Request for suggestions for a good free blog site

jon86 · 1 Oct 2011 at 20:26

Hi,

I am thinking about setting up a blog to post some experiences I am finding with writing apps for Windows 8 and I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions for a good free blog site. Does such a thing exist? I can spend a little money and get some shared hosting and set up a website (maybe from Wordpress or something?) if that would be better.

I am a software developer (.net) and have been out of the web design arena for several years and have no great desire to return to it so I would like something that is good but completely hassle free.

Thanks!
Jon

MissileMoose · 1 Oct 2011 at 20:53

If you want to heavily customise the blog, it may be best to use WordPress or Joomla as you could extend the blogging capabilities with addons. Alternatively you could register on a website such as Blogger.com (Google account) for free and get a blog setup there.

I hope this helps.

Edit #1: Just to add, "Vlogging" on YouTube may be a good option depending on the content that you wish to get out. Ofcourse you'd have to have a decent camera and some editing skills. You could do both (video and written)?

Parmesan · 1 Oct 2011 at 23:03

I'm just in the process of setting up a site using word-press, been very easy so far. Now starting to delve into the add-ons side of things to see how much I can customize it.

Its very easy to post blog entry's, easy to display gallery's, videos & such.

jon86 · 2 Oct 2011 at 07:40

That's great to hear, thanks. Are you hosting Wordpress on some hosting space?

EDIT: I think I am going to use Wordpress. I have found a nice free and minimalist template. Thanks for all your help.

3dcandy · 2 Oct 2011 at 11:24

+1 for wordpress....
you can get a wordpress.com site for very little if you don't want to go into hosting etc.

daz · 2 Oct 2011 at 14:35

Tumblr, Blogger or Wordpress all have free options.

Parmesan · 2 Oct 2011 at 19:20

jon86 said:
That's great to hear, thanks. Are you hosting Wordpress on some hosting space?

Yeah hosting on some free space I managed to find the other day, was looking at finding a decent paid package soon, but this free one is doing the job at the minute.

I was trying to integrate it into an existing website, but there are so many ready made templates and such online. Seems easier to use one of those!

3dcandy · 2 Oct 2011 at 19:49

Yeah...for hosting, if you ask, you'll get most people recommending either tsohost (me!) or vidahost. Both are excellent small and friendly hosts...
I'd personally make a child theme of twentyeleven. Responsive design so will work on mobiles, good standards, and very flexible. For example, search for a theme called nomnom

Parmesan · 2 Oct 2011 at 22:50

3dcandy said:
Yeah...for hosting, if you ask, you'll get most people recommending either tsohost (me!) or vidahost. Both are excellent small and friendly hosts...

was looking at tsohost, Need to look at moving my domain and webhosting all to one place. Shall have a look at the options available tomorrow