I decided that since I don’t know THAT much about WordPress to begin with I should go for something easier. I’ve been thinking Blogger, but when I go to create a CNAME record on my domain name hosting service I cannot because it says I must have something “carrie.itsnearlyfree.com” instead of what I tried “www.itsnearlyfree.com/carrie/blog”

I really don’t know what to do at this point but I would use TypePad if I could figure it out! But I imagine it’s the same as Blogger anyhow. Any help would be much appreciated.

Oh and yes, I paid for my domain name but a friend hosts my site elsewhere.

Hogwash!

The bottom line is matching the platform to your ability to create and maintain your blog(s), whether you run a blog for a $10 million company or you are starting a business out of you basement or garage.

For the vast, vast majority of people out there just starting a blog, whether for business, fun or whatever, setting up and maintaining a self-hosted solution like Movable Type, Drupal, and Wordpress is a non-starter - a hurdle too big and complicated to get over.

The ongoing maintenance after your install is another huge hurdle - patching and/or upgrading MySQL, Apache, and the blog platform itself is not a task your average small business person would want to do, or is capable of doing. Small business men and women just don’t want to focus their time and effort on this sort of thing. They simply want to write their content and get their stories and messages out there without hassle.

Shameless plug:

This is where TypePad Hacks comes into the picture. When you’ve decided you want a blog that has design elements and bells and whistles that aren’t available “out of the box”, you come to us. We are probably the only experts out there who know the ins and outs of how to make TypePad do all the things you want it to.

In short, we are the bridge between a standard, typical blog and the “self hosted” blog that allows you to have complete control over everything.

Basically, we provide you with the best of both worlds.

Kate’s last blog post… A Rant About Spec Work Scammers

All the blogging tools allow for using your own domain name - Blogger, WP, and TypePad.

Generally speaking, you need to “point” your domain at the host via a simple DNS entry. Then, there is usually some facility with the blogging service/software to tell it to use your domain name in conjunction with a specific blog in your installation.

We’ve found that this is one of the most confusing things for people to try to tackle on their own. It does take a little bit of expertise to make it work correctly.

David Weiss’s last blog post… Join the TypePad Hacks Affiliate Program

As an added touch, I changed the basic WordPress skin to emulate the pages of my website. If you look closely, you can see subtle differences (the header graphic, for example, is not lined up precisely…) But for the average user, the transition is fairly seamless.

From a technical point of view (I’ve done a bit of web design), WordPress seemed to me to be the easiest to install and use on a server. If you are having problems, double check the WordPress Help files — they are pretty good, I’ve found.

Otherwise, as mentioned above, you might want to hire it out. Depending on how integrated you want your blog to be (i.e. simply on the same server, different web design vs. full design integration with your current design) it shouldn’t be that much for a web designer to upload and set up for you. Graphic work can send the price up of course. You could also do it in phases — pay someone to get your blog up for you now and then integrate the graphics later, if money is an issue.

But first, you have to find out if you have a Windows or Linux server. Take a look at your original sign-up documentation, or contact your server provider.

Hope it works out for you!

~Graham

Graham Strong’s last blog post… What the Heck is Blog ROI?

Being the biased TypePad Hack that I am, I feel as though I have to set the record straight on TypePad.

Sure, you can do the “easy way” with a pre-made template and have it hosted on TypePad’s servers.

But you can also use your own domain name, and with a little help from TypePadHacks.org, you can customize your blog to include all sorts of nifty features.

There are tons of pre-made widgets, and you can even make your own with 3rd party tools. Everyone seems to integrate their toolset with TypePad, so there is no shortage of functionality for your TypePad blog.

And since your TypePad blog is hosted, things like server maintenance are not an issue.

It’s the best of all worlds, really. There are some features of Movable Type (made by the same company) that are not available in TypePad, but all-in-all, you get a very robust platform with plenty of opportunity for customization if you have the need/urge.

David Weiss’s last blog post… Join the TypePad Hacks Affiliate Program