Perhaps the first step in setting up a new blog is selecting the hosting website. For a new and inexperienced blogger, ease of use is essential. After gaining some experience the "look" and atmosphere of theme choices gain importance. Finally, the experienced blogger wants flexibility in all design elements.
What are the most popular free blog hosting sites? My choices are Blogger, Tumblr, and WordPress.
Which is easiest to use for an inexperienced blogger? I choose Blogger. I have some blogging experience, so I find that Tumblr doesn't have too many choices to confuse me, but when starting out I wanted a "Print Shop" approach--meaning effective presentation with few confusing choices.
Do you all remember the software program "Print Shop" from the early 1990s?
Print Shop allowed you to create simple signs and banners, birthday cards, and so on, from a simple (and limited) user interface, and a built in library of designs.
Originally the program was in black and white, but with the advent of color dot matrix printers, you could create full color designs. Soon schools were adorned with print shop created signs and banners. Neighborhood friends were creating signs to advertise yard sales. These computer generated designs were a real step forward from hand lettered signs.
So, Print Shop worked well for the early 90's generation of users, but soon, people were asking for more options and better looking graphics. The manufacturer produced "Print Shop II" which indeed looked much better and had many more choices. The problem was, it was also more complicated to use. So, unless you had lots of time to relearn the program you stopped using it and went back to the original PS - began making signs in your new Word Processor.
For me, Blogger has all the advantages of the original Print Shop. There are enough themes and addons, and enough layout flexibility to create a simple, but attractive blog. If you have absolutely no experience with blogging, I suggest you start with Blogger, as we will do for this class.
