everything, from the colours of the background, to the way that readers can navigate through the page.
However, nowadays with the myriad choices of blogging platforms, it is important to choose the one that can assure you of an audience that will keep visiting your blog. This usually depends on the quality of the blog platform. The blog platform is the software that runs the background, allowing you to control your content and other factors like comments and particular settings for authorized users. The pages of content in your blog are stored in a number of databases that run in the background, extremely efficiently, so much so that you do not realize the way they work. Knowing how to manipulate the source code of your platform enables you to tweak your page, and add widgets (small programs that can tell you anything from the time and date to the latest sport scores), among many other things. Users who wish to share their programming knowledge with the world have chosen to share their widgets with others, so they can save themselves the time and just download the ones they desire.
When considering which blog platform to use, one most consider the convenience of transferring content, the effect that the platform will have on search engine rankings, the purpose of the blog (personal or commercial; users who wish to keep an online diary may make use of the several free blog platforms available), the budget, if any, and the technological experience of the blogger.
Users who are not the most tech-savvy may opt for a free blog platform that gives them an easy interface to work with, requiring little or no knowledge of programming and coding. At the same time, commercial bloggers can always do just the content themselves while they hire someone to take care of technical nags such as plug-ins, widgets etc. Commercial users should also be careful not to put off readers by using excessively colourful or eye-straining backgrounds and interfaces. On the other hand, the casual blogger may opt for a platform, which allows him/her to easily change backgrounds and navigation panes to make it slightly funky.
Bloggers also need to think ahead and consider whether they will be uploading videos and audio to their blog. Nowadays, most blogs allow users to upload content directly from their cell phones, such as pictures and video, to their blogs. This eliminates the hassle of having to first dump the content on the computer, and then upload it to the blog. Therefore, bloggers should preferably select platforms that make media sharing easy. Choosing a blog platform may seem an easy task, but a lot of careful consideration should go into it, to avoid having to switch platforms later.
