How to Choose a Blog Host

Decide which blogging host and/or software you'll choose to host your blog.

Step1

Determine what technical skill level you are. If you aren't very comfortable with system administration or HTML and CSS, you probably won't want to host your own blog, or write custom templates. This will limit your choices to blogs that are already setup or hosted by an online provider, such as WordPress and Blogger. If you are comfortable with system administration, but not HTML or CSS, you can host the site yourself, but use pre-built blogging software

Step2

Review Available options for blogging software. If you want to be 'hardcore', you could write your own software and run it from your own computer. If you're like most people, though, you won't want to do that. Your main choices are:

Step3

A hosted service. The two biggest services are Blogger (run by Google) and Wordpress.com (run by Wordpress.org). Others include Typepad (which is a hosted version of the Moveable Type software) and the various social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook. Typically, the social networking sites are focused on groups of friends, and the blog sites are not, although most blogs can be set to only be read by "members" or "friends". LiveJournal incorporates both aspects and is often considered a hybrid. If you expect your posts to be very short (under 140 characters) and sent from a mobile phone, you may want to consider Twitter, which fills that exact niche. Generally, Blogger is considered to be easier, but less customizable than other choices in this category, but there are still plenty of options.

Step4

Packaged software that you set up and host on a site you own. Several software packages exist that you can install on a server you own (or rent) and have the same functionality as the hosted services. Options here include Blogger, Wordpress.org, Movable Type, LifeType, and many others. Wordpress is arguably the most popular option for this type of installation, but the others are also extremely common. The biggest hurdle here is that you are responsible for providing the the installation space for the blogging software, as well as the installation and setup. This complicates the setup, but also allows for much more customization. Many web hosting providers also include built-in installers for blogging software, eliminating much of the hassle of setting up a server with the necessary software to run the blog.

Step5

A third option is to use a Content Management System (CMS) to set up an entire website and dedicate part of the site to blogging. If you intend to include a lot of media, document libraries, multiple blogs, forums, shopping carts, or if you want a website but think that a blog would be easier to manage, you may want to consider this option.

Step6

Choose which option best fits you. Choose the level of technical detail that's best for you, choose an solution in that category that fits, and try it out! You can see what several blogs on the different providers look like by going to their main sites (blogspot.com, wordpress.com, etc) or by looking for them by name on search engines.