Tuesday, May 6, 2003

Any Decent Free Blog Sites?

I was talking to my brother about blogs the other night. He didn't get what the big deal was. I told him I used to think the same way until I started doing it and realized the huge advantage the one-to-many form has over many-to-many styles like mailing lists. I said I'd get him started with one.

I run my own blog, of course, but Kevin doesn't have access to a site like staff.develop.com that I do, nor the knowledge to set up something like BlogX. He is fairly computer-saavy, but since he's thinking about getting some of his collegues (he's a forensic chemist for a sheriff's department in the LA area) into blogging, I thought we'd try to find some site where everything is all set up for you.

My first stop was Blogger.com - it's a big name and I figured they'd be a reasonable choice. Unfortunately, I discovered that they don't have support for automatic RSS generation. Which is half the point, in my opinion. So I went out searching for other free services that do support it. I got dozens of hits on Google, but couldn't find what I was looking for after about half an hour of plowing through them.

So if you know of a good place for my brother to set up a non-computer-related blog (that includes RSS), let me know by leaving a comment. Thanks!

53 comments:

  1. I personally use MovableType (http://www.movabletype.org), and I really like it - very powerful, lots of tags for configurability, etc. Although it requires your own server with Perl installed, they recently announced a service called TypePad (http://www.typepad.com) which is basically Blogger, but powered by MT (as I understand it). I'm not sure if it's live yet or not, but might be something worth looking in to.

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  2. I'm intersted in setting up one for myself but I would prefer it it was hosted by a company.
    My requirements are:
    Categories, RSS (at least)
    I'm not able to find those two options right now.
    I guess I may just have to get an account in some .NET hosting site :( painful
    Craig let me know if you find anything new.

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  3. TypePad isn't live yet - but thanks for the suggestions!

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  4. In Japan, there are two type people about blog.
    One loves it, and the other hates it.
    Of course, I'm the former(I also use Movable Type).
    The latter people used to say:
    "There is no relatjonship with blog and the quality of the contents."
    I'm tired to see no good site with blog like Movable Type!"
    I think it is unreasonable to criticize blog so.
    It isn't a problem with the property of blog, but the use of blog.

    Sorry for my poor English.

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  5. Well, your English is much better than my Japanese. ;)

    And I agree - I'd rather read a badly formatted blog with good content than a pretty blog with nothing to say. But right now my brother doesn't have a place to blog anything - I'm hoping we can find him one. If it doesn't have RSS, it's not going to get read, IMO, so that's a requirement. He's not sure how much he's going to use it, so free is the other requirement.

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  6. Hey Craig
    I think I found exactly what you were looking for.
    It's called Erablog.net (http://erablog.net)
    It's free, it's simple and fast to set up and it comes with an RSS 0.91,RSS 1.0 and categories.
    You can also use w.bloggar to post to it which supports WMP and Winamp [Listening] feature.
    The only issue is that the RSS feed is plain text and is not HTML formatted. I need to talk to Mike about this as it doesn't look really good in SharpReader and I imagine in other aggregators.
    You can try my blog at http://erablog.net/blogs/CineBlogDOTNet/ and tell me what you think.

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  7. Oh, Erablog.net sounds great!
    There is also free blog(Movable TYpe) rental service in Japan.
    http://ch.kitaguni.tv/
    I think there will be more rental blog services like these.

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  8. Sweet - I will check out Erablog.net and see how it works out. Super appreciate the legwork you guys did for me.

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  9. Take a look at http://www.beblog.com -- I use them and they're pretty good. I got an email back saying RSS is coming next week!

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  10. Try www.Xanga.com...it's nothing fancy or elegant, but it's basically set up for you. All you have to do is follow the directions.

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  11. You should also check http://www.thediary.org. TheDiary is a great free blogging and journaling site.

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  12. I am researching free blog sites to get started on my own blog. I also want one with RSS feed and it is my understanding that www.livejournal.com is free and has RSS feed.

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  13. I'd also definitely commend www.thediary.org, absolutely great and easy to use blog engine. Lots of space to post pictures as well.

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  14. Try this one out. :) www.joeuser.com.

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  15. I use www.smartpunters.com and I'm pretty happy.

    They have lots of templates if youre into that and they're fast even though I have a lot of pix in my photo album :)



    Oh, and they let you moblog (email blog entries instead of entering them manually) and vidblog too, though I don't do video. Fat people shouldn't be on TV. LOL!

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  16. Craig,

    Would you mind posting a follow-up? What did your brother end up using? What was good? What was bad? What's the key to using RSS? We have blogs with Blogger currently, but we're searching for a better option. What platform is this site using?

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  17. I don't think Kevin ever wound up getting a blog at all. My other brother Clint set something up for himself, though. I asked him to drop a comment here.

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  18. My situation is similar to Craig's, in that I have a dedicated host I have access to (company servers I manage). I set up my own blog those servers and ended up using .Text (the same as this blog). There were a few challenges to getting .Text going, but once up I liked it.



    I haven't quite gotten into the blogging habit, so it sits mostly unused and collects comments from spam web-bots.

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  19. You should try www.tagworld.com it has lots of things to use. It is completely free. Lots of users also.

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  20. Hi, i feel Blogger from google is the best free blogging site on the internet! They provide u cool interface, u can have a look at my Blog http://cyfernet.blogspot.com for example

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  21. I am also looking to find a blog site. I love messaging online. Anyone got any ideas?

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  22. AllSyntax.com is a programming website that now offers blogs to members for free

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  23. I am very surprised after reading all of your comments that no one has suggested Wordpress. They offer free blogs with an rss feed 1.0 These blogs are very user frendly and in my opinion blow the competition away. Go to http://wordpress.org/ and click onto "get a free blog on Wordpress.com" That's it your blogging. As you can see from my blog it looks very good and the best thing is it's all free. Good luck. The Bow River Blogger.

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  24. What I need is a place for PRIVATE discussion among a small group of volunteers... www.smartpunters.com sounds good, but there's no way of accessing info re: non-publishing without first 'creating a blog' ...??



    Do you think a google 'group' would be a better choice?

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  25. i am looking for a free blog where i can post pictures and testimonies of peolple who are clients in our organisations for helping communities in africa

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  26. i found www.blogrankings.com/ was best in this category for free ease blogging

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  27. Smartpunters.com will let you post for private discussion. You just make your blog, mark it as private, then only you and your friends/associates can view it.

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  28. You should try this great VBLOG Site Free hosting for your blog/s including videos FREE or PAID http://www.free-blog-site.com

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  29. Not sure what you are looking for exactly but Ive found a pretty cool site called 6toe.com. They will host your blog for free http://you.6toe.com. It looks like its free and they have several different themes to chose from and the Admin said they add more everyday as well as cool and neat plugins you can use. They seem to offer more than most.

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  30. http://www.voodeedoo.org offers free blogging to any of its users.

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  31. Emerald Nova is a new Wordpress-based host offering free blog sites

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  32. Are there any blog sites that will allow you to post audio or video ... i know people will say myspace or virb ... but I just want something tucked away ... i like all the suggestions above.



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  33. I'm about to start a blog and am seeking info about having a blog preferably "FREE" that offers flicker options for pictures.



    I was referred to typepad.com and it offers flickers but wondered if others other there offer this with having to pay.



    Thanks



    Leeann

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  34. Try Vox.....Their posting tools are the best ive used so far of all

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  35. Yes "VOX offers flicker option as well as others in your blog editor

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  36. Wordpress offeres Flickr, lots of templates, widgets, etc. and is very easy to use, but they do not allow referral ads, java, etc. unless you use their interface on your own (paid) server.

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  37. I have been using 2 sites, blogger.com which is google owned free to use and accepts referral ads etc as Tracy was saying, but you can't make separate pages. At wordpress.com you can make the pages. Is there a free site that offers both plus all the extras and is free?? LOL I don't want much, do I? Once I am making money with my artwork, I will be able to pay, until then it is free sites only.

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  38. PS: both sites have RSS feed

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  39. lol....8 years later I do hope he found one by now,if not here is a Free blogs @ https://www.ireporter.tv/ ..the good thing you could have multiple blogs "FREE UPGRADE to New Template System". Everybody should do this, it allows you the following:



    * Access to the Widget Area

    * Multi-Column Blog Layouts

    * New Header Graphics

    * The ability to Upload Your Own Header Graphic

    * Change the Colors and Fonts of Your Blog

    * And Much More to Come

    and the word is FREE...I personally have been using this blog for awhile and think its one on the top ten- much better then most..hope this helps..Kevin to get out of the donut shop and back on the computer..

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  40. i have many blogs, but my favorite will always be www.mindsay.com

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  41. try AltaBlogs.com

    simply the best ;)



    http://altablogs.com

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  42. Try http://bloguni.com

    Thanks

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  43. I am desperately seeking a free (or paid) blog site that has an internal search engine - if such an animal exists.

    I have contacted a number of blog sites with no success.

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  44. Do you know any blog sites where you get to choose the domain name such as www.[choosename].com and it is free. That's basically what I want is to be able to do that but use a web site to put my info there.

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  45. You can try these sites:-

    http://www.blogburner.com/
    http://digitaljournal.com/
    www.createblog.com
    http://okayblog.net/

    regs.,
    Pageupseo

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  46. You might see it talkspotblogs.com has what you're looking for.
    It's not overly powerful, it has rss, and it has a number of preformatted boiler plate "pages" and a typing format that looks like wordpad. I just set mine up to share some sermon notes with a few friends.
    Dave

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  47. Hi you can try ASUK Blog Zone its new whats more I run it. So if you have a specific need. Let me know and I will see what I can do

    cheers

    Robert Craig

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  48. Guys, I just wanted to share my opinion. Its a new service, but it rocks! Its name is DONDESON.COM

    www.dondeson.com

    Its free, wordpress 3.0, nice templates, also facebook integrated.
    They offer 5gb space and 750mb upload filesize.
    I think this is a nice blog site to start.

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  49. ok i was reading this thread but im kind of confused. i would like to start a blog but do not have the SLIGHTEST inkling of how to do so at all i have tried a few sites that say they have free blogging but they are all so confusing!!! if any of you have any suggestions of how i can get started and basics i need to know i would appreciate it!!

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  50. i would recommend wordpress! its really good, easy and free!

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  51. blog.com
    blogger.com
    blogsome.com
    webnode.com

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