With the growing interest in blogging (web logging), many web hosting providers now offer a variety of free to use and open source blogging software packages. Among the most popular of these blogging tools are B2evolution, WordPress, and Nucleus. Each of these programs offers similar basic features, so the question arises as to which is the easiest to use and which would be appropriate for your particular website requirements.
The answer lies in the true purpose of your blog website. If your primary goal is to share your opinions and ideas with the general public, you’ll want to use a different blogging tool than a user who was creating product blogs as a business sales effort. A blog for search engine promotion would have completely different requirements. All of these uses are viable reasons to start a blog, however each requires different characteristics to be successful.
WordPress blogging software
Available for free download at: http://wordpress.org/
It’s hard to beat WordPress for personal blogs in general. WordPress is a state-of-the-art, open source personal publishing platform that focuses on presentation and usability. Everything related to creating and updating your blog is available through an intuitive graphical interface. With WordPress there is no need to compile your work. Just write your column. You then select the features you want and your blog is instantly created and published on your website.
If you’re on vacation, you can schedule your uploads for a date in the future or even email your column to the server. The system allows multiple users with multiple blogs divided into categories and subcategories. This allows multiple family members or friends to create their own blogs along with yours.
Easy customization and the availability of many “plugins” that provide more features (add new features as you learn) make this software a very good choice for most people.
b2evolution
Available for free download at: http://b2evolution.net/
B2evolution is another advanced web registration tool that has an integrated XHTML validator. It supports recursive subcategories, crossposts, and has a really cool built-in “skinning” system.
The “skinning” system allows you to create multiple blogs in separate categories with different skins for each blog. You simply “reskin” the blog to create a whole new look.
The “skinning” feature, combined with the built-in multi-user admin management tool, makes the system robust enough for more commercial initiatives, such as product promotion blogs. If you have a lot to post with multiple topics, this is the software you are looking for.
Nucleus Blogging Software
Available for free download at: http://nucleuscms.org/
Although Nucleus is an extremely solid blogging tool in its own right, it also contains some powerful features that can provide benefits in promoting your blog.
Nucleus offers the ability to optimize your URLs by creating simple page addresses that do not have the “&” or “=” characters. This makes the pages search engine (and user) friendly. Another great feature is the ability to display content from multiple weblogs on one page. This could allow a
Website owner to manipulate the optimal text/keyword balance on pages for better search engine rankings.
Nucleus also provides RSS and Atom feeds which can be extremely helpful when promoting a website. If part of your blog’s function is to function as a search engine marketing and promotion tool, Nucleus is an exceptional software package.
Each of these blogging software packages offers the basic tools you would need to create a successful blog and all three are open source (free to use) PHP – MySQL packages. You should try to select the software that will help you achieve the long-term goal you have in mind for your website based on the unique additional features each offers.
