By Miles Evans
The blogging platform wars are getting really interesting and much of the discussion I find myself in lately revolves around what is happening with various CMS systems. The market can essentially be defined into 3 major camps: remotely hosted, self hosted, and community based systems. I have used pretty much every blogging platform available and each of them has its ups and downs. In this article I will cover the best options for each area taking into account price, usability, market share and of course SEO potential.
All of these products are either open source, completely free or have a functional free version. Links were stripped from this article so you may want to check out the original best blogging software [http://www.profitpapers.com/reviews/best-blogging-software.php] article at ProfitPapers.
Remotely Hosted Blogging Software
(Note: I cannot really recommend any of these from an SEO stand point as optimizing a domain you do not own or control is obviously not a good marketing plan.)
Blogger
Blogger is completely free and currently owns the majority of the remotely hosted user base, but not by a land slide . Bought out by Google in 1999, Blogger essentially fired up the blogging trend we see today. It is by far the easiest overall solution to use and if you are a novice user looking to throw up some recipes or poetry, this is for you. Blogger is completely free and includes some great features like comments, photo blogging, and a basic community feel with user profiles. Because it is so dumbed down there are some features you may not find with Blogger that are only available through 3rd party add-ons. As a side note Blogger weblogs do quite well in the search engines and this was recently exploited with it being the first choice for spam blogs or splogs. A splog is a weblog used for the sole purpose of gaining inbound links or generating thousands of keyword stuffed pages with Adsense and the like. The recent Google Jagger update cleared a large portion of this up. Free.
Typepad
Released in 2003 Typepad is a product of Sixapart, the makers of Movable Type. it is largely based on MT but there are some major enhancements and differences. Your blog can accomodate one or more photo albums with auto thumbnail generation. You can easily add music, books, and other media to Typelists, which grab a thumbnail from Amazon and other retailers for easily displaying in your sidebar. Typepad is also a great deal more technical than Blogger so a bit of HTML know how is recommended. On that note editing your blog to look the way you want it also quite easy and Typepad blogs are known for being very eye pleasing, intuitive and easy to navigate. In Sixapart's business model Typepad is aimed at regular home and small business users while Movable Type is targeted at larger businesses or for internal intranets. Price: Basic, $4.95 a month; premium, $8.95 to $14.95 a month.
Xanga
These guys originated back in 1999 as a site for sharing book, music and movie reviews. Although it quickly morphed into a full blown blogging tool Xanga still maintains the ability to run a powerful review site. Xanga pulls data from several retailers like Amazon.com including thumbnails, pricing and a cover. The software also is very usable by novices with a powerful WYSIWYG editor allowing for easy HTML editing, adding smilies, links, and other symbols. By using Blog rings it is also easy to interface with Xanga's other 3 million users to share interests, ideas, and of course traffic. Xanga comes in a free and $25 flavor.
Mentions: Blogsome, Blogster, MindSay, Multiply,
Self Hosted Blogging Software
WordPress
WordPress originally began as a mod of an older open source package known as B2. WP is MT's biggest competition and is often the bain of endless Wordpress vs Movabletype style threads around the internet. Although launched just over a year or so ago WP has really taken the blogosphere by storm. And with good reason - Wordpress is completely free under GNU licensing and is packed with many featured you will not find anywhere else. It is also much easier to install and get blogging for novice users and has a very large and helpful community. WP runs on PHP/mySQL and is quite scalable judging from some of the very large and trafficked sites I see using it. It also sports utilities to import files from Movable Type, Textpattern, Greymatter, Blogger, and b2. Wordpress recently upped the ante when Yahoo recently included them on their hosting packages, in addition to MT. I have to admit I am finding myself more and more digging WP and will likely convert Profitpapers to WP as I get time (it can be a biznitch). Wordpress is free.
Movable Type
Aside from maybe Greymatter (the original open source blogging tool), Movabletype dominated the blogging market share in 2002-2004. Released in late 2001, Perl based Movable Type by Sixapart has maintained a large portion of the blogging market share, due mainly to the fact that there is a free version (supporting up to 3 weblogs) and that it is incredibly powerful, intuitive and easy to customize. Template driven Movable Type also sports one of the largest communities of developers and blogging enthusiasts around, meaning lots of support, idea sharing, and of course plugins. Movable Type can be configured to dynamically generate HTML, PHP or any other kind of pages you like, meaning it is incredibly scalable, fast, and loved by spiders. It is perhaps the most well known blogging software for SEO purposes and it what currently powers Profitpapers and several of my other projects. Moveabletype is either Free with 3 authors, 1 weblog, and no support or $69.95 with unlimited weblogs, authors and full support.
Textpattern
Textpattern is the brainchild of Dean Allen and was written to ease publishing of content for those not inclined to learn HTML. Like WP and MT Textpattern runs on PHP and mySQL for easy administration, backups, and power. What really sets textpattern apart from the others is the integration of Textile. Textile is a tool for easily formatting content for those who do not know HTML. WP & MT have modules for textile as well but it is native to the Textpattern system. Another bonus of the app is its superior handling of comment spam due to its smaller market share. On a blogs I maintain running WP and MT I often find myself clearing out spam every day, whereas on some very busy textpattern sites I receive only manual comment spam (not bot driven). TP is open source.
Mentions: Blosxom, LifeType, Serendipity.
Community based Blogging Software
Slash
Waaaaay back in 1997, Rob "CmdrTaco" Malda launched a website known as Chips & Dips, supplied via his student account at Hope College in Michigan. In 1999 Andover.net acquired Slashdot. Shortly after, the underlying code was released as open source software called Slash. Like Movable Type and Greymatter, Slash runs on Perl, but it also has established hooks into MySQL and a very strong track record of scaling to enormous traffic levels. To give you an idea, the term 'slashdotted' originated from acquiring a link on this now infamous and very popular tech news website – and consequently watching your servers melt. If you have never messed around with Slash, you really should as it is quite a powerful platform. Slash is open source.
Scoop
Another well known Perl based community blogging software is Scoop. Scoop is the software that powers Kuro5shin, DailyKos and many other busy community weblogs. Scoop took the Slashdot idea and expanded on it, making the discussion rather than the news the focus of the application. Where Slashdot entries tend to have a link with added commentary pointing readers off the site, Scoop points to stories written by members of the community keeping the reader within your own weblog. Scoop is also well known for handling large volumes of traffic and a large very technical community. Scoop is free .
Drupal
Drupal is a well known open source community blogging platform with a very large community of users and developers. Not only is Drupal free but it is damn powerful. Instead of Perl, which is quite hard to decode at times, even if you are a fluent coder, Drupal uses a PHP/mySQL platform. Drupal is also a very community focused application with a built in forum, download area, and hundreds of other home brewed mods and hacks. If you are looking for a lot of functionality give Drupal a check - the project has become quite mature. It is also much easier to use and customize than either Scoop or Slash. Drupal is also another open source project.
Mentions: LiveJournal, PHP Nuke.
Miles Evans writes for ProfitPapers [http://www.profitpapers.com] where he writes essays on organic SEO, SEM, development and other equally fascinating subjects.
Article Source: Best Blogging Software
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Monday, July 5, 2010
7 Basic Tools Needed to Start a Topical Stamp Collection
By Janice Dugas
Apart from the stamp themselves, the essential tools you need as a stamp collector are very simple and geared to maintain order and good care of your collection.
1. Album
You cannot always keep your stamps and envelopes with stamps on them in a shoe box! They deserve a better home and also, a better way of being displayed.
The first album printed specifically for stamps was published by Lallier of Paris in 1862 and since that time, many types of album became available. Nowadays, you can even choose to collect by country or by subjects, and find corresponding albums on your main topical choices.
Do keep in mind that you do not have to buy a "printed" album to store your collection, as you may, instead, acquire a three ring binder and keep your stamps on loose leaf stock sheets. Quite simple and unexpensive, this system gives you much more flexibility that a printed album as you can easily shuffle your album pages around while your collections grows.
2. Catalogues
Stamp catalogues are an essential guide. They provide an illustrated listing of the postage stamps issued by the postal administrations of the world along with their market value.
It is the tool by excellence to identify and store chronologically your stamps. They are updated on a regular basis to reflect the changes in the market value along with the addition of new issues
Pretty much every country has its own specialized catalogues. For example, Yvert & Tellier for France, Michel catalogue for Germany, Zumstein catalogue for Switzerland, Stanley Gibbons for Great Britain, to name just these few.
The Scott Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue published by Scott Publishing Co. in the United States, contains the listing of all the stamps issued by all the countries of the world.
3. Tongs
Always use tongs to manipulate your stamps in order to avoid damaging them with your fingers or skin oil. As the condition of the stamp is directly related to its value on the market, you must take great care.
4. Magnifying Glass
Very handy when comes the time to check for varieties, errors, oddities and freaks, but also to decipher the cancellation on used stamps and difficult to read inscriptions.
5. Hinges
In the past, many postage stamps completely lost their value because they were affixed to album pages with glue or scotch tape! We owe much to the inventor of stamp hinges as these small, folded, transparent and rectangular pieces of paper coated with a mild gum are now safely used to affix used postage stamps onto the album pages.
6. Perforation gauge
It is not uncommon to find two stamps with identical design and colors but not having the same perforations. It is now easy to measure such perforations with the gauge and properly identify the stamps. The first perforated stamps appeared in Great Britain in 1854. Before that date, stamps were issued imperforate.
7. Transparent Glassines
They can hold unsorted or unidentified stamps until you have time to work on them or can be used to display your collection in this format as well.
You now know the basic tools you need to start your stamp collection.
Happy stamping!
Janice Dugas is a professional stamp collector and has been actively involved in the stamp collecting community for more than 16 years. She joyfully shares her knowledge about the most fascinating hobby in the world. If you are passionate of topical stamp collecting, you must visit her blog at http://www.secretstostampcollecting.com/members
Article Source: 7 Basic Tools Needed to Start a Topical Stamp Collection
Apart from the stamp themselves, the essential tools you need as a stamp collector are very simple and geared to maintain order and good care of your collection.
1. Album
You cannot always keep your stamps and envelopes with stamps on them in a shoe box! They deserve a better home and also, a better way of being displayed.
The first album printed specifically for stamps was published by Lallier of Paris in 1862 and since that time, many types of album became available. Nowadays, you can even choose to collect by country or by subjects, and find corresponding albums on your main topical choices.
Do keep in mind that you do not have to buy a "printed" album to store your collection, as you may, instead, acquire a three ring binder and keep your stamps on loose leaf stock sheets. Quite simple and unexpensive, this system gives you much more flexibility that a printed album as you can easily shuffle your album pages around while your collections grows.
2. Catalogues
Stamp catalogues are an essential guide. They provide an illustrated listing of the postage stamps issued by the postal administrations of the world along with their market value.
It is the tool by excellence to identify and store chronologically your stamps. They are updated on a regular basis to reflect the changes in the market value along with the addition of new issues
Pretty much every country has its own specialized catalogues. For example, Yvert & Tellier for France, Michel catalogue for Germany, Zumstein catalogue for Switzerland, Stanley Gibbons for Great Britain, to name just these few.
The Scott Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue published by Scott Publishing Co. in the United States, contains the listing of all the stamps issued by all the countries of the world.
3. Tongs
Always use tongs to manipulate your stamps in order to avoid damaging them with your fingers or skin oil. As the condition of the stamp is directly related to its value on the market, you must take great care.
4. Magnifying Glass
Very handy when comes the time to check for varieties, errors, oddities and freaks, but also to decipher the cancellation on used stamps and difficult to read inscriptions.
5. Hinges
In the past, many postage stamps completely lost their value because they were affixed to album pages with glue or scotch tape! We owe much to the inventor of stamp hinges as these small, folded, transparent and rectangular pieces of paper coated with a mild gum are now safely used to affix used postage stamps onto the album pages.
6. Perforation gauge
It is not uncommon to find two stamps with identical design and colors but not having the same perforations. It is now easy to measure such perforations with the gauge and properly identify the stamps. The first perforated stamps appeared in Great Britain in 1854. Before that date, stamps were issued imperforate.
7. Transparent Glassines
They can hold unsorted or unidentified stamps until you have time to work on them or can be used to display your collection in this format as well.
You now know the basic tools you need to start your stamp collection.
Happy stamping!
Janice Dugas is a professional stamp collector and has been actively involved in the stamp collecting community for more than 16 years. She joyfully shares her knowledge about the most fascinating hobby in the world. If you are passionate of topical stamp collecting, you must visit her blog at http://www.secretstostampcollecting.com/members
Article Source: 7 Basic Tools Needed to Start a Topical Stamp Collection
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Updating Yourself As a Blogger Or Writer
Like updating your anti-virus software. Whether you are a blogger or a copywriter, a writer or a journalist, believe it or not, there will come a day when you sit down in front of your computer feeling like you are absolutely dry. Empty. Said enough. Enough said.
Writing and blogging online makes it disadvantageous for you because blogging means capturing and recording everything online. You have to come up with new things to blog about, to write about, that is entertaining and wise, funny and memorable. Nobody wants to revisit a boring blog that talks about nothing but how blue the sky is.
Bloggers need to get creative with the way they write things because you don't get to sell the same thing over and over again...like a cell phone or a tube of hand lotion. It's the same thing that you sell to different people. For online writers and bloggers, you need to sell different things to different people all the time.
Any good business blogger can tell you that they consistently break up the same topic into minuscule components and then write it from a different angle.
For example, today you could be talking about blogging, you break it up into the health, creative, inspiration, fingers, mental, ideas, links, etc. Topic by topic, you break it down again. For example, health: how sitting down and writing on a daily basis can be a hazardous to health if you don't get out of your seat every half an hour for a walk around the kitchen. And then you can write about how writing about health topics is very enticing because you learn new things from the things that you have to write.
See? Plenty of ways to attack that.
But the sad thing about writing and blogging is that it needs to be fresh. The only way to keep your blogging habits (and the result thereof) healthy and fresh is to educate and update yourself consistently. Do not have the time to read? Make time. Don't think reading other people's blogs and writeups is helpful? Think again. Do not have the time to perform lengthy and tiring research work on the internet? Get down on it.
A blogger, if he or she does not update him or herself regular will soon find him or herself staring down into an empty well of repetitiveness.
Marsha Maung is a Malaysian-based freelance writer with two kids. She spends her time ferrying her kids around, watering her plants, writing web content, SEO stuff, ghostwriting books and also indulges in the occasional Facebook-ing. Visit her blog for more dirty details on the life and times of a mother, writer, designer, housekeeper, coffee-maker, poop-wiper, chef...and just about everything else under the sun.
Article Source: Updating Yourself As a Blogger Or Writer
Writing and blogging online makes it disadvantageous for you because blogging means capturing and recording everything online. You have to come up with new things to blog about, to write about, that is entertaining and wise, funny and memorable. Nobody wants to revisit a boring blog that talks about nothing but how blue the sky is.
Bloggers need to get creative with the way they write things because you don't get to sell the same thing over and over again...like a cell phone or a tube of hand lotion. It's the same thing that you sell to different people. For online writers and bloggers, you need to sell different things to different people all the time.
Any good business blogger can tell you that they consistently break up the same topic into minuscule components and then write it from a different angle.
For example, today you could be talking about blogging, you break it up into the health, creative, inspiration, fingers, mental, ideas, links, etc. Topic by topic, you break it down again. For example, health: how sitting down and writing on a daily basis can be a hazardous to health if you don't get out of your seat every half an hour for a walk around the kitchen. And then you can write about how writing about health topics is very enticing because you learn new things from the things that you have to write.
See? Plenty of ways to attack that.
But the sad thing about writing and blogging is that it needs to be fresh. The only way to keep your blogging habits (and the result thereof) healthy and fresh is to educate and update yourself consistently. Do not have the time to read? Make time. Don't think reading other people's blogs and writeups is helpful? Think again. Do not have the time to perform lengthy and tiring research work on the internet? Get down on it.
A blogger, if he or she does not update him or herself regular will soon find him or herself staring down into an empty well of repetitiveness.
Marsha Maung is a Malaysian-based freelance writer with two kids. She spends her time ferrying her kids around, watering her plants, writing web content, SEO stuff, ghostwriting books and also indulges in the occasional Facebook-ing. Visit her blog for more dirty details on the life and times of a mother, writer, designer, housekeeper, coffee-maker, poop-wiper, chef...and just about everything else under the sun.
Article Source: Updating Yourself As a Blogger Or Writer
Saturday, October 3, 2009
I and My Health
If I ask you to what extent the importance of healthy body to you, what is your answer? For me, healthy body is paramount.
I have a story. I met someone who I know five years ago. Now he is 51. I was very amazing that he is handsome and healthy compared to five years ago.
I asked him what's the secret. He said he practices the holistic health therapy, also known as Ganotherapy. It is so easy and inexpensive. He said the car engine is always maintained, why not the engine (heart) of ours.
Seeing how healthy he is (and handsome of course
), I decided to practice the concept of holistic health or Ganotherapy in my life.
I have a story. I met someone who I know five years ago. Now he is 51. I was very amazing that he is handsome and healthy compared to five years ago.
I asked him what's the secret. He said he practices the holistic health therapy, also known as Ganotherapy. It is so easy and inexpensive. He said the car engine is always maintained, why not the engine (heart) of ours.
Seeing how healthy he is (and handsome of course
), I decided to practice the concept of holistic health or Ganotherapy in my life.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Butterflies In My Stomach
Excited and nervous.
Now it's 3:00 in the morning. So much information to explore, and to learn online but so short of time I have the moment. Must sleep. Sleep, sleep, sleep. But the mind said - go, go, go. Find some-more information. Explore and apply them.
Then why nervous? Need to send the boys to school when the sun rise. Will I have enough sleep? Or won't I be over slept?
OK body, take the pillow and sleep. What, mind? Explore some-more info?
Alright then. I hug you pillow, and sit in front of you notebook, reading you PDF ebook, waiting for you to close eye ... ZZZzzz.
Now it's 3:00 in the morning. So much information to explore, and to learn online but so short of time I have the moment. Must sleep. Sleep, sleep, sleep. But the mind said - go, go, go. Find some-more information. Explore and apply them.
Then why nervous? Need to send the boys to school when the sun rise. Will I have enough sleep? Or won't I be over slept?
OK body, take the pillow and sleep. What, mind? Explore some-more info?
Alright then. I hug you pillow, and sit in front of you notebook, reading you PDF ebook, waiting for you to close eye ... ZZZzzz.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Happy Malaysia Day
Malaysia was born on 16 September 1963. And today is her birthday.
When Malaya, North Borneo, Sarawak, and Singapore sitting together in one room, Malaysia was born.
The only states in Malaysia now On Public Holiday celebrating her birthday are Sabah and Sarawak. It should be celebrated with Public Holiday by ALL states. Next time? When?
Happy Malaysia Day!
UPDATE on 20-Oct-2009At last, Malaysia Day is declared as Public Holiday for Malaysia by the Government starting 16 September 2010. More news here..
When Malaya, North Borneo, Sarawak, and Singapore sitting together in one room, Malaysia was born.The only states in Malaysia now On Public Holiday celebrating her birthday are Sabah and Sarawak. It should be celebrated with Public Holiday by ALL states. Next time? When?
Happy Malaysia Day!
UPDATE on 20-Oct-2009At last, Malaysia Day is declared as Public Holiday for Malaysia by the Government starting 16 September 2010. More news here..
Friday, September 4, 2009
Swine Flu Song - Wash Your Hands H1N1
It's a funny song about Swine flu H1N1.
Some info about H1N1 - According to a report by World Health Organization (WHO), the spread of H1N1 pandemic is still active in the world where the number of cases until August 30, 2009 is 246,221 with 2,958 deaths involving 182 countries. However, the figures shown do not show the actual picture of the situation since the WHO is now no longer require all countries to report the number of cases.
