It takes a long time to set up a blog: even before the first real post appears on your blog, you will have invested (hopefully) hours of research and toil into making it the best blog that it can be. The thing is, it is just as easy to spend a lot of time and have a bad, or at least not as good a blog as you would wish.Number one mistake? Not having your own domain name
Number two mistake? Choosing the wrong platform.

I like Wordpress. It works for me, and I really cannot imagine it not working for you. No matter how savvy or UN-savvy you are on the computer, I really believe that WordPress is the way to go if you want to have a successful blog.

Remember, blogging might be new to you TODAY, but six months from now you are going to be an expert. You will then be pulling out your hair that you did not make the correct choices at the start.

WordPress’s rival is TypePad. There is nothing wrong with TypePad. I started out using this platform, and it was so easy, that I quickly fell in love with blogging. And then promptly outgrew TypePad. Having said that, a lot of FAR more successful bloggers than me use TypePad, and are happy with it. (Seth Godin and Dilbert).

Let me introduce each platform, and then go through the pro’s and cons.

TypePad
In their own words:

TypePad is the premier blogging service for professionals, hosting many of the world’s most popular blogs and small business websites. TypePad’s ease of use enables you to create a blog in minutes.

All true. If anything, setting up a blog with TypePad is fast. You could, technically, be up and running in 5 minutes, and only be $5 poorer. TypePad comes with a choice of professional templates that you can you use for your blog, and you can even customize them to a certain degree.

You can also use TypePad with your own domain, which I strongly recommend.
There are hundreds of widgets available for TypePad, and installing them is extremely easy (click a button, you are done!). You can monitor your blog’s traffic, moderate comments, and work easily with FeedBurner and the likes.

For a good summary of what TypePad offers, click here to visit their corporate page. They also offer a 30 day money back guarantee, although the cost to consider is not the $5 that you might save, but the time that you will invest.

So why did I leave TypePad? I found their template choices limiting, and updating the look and content of my sidebars too time consuming. I also realized that a lot of really excellent tools to optimize, publicise and monatize my blog were only available on the WordPress platform.

So why do I love WordPress?
Let me count the ways …
1. It is free (although I spend some money to self host it)
2. It has a very large community behind it, which means lots and lots of add ons and themes
3. It is relatively painless to install and learn how to use (this actually depends on who you use as your host). The program is very intuitive, so you are never really stuck.
4. I can use it with my own choice of domain names.
5. Everyone I know who blogs uses it, and offered me plenty of advice and help when I started.
6. I can really customize it to my own needs and visions. I am in full control. And if I ever wish that it had a feature that it does not have now, I simply google for help, and 9 times out of 10, someone has developed a plugin that does just what I need.

So the final verdict?
Use TypePad if:

  1. You want a blog in the next 5 minutes
  2. You are willing to spend more time marketing it that if you used WordPress
  3. You are petrified of computers, web pages, code, the term “Install in root directory” and do not think you will ever overcome that fear.
  4. You care mostly about the content of your blog, and not its look
  5. You are not thinking of monetizing your blog (ie making money out of it).

Use WordPress if:

  1. You look forward to having a TOP 100 blog in the near future
  2. You are a sticker for details, fine tuning, optimal performance
  3. You appreciate excellent design, and expect it in your blog
  4. You are somewhat comfortable tweaking code (but only very slightly is necessary)
  5. You look forward to participating strongly in the blogging community

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