Tag Archives: wordpress

Best blogging platforms


Blogging platforms have been out there for many years, but they keep evolving. We have taken a quick look at what is the last shout and how the classic platforms are evolving

Blogging platforms

Thinking about launching a blog?

WordPress

One of the senior platforms out there. It was born as a blog editing software, but today is much more than that. There is a large network of active blogs in http://www.wordpress.com and you can host yours for free. It is also available as an open source software so you can have your own site hosted in a simple server. The pros and cons of a self-hosted blog with wordpress is analysed in this post.

For example, this blog is hosted privately but uses WordPress software to power it.

Blogger

Blogger was acquired by Google, so now you can count with a lot of help from Google to promote this platform.

Tumblr

Why use Tumblr? this platform was born to declutter the complexity that was arising in the existing blogging platforms. With Tumblr everything is easier and the themes you can use are definitely nicer.

Comparing the 3 main hosted platforms

There are some good comparisons of these three platforms, and we recommend you have a look at them:

Quoting one of them “Whereas WordPress is best suited for professional users who want to outfit their blog with upgrades and plugins, Tumblr finds grounding in quick, community-driven posts usually lined with images. And Blogger walks the middle ground between the two with a sheer level of simplicity and easy-to-use use design anyone can master.

Read more: http://www.digitaltrends.com/social-media/wordpress-vs-tumblr-vs-blogger

https://www.udemy.com/blog/blogger-vs-wordpress-vs-tumblr/

Newer, alternative blogging platforms

But if you are looking at new stuff that is coming and that may become the new WordPress of this world, have a look at these platforms:

Silvrback: it has an amazing clean design

Ghost: similarly to WP, it can be self-hosted or hosted in their servers.

Roon: because sometimes you would like to do things differently…

Medium: you will need to use a Twitter of Facebook account in order to use Medium.

Svbtle: Positioned as a magazine type of blogging platform.

https://medium.com/blogging-and-seo-tips/d62682d9b0aa

wordpress.com vs. wordpress.org. Pros and cons of self-hosted blog


If you are considering to publish a blog using WordPress software, you should know that there are two main options for hosting it. Below we discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each one

On one side, there is the possibility of hosting it in wordpress.com. Main things to bear in mind:

WordPress.com hosting:

  • Free if you use a wordpress subdomain, such as myblog.wordpress.com
  • Not possible to install new themes
  • Not possible to install new plugins

WordPress.com hosting:

  • You need to pay for a server
  • Use your own domain, without restrictions
  • Install your own themes
  • Install your own plugins

And what is a theme and a plugin

A theme is the look and feel of your blog. But it is a lot more, since there is some code in it, you can use your theme to achieve different behaviour in your content. For example, you can decide what categories are listed in the home, if there is a slider or not, and many more things that just the fonts or the css styles.

A plugin is an additional module that brings new functionality to your blog, allowing you for example to embed tweets in your blog with Twitget. There are a lot of plugins in https://wordpress.org/plugins/, and most of them are free to use.

Conclusion

Normally, if this is the first time you are going to blog, and you have no budget to spend, our recommendation is clear, go for a free wordpress.com account. It will also allow you to grow with their premium options.

Going for a self-hosted WordPress site requires that you have knowledge about servers and a bit of programming. You will need to configure a database, upload things to an ftp account and so on. If all of this sounds new to you, then bear in mind that you will have to learn it. It is not complex, but you need to like it or it will be heavy task. There are of course lots of professional agencies that can help you out and have a lot of experience in building a professional WordPress site.

Embed social network streams in your blog or website


Aggregating all your social networks in your website or blog, can help you to engage your readers and save you time

As a plugin in your blog

I have good experience using Twitget. It is a plugin for WordPress. You can download the plugin in this link: https://wordpress.org/plugins/twitget/.

With the new version of the Twitter API, 1.1., it is required that you obtain an API key in order to be able to grab your tweets.

Embed a single tweet

Another option is to choose the tweet you want and just insert it inside your post.
This is currently possible as a regular feature in Twitter. It will look like this:

 

This will work in a WordPress hosted blog as well. Bear in mind that not all iframes are allowed in the WordPress.com blog.

Tintup

Use Tint to embed the streams of your social networks

Use Tint to embed the streams of your social networks

Tint up is a powerful platform that you can use to embed the streams of your social networks. You embed content from Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest, RSS, Google+, Linked in, Vine and Tumblr. More information about what you can do with Tint here: http://techcrunch.com/2013/04/10/tint-gives-businesses-an-easy-way-to-bring-social-feeds-to-their-websites-apps-and-facebook-pages/

Rebelmouse

Curate social feeds in your website with Rebelmouse

Curate social feeds in your website with Rebelmouse

Rebelmouse is another great tool to curate the content of your social networks and display it in your website.

Pressly

Grab your best blog, twitter, facebook, instagram content in one page

Grab your best blog, twitter, facebook, instagram content in one page

With Pressly you can organise your content in your preferred way, and display your posts, tweets and other social feed activity in a highly attractive visual way.

Add a Q&A section to your website using Dilmot


Having a Q&A can be a great tool to be in touch with your followers, your fans, your potential clients, you name it. Using

Dilmot.com

publishing platform it is very simple

Let’s say you manage a website for a music band, or for a writer, or a sportswoman, or an expert or celebrity. Or just for yourself. If you want to publicly address questions from your fans or visitors, it would be great to have a tool to let you manage those questions and answer in a simple manner.

Well this on-line tool exists and it is called Dilmot. Just open an account at dilmot.com and start managing your Q&A.

Dilmot is closely connected to the main social networks, so there are some things that you can do such as receiving questions that the users send with certain #hashtag. You could announce, for example, send your questions using Twitter with the #askSamantha. And everytime a tweet is sent with that #hashtag, it will be automatically added to the questions in your inbox.

Also, the users that send questions can identify themselves using their Twitter or Facebook accounts.

Using Q&A’s has proven to be a valuable method of creating content for your website and create engagement for your readers.

So, what are you waiting for? Get your account today, it is free 🙂

Web participation tools: Comments, Forums, Chats, Q&As, on-line interviews…


Opening our web to participation enriches the content and helps us to create loyal readers who will come back more often (user engagement). This article will discuss the different possibilities of participation and some of the tools available

Normally we want our websites to be alive, and display updated, fresh content. Many customers that have hired me to build a website for them hope that to have a website published makes getting clients and business contacts something automatic, like magical. The reality is that a website requires heavy maintenance and updating, and I do not mean here technical aspects, that are obviously essential. I’m talking about generating content, engage audiences and give them the opportunity to participate.

Web participation can be offered in different ways.

Comments. Following an article we can allow users to comment on it. This option can be moderated or unmoderated. Moderation makes the comments less dynamic and includes a factor of “censorship” that can arouse suspicions among readers. But on the other hand, it is true that there are plenty of trolls willing to insult and be disrespectful, hiding behind the anonymity. Freedom of speech has limits.
Web Applications Reviews: Virtually every type Publishing Solutions such as Blogging Platforms, and CMS (Content Management System) facilitate this option:

Besides, there are other independent on-line platforms that can be configured into any web (embedding the comments)

Discussion Forums. Unlike comments, in the case of discussion forums it is the users who initiate the topics for discussion. Usually Forums are used to query and gather feedback from other users who may have more experience than us in any matter. They are also subject to the same problems of moderation and may also have queries or responses with undeclared interests, e.g. hidden marketing activity. Normally they do need to have moderators. In many occasions they are very active users in which we delegate power to moderate.

Chats. In this system users communicate in real time, i.e. comments are posted live, as if it were a talk. Chat systems are booming, especially since the chats have become popular in mobile phones with solutions like WhatsApp Telegram.

On-line Q&A An on-line Q&A is a way of holding a session of questions and answers with a guest speaker. It can also be seen as an interview in which we can open the question turn to the floor. It is a form of popular participation among the on-line newspapers and magazines. Also for corporate communications and content marketing online. It is used both for chats with celebrities and to talk with experts or personalities. There are tools for organising the Q&A sessions both with chat and video:

Click here if you would like to know more about how to publish a live Q&A