by Julie Hume

Created on: September 01, 2009

Once upon a time creating and maintaining a website required knowledge of html (Hyper text Mark-up Language) or at the very least a passing familiarity with a so called WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor like MS Frontpage or Dreamweaver. While Frontpage was renowned for bloated and messy code it did at least enable almost anyone to slap together a website without needing to get to grips with HTML or any of its ever more obscure coding language cousins.

Dreamweaver in comparison did not leave such messy code in its wake but seemed to get ever more complicated with each new release which sort of cancels out the benefits of using a WYSIWYG in the first place.

While websites today can be set up on a content management system which makes the creation and upkeep of content much more intuitive it would be hard to beat the simplicity and very short learning curve of a blog platform.

Whether the intention is to create a multi-user environment for a company or a highly visual and interactive webspace for an individual freelancer, artist or consultant, getting started on a blog platform like Wordpress or Google's Blogger is extremely simple. In fact it can be so simple that signing up to either Wordpress.com or Blogger.com and filling in the required fields would have you up and running in minutes.

This however is not recommended. If you choose the Blogger platform you should still have purchased a domain and have it hosted elsewhere in order to dispense with the ugly and unprofessional 'blogspot' suffix that it gets tagged with.

Similarly to use Wordpress's native platform you must be prepared to forgo all forms of advertising. While a company website may not be looking to showcase Adsense or affiliate advertising, any form of commercialization of a website hosted on Wordpress.com is frowned upon. In order to maintain complete control of your own web space, you need to have your own domain and have it hosted elsewhere.

Because it is so easy to get up and running, those unfamiliar with blogging platforms may not realise the power and flexibility that they offer. It is true that it takes minutes to install the default 'Kubrik' theme for Wordpress, usually through the Fantastico panel of the host's control panel but you are not restricted to using it. There are thousands of free wordpress themes available through wordpress.org and most of them are further customizable to make them uniquely your own.

Wordpress and other blogging platforms also offer plug-ins

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