When it comes to choosing a blog format, there are many options. Some more popular than other. I've found myself - seeing as I just launched a blog - researching blog templates. I started by looking up people I respect in the public world and checking out which blog formats they decided to use. The question I'm hoping to answer for you is not what's the best blog format? but what's the best blog format for what you want to do?
Here's a guide to finding the right blog format:
BlogSpot/Blogger: BlogSpot is one of the most versatile and widely used blog templates. The main reason BlogSpot is so populate is because it's connected to google, as are most people looking to set up a blog. It's easy to use. It's free. You can connect straight to your gmail account. One of the benefits of going the BlogSpot route is google's search optimization. Google+ will optimize your search traffic when connected to your blog. There are many businesses and individuals using BlogSpot. The downside to BlogSpot is that some of the templates are pretty flat looking. This may be because the mass market of bloggers have not yet utilized the new design templates. BlogSpot recently redesigned their look and this seems to be changing things. That being said, BlogSpot tends to be adolescent in it's themes compared to other blogging sites (particularly Tumblr, which we will discuss soon). What I've found with BlogSpot its that it's relatively easy to create a unique look if your willing to put the time in. It's major benefit is that it's fast, free, and easy to use.
TypePad: Another option on the market is TypePad, which is equally as prevalent in the blogging world. I did some search testings. I searched top blogs on google and bing. I checked to see what templates tended to be most represented. Both BlogSpot and TypePad equally shared the top lists. This means that in the 'best of' lists there are many TypePad favorites. TypePad offers a wide range of sites and design templates. I like TypePad's design friendly themes. The thing that steered me away from TypePad is it's overtly female user base. Almost every TypePad blogger with publicity is a female. It's rare to find a dude, TypePad blogger. I think Seth Goudin is the only platformed guy I know of using a TypePad blog. In fact, if you look up the official TypePad site and glance through their top blog examples: every single example is a female blogger. As a male blogger, I have to admit, this is a bit intimidating.
Tumblr: Another great format is Tumblr. I've used Tumblr for years. We launched a church blog with Tumblr; I also had a personal blog with Tumblr. Tumblr is an incredibly art conscious format. Tumblr gets that the medium is the message. They've captured the Brooklyn / Portland concept of blogging by design. Unfortunately, this also creates a template not ideal for long term professional blogging. In the pursuit of innovation I think they left a bit of traditional blogging behind. It's hard to get Tumblr to show archived posts without a traveling a few clicks into the blog. It's hard to show categories and categorized posts. Depending on the design, sometimes it is not be easy for your visitors to search past blog posts. Often, if they can, the posts are two or three clicks away and clouded by a whole host of Tumblr visuals. What's lost in the art are the nuggets of an easily negotiable blog template; and sometimes your visitors have a hard time finding what they are looking for.
WordPress: WordPress sites are the best. I have a love hate relationship with WordPress. It's an incredible template when you can do it right. It's disastrous when you do it wrong. I'm not a techie guy so often I need help to build out a WordPress site. In addition, I usually don't have the time or energy it takes to wade through the html code or plug in options to make a WordPress site look good. At the same time, it's top of my list for bloggers who want to sustain a solid blog presence. One of my favorite bloggers Michael Hyatt uses a WordPress template called Standard Theme. I suggest, unless you have some design or coding experience, recruit help when you launch a WordPress blog. Another option is WordPress templates. If your willing to spend a little cash there are some incredible pre-built blog templates for WorldPress. For as little as free to $50 (some can be as high as $4000, but most are in the range of $0-$100) you can purchase a blog template that is custom to fit your blogging needs.
Endnote: Why I chose a BlogSpot/Blogger template? Obviously, since you're on my blog, you've probably noticed that I went with BlogSpot/Blogger for my template. Here's why? It's simple and easy. My current blog ABRAHAMBATES.COM is something I wanted to get up and running right away. I wanted to launch my writing as an experiment to see if I could actually produce about four blog posts a week. I wanted to see if I could build a platform using blog based writing. In this beginning WordPress would have been my first choice, but before I shell out cash I wanted to see if it works: can I sustain multiple posts every week and will people actually read what I write? This meant that I needed something simply and easy to get going right away. BlogspotBlogger fits the bill and gave me lots of room to play around with the design template.
I look forward to your comments. Any favorites blog templates? What blog template do you use?
