Free Platform Blog: Starting at $195.

When content is king and time is of the essence, this is a great place to start.

Self-hosted Blog: $495.

Time to start generating revenue?  Control your site and everything on it.

Website Package: $795.

It’s everything from your online business to what people see on the other side of a Google.

Remake, Relaunch or Transfer your site: $195 – $695.

In today’s marketplace, there is no good reason to be dissatisfied with your online presence.

It is really stupidly easy to start blogging on wordpress.com. It’s been a while since I blogged at the old JG blog (which is still live, and shouldn’t be…) which was a hosted wordpress.com site. Now our blogs (all 3 of them – for runners, the main blog, and for charities) are self-hosted, so we have  more flexibility, but I wanted to get something up quick; hence being here.

The first blog I ever wrote (it was fairly shameful, although I’m a little sad that it’s gone to the great content graveyard in the sky…) was on community server software back in 2006. I vaguely remember that it wasn’t great to use. From there I took over the runnings of the JG charities blog (on Typepad – http://justgiving.typepad.com/charities) and started to get a better understanding of what I wanted from a blog, and what they could do.

Anyway, I wanted a theme with a few columns so I could pull in feeds from all the other places I write content (laziness ftw!) so I’ve gone with Fjords04 by Peterandrej (who I want to think is an Eastern European Peter Andrei lookalike). I was tempted by Grid Focus by Derek Punsalan but it’s a bit too plain, however much I love clean and simple web design.

So now I’m here. But I’ll probably move to a self-hosted blog sometime soon. At which point I’ll probably write an equally riveting post about that process…

There’s nothing like being original and ahead of the curve (as the lovely Annie Mole wrote aeons ago):

So, TypePad have started a microblogging service. This takes me back to how I used to use pownce, but now means I have this blog, twitter AND typepad running at all time.

So, in short:

Twitter (twitter.com/holtaway) will be twitter
TypePad (spencertron.typepad.com) will be twitter with pictures
WordPress (this site) will be longer blog posts and more important things, I think?

I might just kill this blog at some point as I very rarely update it anyhow…

• The Top 10 Mobile Applications of 2012
• How to Manage a Group Project in Google Wave [Google Wave]
• Microsoft Office 2010 Beta Released
• Internet Explorer 9: Microsoft Reveals First Details
• Scientists Make Breakthrough With First Programmable Quantum Processor [Quantum Computer]
• Men married to smart women live longer – Times Online
• Populäre Webmythen hinterfragt
• Quick Steps Looks Like Office 2010’s Killer Feature [Office 2010]
• Newspapers Are What? Google’s Got Some Suggestions
• Location Is The Missing Link Between Social Networks And The Real World
• TypePad Dives Into Micro-Blogging With An Important New Feature: Free
• MyPorts Gives You Detailed Information on Open Ports [Downloads]
• Murdoch Warns That Without eTablets, “Newspapers Will Go Out Of Business.”
• Use Non-Specific Status Updates to Keep Your Home Safer [Security]
• Virtuelle Telefonanlage für Geschäftskunden
• Browser – Firefox 3.6 Beta 3 ist draussen
• Apple – Erstes Lebenszeichen von Mac OS X 10.7
• Digitale Beziehungen – Social Networks zeigen die wahre Persönlichkeit
• Knoppix 6.2 erschienen
• Bericht – Echtes Google-Phone in Sicht
• Suchmaschinen – Google zeigt Chrome OS am Donnerstag
• Teamviewer: Fernwartungssoftware mit Ton und Video
• Social Media in Search: User-Created Content Dominates the Brand Message [Stats]

Six Apart’s TypePad blogging service has long been aimed at bloggers who were serious enough about what they were doing to fork over money for a blogging platform. But today Six Apart is announcing TypePad Micro, a new level of TypePad service that’s meant for extremely casual blogging–and which is the first version of the service that’s free.

Six Apart CEO Chris Alden told me that TypePad Micro is meant for quick, brief, informal blogging and photoblogging–the kind of stuff that feels like a cross between traditional blogging and status updates a la Twitter. It’s a hybrid that’s associated with Tumblr, the service that popularized microblogging, and TypePad Micro’s most obvious rival. Alden said that he thinks Micro will appeal both to paying TypePad customers who’d like a home for a microblog, and to people who are currently part of TypePad blog communities but who don’t blog themselves.

Micro is a reduced-feature version of TypePad Pro: For instance, it currently offers only one theme, called Chroma (you can customize its colors). Alden said that Six Apart might add more themes later, and that it doesn’t plan to place ads on Micro blogs. But it does see the new service as a good stepping stone to full, paid TypePad Pro accounts.

TypePad supports the concept of Twitter-like followers, and any followers a Micro blogger has are prominently displayed in the Chroma theme. So a Micro blog does, indeed, feel like a richer, semi-standalone version of a Twitter account.

A few TypePad Micro blogs:

•      Microdogging
•      Cute Funny Sexy Awful
•      Dollarshort (this one’s by Six Apart cofounder Mena Trott)
•      Awesome

And here’s Chris Alden’s own Micro blog. And Alden’s post about TypePad Micro on the official TypePad blog.

If you give the new service a try, let us know what you think…

When I made the jump to the iPhone 3G (s aapl) it was most definitely a platform play for me. As a web worker who can be on and off client sites all day, I still want access to my personal web properties, especially my blogs, which serve as a professional face for me online.

Major blog platforms WordPress, TypePad and Tumblr now have very capable iPhone applications, enabling bloggers to publish on the go, with many of the same features they enjoy when publishing from a desktop browser (Disclaimer: Automattic, maker of WordPress, is backed by True Ventures, a venture capital firm that is an investor in the parent company of this blog, Giga Omni Media. Om Malik, founder of Giga Omni Media, is also a venture partner at True). These applications are handy for everything from publishing a posting with a photo and pithy observation to correcting a comment or editing a page.

All of these applications are a free download from the iTunes App Store.

TypePad for iPhone. SixApart’s TypePad platform has long been a leader in mobile blogging almost since the inception of the hosted service. From TypePad for iPhone, you have the following options: “Create a Post,” “Take a Photo,” and “Add a Photo.” The application’s control panel lets you specify TypePad account information, New Post defaults, and even your Twitter login. Including a photo in a blog post is as simple as choosing “Take a Photo,” shooting the photo, and then creating a post and publishing it. Having the “Take a Photo” option available at the top level of the interface makes posting a photo to your TypePad blog simple and easy. The application has a clean user interface.

WordPress for iPhone 2. The recently released (and much-improved over the previous version) WordPress for iPhone 2 enables you to access comments, posts and pages on any WordPress blogs hosted on WordPress.com or on your own hosting domain. Some notable features in this release include a New Comments interface; passwords storage on the keychain; automatic saving and restoration of posts if the network connection is lost during publishing (especially useful for AT&T (s t) customers!); and persistence (when you load the app it automatically opens the last post you were working on). Adding a picture to a blog post is as easy as easy as tapping Photos when you are composing a new post and adding a photo from the library or taking a photo with the camera. WordPress for iPhone 2 is a clean and very usable application.

Tumblr. The microblogging service Tumblr is also available via an iPhone app. With the Tumblr iPhone app, you can post text, photo, quote, link, chat, or audio content Tumblr. The audio feature enables you to record audio and send it directly to your tumblelog. I rank myself as a light Tumblr user, but find this application to be very consistent with the web interface, which I find to be one of the application’s positives.

Do you publish blog posts using your iPhone? Share your experience below.

Test 2 … I am using Blogit by Typepad to make this post through my Facebook account. It is free through Facebook, but so far, it appears that you are not getting the true benefits of the Blogit application.

To get all the benefits, it appears you have to pay the monthly Typepad fee if you want to use the full capabilities.

>>> I am now using WordPress to clean up this post and summarize. Not so good for my first try. It doesn’t allow me to categorize the entry or spellcheck, and it made this same post six times!

This post has been moved.  CLICK HERE to view it.

Recently I received an email from another artist with this inquiry: “I had a question … how does one make money from a blog?” An easy question to pose, a complicated one to answer. Here is a quick look at a few ideas.

A blog can be used for multiple purposes, monetization (making money) being one of them:

• Marketing: extends branding into new readership areas, and directs traffic to related sources.
• Information: provides unique information, or additional useful information that supports a web site, newsletter, forum, web site, or social network sites (Example: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Digg, and Delicious).
• Relationship building: provides a service or information that followers can use and/or interact with (comments, newsletters, guest writer opportunities, or membership site subscription. Example: Google Friend Connect or Ning).
• Monetization: provide various means to create money streams through direct and indirect means.

Making money from your blog may take several forms.  Sales are generally generated either directly or indirectly. Direct sales are from your blog, by you, with your products and services. Indirect sales are created by referrals by way of other web technologies such as ad networks, or referred links to an online shopping cart, or your gallery website. Examples:

Direct: Sales of products or services sold from your blog

• Products such as paintings, prints, drawings, or materials/tools relating to the creation of works of art
• Secondary products based on your work such as calendars, t-shirts, or cards (Example: Zazzle)
• Class sign up and payment page
• Subscription class/lecture PDFs for fee
• Webinars or online course (Example: Prfessor.com)
• Video tutorials, web discussions, chats, or podcasts/vidcasts
• Digital Ebooks (your work or thoughts)
• Subscription blog articles
• Self published books (Example:  Lulu or Blurb)

Indirect: Referral information and links to related sources online

• Links to another website, e-cart, or gallery site that sells or supports your products or services
• Advertising using an ad network (Example:  AdSense, Chitika, Amazon Associates)
• Private ad sales (arrange with vendors you regularly do business with)

Think about what you want to do with your blog and optimize for your specific goals. Take a look at other artist blogs to see what they are doing, and choose the strategies that make sense to you.  Once you have your solutions in place, don’t forget to revisit them on a regular basis to make sure you are still getting the results you want. Save money by using free tools (Example:  WordPress, Blogger, Twitter, Facebook). As with anything else, it takes time to develop a strategy and carefully implement it.

Resources

• Amazon Associates
  https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/
• Blurb.com: self publishing
  http://www.blurb.com/
• Chitika
  https://chitika.com/publishers.php?refid=livingroom&from=mm
• Google Adsense
  https://www.google.com/adsense/login/en_US/?sourceid=aso&subid=direct_adsense&medium=redirect_adsense&gsessionid=mLJDmlzyLUnyagnxWdiSug
• Google Friend Connect
  http://www.google.com/friendconnect/?utm_medium=ha&utm_campaign=en&utm_source=en-ha-na-us-sk&utm_term=membership%20websites
• Lulu.com: self publishing
  http://www.lulu.com/
• Ning
  http://www.ning.com/
• PayPal for Typepad
  http://www.sixapart.com/typepad/widgets/commerce/paypal_storefro.html
• Prfessor.com
  http://www.prfessor.com/a/smpayton
• Zazzle.com
  http://www.zazzle.com/

Articles:

• 3 Ways to Make More Money with Amazon’s Affiliate Program This Christmas
  http://www.problogger.net/archives/2009/11/25/3-ways-to-make-more-money-with-amazons-affiliate-program-this-christmas/
• “How I Diversify My Site and Income
  http://www.problogger.net/archives/2009/10/29/how-i-diversify-my-site-and-income/
• “LiveJournal Bloggers Can Now Make Money”
  http://mashable.com/2009/09/22/livejournal-adsense/
• “Make Money Blogging”
  http://www.problogger.net/make-money-blogging/
• “Make Money Online: 100+ Tools and Resources”
  http://mashable.com/2007/07/30/make-money-online/

Related:

• “20 Simple Productivity Tools for Bloggers”
  http://mashable.com/2009/08/06/blogging-productivity-tools/
• “400+ Tools for Photographers, Videobloggers, Podcasters & Musicians”
  http://mashable.com/2007/07/23/online-media/
• “Blogging Toolbox: 120+ Resources for Bloggers”
  http://mashable.com/2007/06/19/blogging-toolbox/
• “How To: Become an Expert in Your Industry”
  http://mashable.com/2009/10/27/industry-expert-how-to/
• Mashable.com: Blogging
  http://mashable.com/tag/blogging/
• “Podcasting Toolbox: 70+ Podcasting Tools and Resources”
  http://mashable.com/2007/07/04/podcasting-toolbox/

[No, I do not make money from any entry on this page. These are just my thoughts on this topic.]

I don’t profess to being a blogging expert, far from it. But despite the infrequency of my posts I do consider myself to be one (small) step up from beginner, and from that lofty vantage point I feel 100% qualified to offer sage advise to newbies. So here goes…

Why blog?

Simple huh? Why not? Actually there could be many reasons for blogging. Maybe you just want your 15 minutes of fame, maybe as a communication tool for a business, group or sport team, maybe to share your great and infinite wisdom with the unwashed masses. The reasons people blog are as varied as the people themselves.

Blogging sites

Next you’ll be needing somewhere to host your blog. Don’t worry, you don’t need to be a rocket scientist or be bank-rolled by a millionaire to get started. WordPress.com and Blogger are just a couple of free options.

I started out using Windows Live Spaces. For me it wasn’t a smart choice, but if you’re just blogging for family and friends it might be the right fit for you.

Got the look?

Your blog is yours, right? So it shouldn’t look like anyone’s else’s. While the default theme is functional and looks just fine, you should take a little bit of time looking though some of the other included templates and play around with a little customisation. Just remember the K.I.S.S. rule.

Get connected

If you have a twitter account, a Facebook page, a YouTube channel etc, there’s a pretty good chance that you can link them.

For instance…

• When I post to this blog, it automatically tweets a link
• When I tweet, my Facebook status gets automatically updated
• At the end of the day (I’ve set it for 21:00) LoudTwitter bundles up all my tweets for the day and posts them as a blog entry (which in turn tweets that I’ve blogged, which then updates my Facebook)

This way I’m always posting, even when I’m not posting.

Publish. Publish. Publish.

Of course the whole point of having a blog is to blog. So get writing and posting already. Just make sure you think about subject categories on your blog, and always tag your posts so that people can find what you’ve written.

If you don’t like the built-in editor that your blogging service provides you, you might want to check out some offline blogging editors. Personally I use and recommend Windows Live Writer. It’s free and works with pretty much any blogging service.

Happy blogging

If you utilize the WordPress platform, there are tons of tools to utilize that make things run smoother.  Here are some that were highlighted by Six Revisions.  (H/T – E1evationllc on Twitter)

1. ScribeFire

ScribeFire is a Firefox plugin that gives you an array of useful features and options for writing posts. You can drag and drop content from a variety of sources (which the WordPress Visual Editor currently doesn’t fully support), manage and leave notes on your posts, upload files via the built-in FTP, create timestamps, and manage uploaded images. ScribeFire is the tool of choice for bloggers that need moar cowbell than what the WordPress built-in editor affords them.

2. WordPress Helper

Whether you’re new to WordPress or an experienced veteran blogger, you’ll find WordPress Helper to be a much-welcomed addition to your blogging arsenal. WordPress Helper notifies you of new WordPress versions, gives you the ability to set custom keyboard shortcuts, and places useful help files, accessible by right-clicking on the page on a PC, at your finger tips.

3. Screen grab to WordPress!

If you include a lot of screenshots in your posts, you should check out the free Firefox add-on, Screen grab to WordPress!. You can save a web page as an image, and then use the tool to automatically upload it to your WordPress site with a click of a button.

4. WordPress scanner

With WordPress Scanner, you can sleep easier at night knowing that your blog is safe from known and potential security vulnerabilities. WordPress Scanner is available as a web-based application, or as a WordPress plugin.

5. Broken Link Checker

Broken Link Checker is a WordPress plugin that essentially checks your hyperlinks to see if they’re still active. It scans your posts and pages to check for broken links and then notifies you via the WordPress Dashboard if there are any broken links found. You can set specific times for when the link-scanning occurs and it’s recommended you pick a low-traffic time of the day to do so.

6. Google Syntax Highlighter

If you’ve ever tried including code snipplets in your WordPress posts through the WordPress Visual Editor, only to find out how it mangles your prettily-formatted code, you’ll love Google Syntax Highlighter, a WordPress plugin that handles preformatted code in your WordPress posts and pages. Google Syntax Highlighter makes it much easier to display code on your posts and colors (“highlights”) the syntax for better readability. If Google Syntax Highlighter isn’t for you, check out WP-Syntax, WP-Chili, or SyntaxHighlighter Plus.

7. Insights

Insights is a WordPress plugin that assists you in finding and gathering information and media for your blog posts. Insights gives you the ability to search existing blog posts for specific information and an intuitive interface for searching external websites and services such as Flickr, Youtube, Wikipedia, and Google Blog search – all from within the WordPress interface.

8. Windows Live Writer

There are but a handful of notable Microsoft applications – Windows Live Writer is one of them. Windows Live Writer is a free desktop application that’s compatible with WordPress (along with other popular publishing platforms like Blogger and Typepad). You can write posts offline and upload them whenever you’re ready to publish.

If you’re a Mac user, check out ecto or Thingamablog (a cross-platform desktop app for Linux, Mac, and Windows users).

(Source: 15 Useful Tools for WordPress Bloggers – Six Revisions)

Go check out the rest of the tools highlighted.  Just keep in mind that if you use the free .com platform offered by WordPress some tools may not be useable.

Related articles by Zemanta

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• Move From Blogger to WordPress Without Losing Google Rank [Blogging] (lifehacker.com)
• Using Zemanta with any blogging platform (zemanta.com)
• Network Solutions offers dedicated WordPress hosting package (blogherald.com)

In setting up this blog, one of the first decisions I had to make was where to host the blog. I already knew of WordPress, Typepad, and Blogger, but I didn’t really know what differentiated them as blogging platforms. Cool! An opportunity to learn something new

So, In the running are Blogger, WordPress, and Typepad. However, I immediately removed Blogger from the running because of the links that are automatically placed along the top of each blog, including ‘Next Blog’. Next Blog simply takes the reader to some random blog that I have no control over. I’d like my blog to be a little more self-contained than that. So here are some of the attributes of WordPress and Typepad:

Typepad:

• SEO built in
• Easy to use publishing interface
• iPhone app for posting on the go
• Supports comments
• Easily select from pre-built themes

WordPress:

• SEO built in
• Easy to use publishing interface
• iPhone app for posting on the go
• Supports comments
• Easily select from pre-built themes

hmmm wait a minute…it’s pretty obvious at a glance that both Typepad and WordPress are fantastic blogging tools. They both are easy to use and have free options. After a little more reading it seems to come down to one question:

Might you ever want to host your blog on your own server, perhaps incorporated into your own custom website?
Typepad seems to be the king for a hosted blog. Ultimately, Typepad offers more customization and tools for their hosted blog than the WordPress.com hosted blog. So if you know you’ll never want to take your blog elsewhere, then Typepad is a great choice.

HOWEVER, a quick search on Google reveals that leaving Typepad for WordPress is not an easy task. Common complaints include missing images, broken links, and missing comments. This is a bit of a deal killer for me. While hosted WordPress.com accounts aren’t as customizable as their Typepad counterparts, self-hosted WordPress.org installations are limited only by your ability and imagination. There are an endless number of plugins for achieving various functions, and the code is open source. That means you can make changes to the way the blog behaves; this is a neat option for a geek like me. Oh, and it’s free! The only cost you’ll have is domain registration ($10/year perhaps) and hosting (maybe $10/mo. +/- depending on where you host your blog).

What I learned
Typepad offers an amazing service, especially if the would-be blogger has little technical knowledge and/or no interest in self-hosting. But, if I consistently write posts for the blog and am still passionate about this project after a couple months, I’ll definitely move it to a self-hosted domain. WordPress offers so many more long term options than Typepad that it’s a clear winner.

Learn More
http://www.typepad.com/features/
http://en.wordpress.com/features/
http://businessbloggingpros.typepad.com/business_blogging_pros/2009/01/typepad-vs-wordpress-vs-wordpresscom.html
http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/seo-for-bloggers/

Today’s attempt at a perfect circle