A reader wrote me to ask whether I knew of a website that leads you through starting to blog – you know, explaining how to get started and making it easy to tell the difference between the different systems so you can figure out which would suit your needs. A decision tree would be perfect.

I don’t really know of such a site, but I bet there’s one out there. Any ideas?

9 thoughts on “site for would be bloggers?

  1. Claus

    Maybe this one? At least it’s a good overview of what blogs are all about. There are even some “Weblogs About Blogging” listed, such as

  2. Claus

    ooops … such as this one?

    BTW, as I am trying to type in my comment, the DIV at the right hand side entitled “recent comments and trackbacks” and the form field are partially overlapping, so that I *partially* don’t see what I type in.

    Claus

  3. John Norvell

    Folks at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard are developing a Blogging 101 course on a wiki: Blogging 101.
    It’s in the planning stages now, but it seems to be moving along. I’m sure they’d
    welcome help.

  4. Nox

    It’s not a website, but I think The Weblog Handbook is pretty good. It had better be, I’ve ordered it for my thesis.

  5. ben scent

    openSourceCMS.com: try before you… install lets you try out open-source CMS systems (including blogging tools) that are designed to be run on their own server and are based on php and mysql. You can try out installations of, among other things, Nucleus CMS, Textpattern, and WordPress. You can also try out various Wiki systems like MediaWiki.

  6. lorenz

    Or what about Welcome to the Blogsphere by anthropologist Kerim Friedman. A very short introduction with some useful links

  7. Mark Federman

    This raises a fascinating structural question that goes to the heart of media studies issues. If the person is not yet a blogger, how does he/she know what she/he needs? Oh, I understand how one can conceptualize one’s needs; hypothetically, I need all sorts of things. But according to the precept of “we shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us,” once one blogs, that person becomes a blogger (perhaps) and only then can know what their particular style/mode of blogging requires.

    My advice to your reader is, get thee to the easiest and fastest blogging capability you can find – be it Blogger.com, or a friend who will host you on WordPress, TypePad, MoveableType, Userland, or whatever. Blog for a while. Get the feel of how you change by virtue of your voice being amplified. Understand what you want to do by playing and making mistakes. By that time, you’ll know what’s available in capabilities, features, widgets, and frills. Then blog#2 will be closer to what you had in mind, and many kilometres from what you could possibly conceive as a non-blogger.

  8. Ferdy

    WebOpenSource.com has comprehensive directory of open source softwares including blog softwares. It’s free to download and use. Mostly using php/mysql which you can use in your own local computer, intranet or web hosting provider.

  9. Jozef Imrich

    Whatever you do Just Czech out: Blogfather

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