Building a Blog

Posted on April 27, 2007 by Neil

Categories: Development, Web Design

In a time where virtually anyone can have their own website, one of the most popular methods for quickly deploying a robust personal website is by using a blogging system. To go down this road, a person has a few choices. They could of course get a blog for free through Wordpress or Blogger, or they could build their own using a blog framework, customizing the design and application, and hosting it on their own server (like this blog for example).

Whatever the case may be, I thought it would be useful share a list of free/open source blogging resources I use on a regular basis.

Free Blog Hosts

• Vox (an awesome new blogging system featured in this month’s Wired Magazine.)
• Blogger
• Wordpress
• LiveJournal
• Yahoo Geocities

Open Source Blog Frameworks

• WordPress (In my opinion, the best framework available)
• B2Evolution
• TextPattern
• Nucleus
• Drupal (A very robust CMS framework; however, does the duties of a blog engine very well)

Blog Design Resources

• 80 WordPress Themes (Does one look familiar?)
• Kaushal Sheth (TextPattern & WordPress)
  
• 10 Best WordPress Themes
• 980 WordPress Themes
• ThemesPress (An awesome service where for a small price they will turn your static XHTML design into a WordPress theme. Okay, it’s not free but, it’s well worth it.)
• Text Garden (TextPattern)
• NucleusSkins
• B2Evolution Skins
• Drupal Themes

Blog Plugins/Modules

• John Chow – My Top 10 Best Wordpress Plugins
• WordPress Plugin Database
• Top WordPress Plugins
• Drupal Modules
• B2Evolution Plugin Directory

Other Resources

• Blog Software Comparison Chart
• Blog Tutorial – Tips For Blog Templates & Blog Design In Photoshop
• 21 Surefire Tips for a Successful Blog Launch
• How to Make Money From Your Blog
• How to get traffic for your blog

- Neil Harner