Blog Site Suggestions?

[Winds]

Blog Site Suggestions?

I am working on understanding the different blog sites.
Not sure that I will use one yet, trying to sift through the information at this point.

Which blog site is best and why?
You may not wish to write a technical review, bullets are good though.

Currently, I am looking at:

Wordpress.com
Blogger.com
Tumblr.com
LiveJournal.com

Anything you experienced blog folks can tell me is appreciated!

[Six-Six]

I have a blog, but if I had to do it over again, just for the trail, I would create a Facebook page instead. Seems easier to post, join, and comment. FWIW.

[Winds]

I have a blog, but if I had to do it over again, just for the trail, I would create a Facebook page instead. Seems easier to post, join, and comment. FWIW.

Thanks 6-6, I thought of that as well.
But the posting options of a blog seem good.
I can email a blog with comments / photos / songs or audio files and post them like I was sitting at my office computer - FROM the trail or hotel, etc. - anywhere I can find a link to the Internet. Does Facebook allow such?

Blogger.com has a very standardized email format which anyone can learn in no time.
This is why I am asking though as I am barely scratching the surface now.

[Six-Six]

Yes, FB allows all of that too. I use blogspot.com myself. I like the look of other pages from wordpress too.

[Edwardo Rodriguez]

First do you want it for yourself, friends and family member to follow you. or do you want to help other as they getting ready to plan their hike and are looking for how other before them did and what trials and hardships you and endure and how you overcame them. http://www.trailjournals.com/ there is a fee for trail journals buthttp://postholer.com/ there is no fee.

[Spokes]

I've had a blogger account for years and have come to hate it. Seems clunky compared to the others you listed.

I really like the free Wordpress.com site. Mainly because of its versatility. You can add posts on the fly with their smartphone app and even add an audio post with the "post by voice" feature. There's a little learning curve.

Cheers!

[Blissful]

I use blogspot for mine (see link on my signature line). I've thought of switching but haven't yet.

[waywardfool]

An alternative...for six bucks a month, get hosting and domain registration (I use bluehost.com). Use the SimpleScripts utility in Cpanel to setup your own wordpress site. (it's much, much easier than it sounds there).

That way it's always there (as long as you pay the renewal, I do 2 years at the time), and it is under your complete control. A great advantage to hosting your own domain is that you have email accounts on your domain that follow you as long as you want. I have owned my own domain since way back -- 1997 or so. Been thru 4 or 5 different ISP's for Internet access, and never, not once, had to change my email address.

[bamboo bob]

http://www.trailjournals.com/[/URL] there is a fee for trail journals buthttp://postholer.com/ there is no fee.

There is no fee for Trailjournals although you can donate like you can donate to Whiteblaze

[postholer.com]

I am working on understanding the different blog sites.
Not sure that I will use one yet, trying to sift through the information at this point.

Which blog site is best and why?

If you're seeking the ultimate in trail journals, take a look a postholer journals. Postholer journals is the most advanced hiker-centric journal/blog site to be found:

http://postholer.com/journal

Wordpress, Blogger, Facebook, etc, have nothing to do with hiking. They don't have any features specifically for hikers. Here's what postholer journals offer:

Journal Features
+ Free, no advertisements, it's all about your hike.
+ Add journal entrys/photos by EMail, Smart phone, Kindle, whatever!
+ Google trail map (with trail trace) of your entrys for major long distance trails.
+ Postholer Mobile optimized for smart phone users!
+ Integrate SPOT Personal Messenger into your journal map!
+ Photo Manager, 5 photos per entry, 1,250 per journal. Need more? Just ask.
+ Immediate, last 20 Twitter messages (tweet your GPS location, too!)
+ Gear List, spreadsheet like
+ Trip Planner, spreadsheet like
+ Training Log, spreadsheet like
+ Extended journal information, min/max temps, high/low elevation, etc, etc.
+ Embed your journal in your website!
+ Option to make your journal private, does not appear in searches
+ Multiple journal handling that will blow your mind!
+ Download your entire journal in xml format
+ Optional guest book for your visitors, with your comments
+ Integrated journal & forum accounts
+ Automatic bookmarks for readers - up to 200 journals
+ RSS support for timely notification of journal updates

-postholer

[Spokes]

I've often wondered..... If you have a website why would you want to embed a journal to it? Seems like double the work.

[postholer.com]

I've often wondered..... If you have a website why would you want to embed a journal to it? Seems like double the work.

Because you get all the nifty features postholer.com has to offer, integrated maps, emailing entrys, etc without lifting a finger and you can call it your own.

-postholer

[Spokes]

Bada-Bing!

[Theosus]

I use Wordpress myself. Their iPhone app is pretty nice. Ive written whole entries on the iPhone with it. It will hold them in draft form on your phone until you reach somewhere with signal and you can post. There is a little learning curve to posting pictures in your entries, but once you get it, it's easy. Links are a bit tougher. I just type them in HTML, it's not hard to remember how to do a link in code, if you really need one. The app also gives you your stats at a glance, and lets you approve comments. Anything else, like changing themes and such you have to do from a pc (you might be able to do it from safari on the iPhone, but I haven't tried that).
They might have a similar Droid app, I don't know, you'll have to check their site if you have a droid. I don't know anyone that uses Wordpress from a droid, most of the users I know have a real phone.

Can't say anything about the other blog sites, I think I tried one years ago, but I dropped it.

You could make a facebook page instead. It lets you do a lot of the same stuff blogs do, but gets clunky following someone's adventures. At least a blog can be dedicated to one series of things. I.e. In Wordpress you can set a "hiking" category, and make all your hiking posts in that category. If someone just wants to follow your hikes, they can avoid your thoughts on the global warming myth, the bums at occupy wall street, or your posits on the Higgs Boson and what it means for General Relativity.

[BrianLe]

To the comment about using Facebook, I would add that I did use Facebook on my trip last year --- AND a blog site (I've been happy with postholer.com for my trips). I found it helpful to do an infrequent post to Facebook, perhaps once every time I got into a trail town, plus when I had a particularly interesting photo or incident to share. And in general, include a "for more information ..." comment pointing to the relevant blog post.

With a blog site, I can always --- years later --- go back and send a link to a specific days' entry, with pictures, that's focused on just what I posted that day. I've found that helpful on quite a number of occasions. I'm not sure if Facebook's new 'timeline' feature will mean a person can always go back and see anything, but a blog site packages up everything for a particular trip very nicely. And I feel comfortable adding as much detail/information as I want. Facebook is really designed more for relatively short snippets, i.e., "Here's a picture of my cat, isn't s/he the cutest cat?" sort of thing.

[Theosus]

With a blog site, I can always --- years later --- go back and send a link to a specific days' entry, with pictures, that's focused on just what I posted that day. I've found that helpful on quite a number of occasions. I'm not sure if Facebook's new 'timeline' feature will mean a person can always go back and see anything, but a blog site packages up everything for a particular trip very nicely. And I feel comfortable adding as much detail/information as I want. Facebook is really designed more for relatively short snippets, i.e., "Here's a picture of my cat, isn't s/he the cutest cat?" sort of thing.

Timeline sucks. You can go back and view stuff, but it's hard. If you really want to use Facebook, make a new Facebook page and call it "hiker dan" or something, tell all your friends to go there. ONLY put your hiking stuff there, instead of the day to day minutia of life, castleville requests, silly photos of people in Walmart, etc. Etc. Of course if you already use Facebook, you can post your blog links on Facebook. One of my blog entries got 985 hits in one day from Facebook. It was scary. I normally average that in a month. The nice thing about a separate blog, is five years from now it will be there. Look at MySpace... When Facebook has faded away and no one is using it, your blog will still be there, but if it's all on Facebook, you lose all that effort.

[STICK]

I am on Wordpress myself and like it well enough. It is the .com and free. Although, I do pay for my own domain, mapping and basically to "unlist' my info. For a year on WP this cost $25.

[strollingalong]

blogger is awkward and inaccurate. wordpress wins handsdown