comments on other people's blogs

I've been a little crowded , again , lately ( hey , this is a good idea for a post - making time to write ) and I've just got back and I decided to do a follow-up of an article - why you shouldn't promote your blog .

Let's start with the first item on that list :

Comments on other people's blogs

As we all know very well there are millions of blogs online , not all of them active but still ... this leaves you with countless related blogs to which you can post comments in order to promote yourself .

And you need to promote yourself in a way that matters . Don't just leave a blank comment saying : 'I digg your post .' You need to start a discussion , say something real .

And this means that , most of the times , one simple comment will become a 3-4 comment long discussion . And this in turn means that you need to somehow return to that page once in a while .

But you can't really subscribe to all of them . That would be useless because they eventually become those blogs ( which I'm sure you all have in your RSS reader ) that get the infamous 'Mark as read' .

And you can't really remember every single comment that you posted , right ? After all , a good self promotion campaign involves participating in at least 10-15 discussions a week on 10-15 different blogs . Don't think that you can hit the mother load of visitors by just commenting on one blog .

But you can bookmark them all , can you ?!

'Yeah , sure ... but I also have other bookmarks and I will eventually lose track of all of them in the great bookmark black hole .'

There is a way to do this . The way I see it blogs that you visit split in 4 major categories :

1 : The ones that you read everyday .

2 : The ones that you read just an article or two and decided they deserve a comment .


3 : The ones that have ongoing conversations .


4 : The ones in which you've had a conversation ( or maybe more ) .

Now we don't discuss the first category here because I'm assuming that the blogs in that category have a special place in your RSS client .

But we are interested in the 3 categories that come after it .

The way I see it , in order to do a good comments-campaign you need to have a browser that has a good bookmarks interface ( I heart Safari - you should give it a try : speed , stability , security , great bookmarks interface and many other abilities ) .

The main requirement is that it supports folders with your bookmarks ( I doubt that there are too many browsers out there that DON'T have that yet ) .

Once you get your browser in check just create 3 categories for those categories that I mentioned above :

- one folder for recently commented posts
- one folder for ongoing discussions
- one folder for closed discussions ( this may also be used as a junk folder for long lost blog posts )

And after that just bookmark posts that you commented on . When you get an answer to your comment and that comment turns into a discussion just move the bookmark in the second folder and keep it there until the discussion on that particular post dies - after that move the bookmark in the third folder .

If the comment doesn't turn into a discussion move it directly in the third folder .

I know , it's a very basic plan but ... it helps . Just make sure you don't have more than 15-20 bookmarks at a time in the first 2 folders . And do a quick check on them once every 2 days to see if there we're any replies .

Allow a post to be in the second folder only as long as a discussion lasts .

why you shouldn't promote your blog

No matter how good your blog posts are they are literally useless unless people read them . And in order for people to read them , they need to make it to your blog . I mean , really make it there . It's a struggle for them to find good content . And it's a struggle for you to deliver and get them face to face with your good content .

And ... to be honest ... this isn't about showing that you have the best possible car for sale . I've already addressed the topic of cloud blogging here . And , wether we like to admit it or not , cloud blogging is a fact . Chances are your content is just a variation of someone else's ideas . But that's not a bad thing . Baby steps . Nothing more than baby steps . That's what evolution is . You take an idea and add a little something . Then someone else takes that idea and ads a little something else to it . And so on and so forth .

Picture a huuuuge parking lot with cars for sale . Every car is a blog . And every salesman is a blogger . Cloud blogging tells us that every car is a slight variation of another car from that parking lot .

And this is where the major rule of attracting visitors comes into play :

'Don't promote your blog , promote yourself .'

This is what it should all be about . There is a very small chance that you are truly adding something brand new to the scene . Even this very blog that you are reading is , most likely , just a copy of someone else's ideas . I just rearranged them and maybe added something new . That's it .

Don't try to reinvent the wheel . You will end up with a basket of frustrations and nothing more . Just use it .

This is what you are selling : yourself . It's about the salesman that gets attention , not about his car ( surely , his car must be at least the same as everyone else's ). The point is to get yourself in people's face. Not in an aggressive manner , obviously . Just let them know that you know something about something . Make sure that after they talk to you they think to themselves : "I like him . He knows stuff .".

Everyone tells you : promote your blog . Well , to be honest ... I think it's best to just promote yourself . It's a whole lot easier to get people interested in you than in your blog . It's easier to speak wisely and be funny and charismatic than it is to write original post after original post ( in fact - the ladder is basically impossible ) . 

Ohh , and yeah ... charisma is an integral part in your blogs success .

I'm guessing you all know the basic methods of promoting your blogs . They work , only instead of promoting your blog , promote yourself and just make sure people know you have a blog .

And in case you didn't know them , here they are :

Comments on other people's blogs . 

But please , don't post comments like : 'I like your blog . Good work .' . All they manage to do is get people to ignore you . Post only if you truly have something to add . And don't be afraid to write long comments . Those that are truly interested in the topic will read them and they will respond .

Trackbacks .

Use them only when they are necessary . Only if the post that you are linking to really has something to do with your post . And when linking make sure the text around the link is interesting .

Article submission .

Submit some of your articles to various article directories . If possible submit only articles that offer an overview . Or an introduction into something that you will later cover on your blog . This will get people to your blog . The point is not to say everything there is to be said in just one article because people will read it and after finding out everything about the topic they will no longer stop by your blog .

Listing your blog . 

Just ... list your blog . Blog directories , forums , communities , personal pages , various profiles and so on . Everywhere it's possible to add a link ... post a link to your blog . Be careful not to cross the line between listing and spamming .

Paid advertise .

Obviously it works if it's free as well . But I don't really know of any service that offers free advertisements for your blog . So , if you really believe in your blog then open up your wallet and invest some money in advertisement . 

timeless posts - what are they and how to write them

Since today was a day of great achievements ( I cut my own hair and I did a pretty damn good job at it ) I decided to post another thought on blogging .

In fact this came to me because I stumbled upon a nice article on timeless posts ( you can read it here ) . Timeless posts are great , aren't they ? The more , the better . It keeps new visitors reading . And instead of having 10 great articles on your front page you get a full archive of great articles . Now don't get me wrong . Just because an article is 6 months old doesn't mean it's not good . It means it's not great because , if it's not a timeless article , the information in it is no longer relevant to potential readers .

So I read this good article on timeless posts and ask myself : 'What exactly are timeless posts ?' .

In a nutshell they are articles that maintain their relevancy through great periods of time ( from 1 month to ... forever if possible ) .

The next obvious question was : 'How do you write these kinds of posts ?' .

In the pursuit of finding the answer to that question I wrote down a couple of qualities that a timeless post has :

Not software/hardware dependent .

A timeless post has nothing to do with some piece of software that will eventually be replaced by another version or , sometimes , a whole new software . Or that may become obsolete . An article on the latest video card from Nvidia is not timeless . An article on the best brakes on the market is not timeless . They will eventually be replaced by a newer , better model .

Not the next big thing . 

A timeless post has nothing to do with what's hot or with what's the next big thing in terms of ... anything . By definition the next big thing will eventually be replaced by ... oh well , the next big thing .

Not event related .

Most definitely not event related . Sure , you can write a great article about the monthly bloggers meeting . And sure , this article may be valid for the next month . But , eventually , that meeting will stop . Or it will become something else . Or ... whatever . The point is that events are ... as the title says , events . One time occurrence's .

These are , I think , the key elements to a timeless article . Basically it's an article that has little to do with the present in terms of facts , people , dates . 

Not all of your posts will be timeless . In fact , chances are very few of them will still have something to offer a month or a year after they we're published .

So what can you write about that's timeless ?

Just people ( unless you have a blog about astronomy and stuff like that - the universe is , I think , timeless - at least for us , humans ) .

Thousands of years of evolution and we still love the same way . Sure , we manifest differently but we still feel love the same way . We still hate the same way . We still feel the same way .

How can you apply this to your posts ? You can't write a post about love on a blog that deals with Wordpress plugins . Or can you !?

I can't tell you exactly how to create timeless posts on your blog because it's all very topic dependent . But I will give you 2 examples . One of them you are reading at this very moment . This post is a timeless one . These ideas will still be valid as long as we don't invent some time machine .

Another one is a post I recently wrote for Site Sketch 101 . These are timeless posts . Blogging will always need passion , no matter the size and shape it is delivered in ( be it podcasts , text , video or holograms ) .

Another tip is to always promote your timeless posts . The ones that proved to be successful .

writers block - getting unstuck

Have you ever hit a wall ? I mean really hit it !? Gone right smack into it ? Ever felt that you simply can't write even the simplest article ? You know that feeling that you get when starring at a blank page on a blinking screen and nothing , absolutely nothing comes your way ?

You stand up from your desk and you draw circles around your room and you chew on some pen and you still can't get anything done ?!

The deadline is coming , your visitors are breathing down your neck and you know you need that article . What can you do !?

Well , if you haven't followed rule 5 of what a blogger should not do then this means that you don't have a secret stash of ready to be published articles . ( Which by the way you should . Always have a couple or ready to publish articles in draft - you never know when you hit a dry spot )

Here is a way that might help you through this terrible time .

Take a breath .

Forget about your blog for a second. Relax , take a deep breath. Stare at the sky , watch some birds flying , listen to a song , see a movie . Anything to get your mind of your blog . You need to get your head clear in order to start fresh . All that struggle left behind a dirty page of scribble and scrabble and you need a brand new page . A clean page . So take an hour and go for a walk . Listen to some music . Take your girlfriend out . Catch up with a friend . Drink a beer . No more though . Alcohol has the wonderful effect ( in most cases anyway ) of freeing you . Drink a beer only if you know that this is the effect it has on you . If not ... stick to water or some coffee .

Gain perspective . 

Now that you have your head clear of all the mess that you got yourself into you can start fresh . In most cases this is the part where you should be able to get an idea . You won't need the next 2 steps . 

But if you're not most cases then you need perspective on your problem . Think of it as a puzzle . Take a piece of paper and write down all the pieces you already have . Take your topic and split in several categories . Then , if necessary , take those categories and create some sub-categories . Tick off the categories that your blog has already served .

I'm assuming that someone that has been blogging for 2-3-4-5 years already knows how to get out of a slump like this . This guide is best suited for bloggers with little experience , bloggers with just a couple of months of posting . Bloggers that can still get a perspective on their blog without getting lost amongst hundreds , if not thousands , of posts .

So , getting back to business . After you've broken down your topic in categories and sub-categories , try and tick off the ones that you've already written about . If you've written an article on all of them ... then try and see which one can be improved .

Think of this as a maze . It's hard to get from one end to another when you are in the maze . But it's a lot easier to do it when you have a birds eye view of the maze .

This is what you need to do . Step back and get a look at the big picture . Then break it down so that you can digest it easier .

Plan your journey .

Now that you have established what needs work and what can be left alone it's time to plan your road . Plan your article . 

For example you have a blog about ... well , blogging . Let's say you've discovered that you have not written a post about time management .

Make a plan for your post . What does it need to communicate ? What's the point of time management ? Why does a blogger need it ? How can he do it ?

Basically ask any question that comes to your mind . And then do some research . See what others have come up with . See what they might have missed .

Think outside the box .

By now you should have a list with a topic for an article and some guidelines on writing that article . This is the hard part . You need to learn to write without knowing what to write . Put some headsets on and listen to music . Let your mind wander while at the same time keeping those guidelines in sight . Don't be afraid to come up with crazy theories , weird ideas and fun stories . Try them . Write them down . See how they look . Think outside the box .  

5 reasons to check your stats

What if I were to tell you that you should allow an hour of stats checking every evening ?

Would you listen to me ? Probably not . One of the mistakes that most bloggers do is ignoring their stats ( not just new ones , a lot of experienced bloggers ignore stats ) .

They just take a look at them and say : 'Yeah , they're good . I'm done .'

Why are stats so important ?

1 : They reveal the keywords that bring visitors to your site . This doesn't mean that you should focus on them . This means that they are already working and you should analyze them and see why they are working . Then apply those methods for other keywords . Think about what other keywords fit your blog . Try and introduce them to the search engines . Look at the keywords that bring little visitors . See what's wrong with them .

2 : They provide you with your visitors behavior . We all appreciate a quick answer when we post a comment . Check your stats to see which hours are the busiest . Try and make room in your schedule so that you can give quick replies .

3 : They also show you which days of the week are the busiest . Prepare your best articles for those days .

4 : They show you which of your articles are the best . And no , this doesn't mean you should write yet another article on dog grooming . This means you should read your best articles and see what you did that was so good ( how did you seo'd it ? what was it's length ? why is it different than the others ? etc ) . Write all these observations on a piece of paper and then start applying them to future articles . See what works .

5 : Bottom line they reveal patterns in your blog . Patterns can be copied . Copy the patterns that work best and apply them to everything else .

You should always experiment . That's a key element in blogging .

well , here I am !

A while ago I bought this domain hoping to get a nice personal blog going . It would have been my first blog in english , which basically meant it was going to be my first international blog .

Didn't really got around to it . So the domain got left behind .

After a while I decided that I know enough about blogging and I can maintain a blog ... about blogging . And then it hit me while I was posting a comment for a blog : what the heck is blogging if not 'life in a page' ?

And this is how Life Within a Page took it's first breath . From a weird coincidence and a forgotten domain .

The past 2 weeks have been crazy to say the least ( I'm in the process of moving while on the same time I just started an interesting project with a friend of mine ) . This meant that I had little , if no time at all , to work on LWAP .

But tonight I finally got around to it and put together a decent design ( I like it ) and now I intend on writing what needs written .

Hope you will enjoy your stay here .

the 10 commandments of blogging

1 : Be passionate about it . Don't blog just to make money or just because everyone else does it .

2 : Always respect your readers and other bloggers .

3 : Remember where you first started . Never forget that blank stat page .

4 : Be conscious . With great power comes great responsibility . Don't make up news , don't lie . Write truth . Write what you know . Don't gossip .

5 : Always seek knowledge . There is always something to be learned .

6 : Spread knowledge .

7 : Seek challenge . Challenge yourself . Challenge your blog .

8 : Organize your life . Keep your blog in line . Blogging can become a 24/7 job if you are not careful .

9 : Experiment . Evolve . Blogging is organic .

10 : You can't be original . But make sure you do not copy . Instead improve .

These are my ten commandments .

!Sketchy Times font

This is the first freebie article of this blog . And what else should I point you towards then the great font that I used for my menu and header ( it is pretty cool , isn't it ? ) . And it's free .

You can download it here .

the cloud blogging conspiracy

Who here has ever heard of cloud computing ? I'm pretty sure that many of you have heard of this . Some of you know what this is and some of you don't know what it is . Cloud computing is still in it's infancy but people all over the Internet say that this is the future . Especially with the recent promise that Google made regarding their Google Chrome OS . And it all sounds nice and dandy . Despite the implications that come with this style of e-life overall it sounds like an interesting concept . After all we have already started in the past couple of years to get more and more connected .

For those of you that don't know here is what cloud computing is according to Wikipedia :

'a style of computing in which dynamically scalable and often virtualized resources are provided as a service over the Internet . Users need not have knowledge of , expertise in , or control over the technology infrastructure in the "cloud" that supports them .'

But how many of you have heard of 'cloud blogging' so far ? I'm guessing no one . Because I just made it up . But even if it's made up it doesn't mean it's not real and it isn't working this very moment .

As a child blogger you are taught that content is king . Which is absolutely true . The essence of blogging is content . The engine that drives blogging needs to be passion . Nothing else . These are the two key elements involved in blogging .

Another thing you hear constantly and that is itching at the back of your skull is : 'create original content' , 'write genuine stuff' and other such advices .

But how many of you sometimes feel guilt when publishing an article ? It's nothing abrasive . It's just a small puff of air that whisper in your ears : 'yeah , but this article has it's roots in that other bloggers article' .

You don't have to answer to me . Just accept it . Because that little voice is right . Take a look at every article you published and think about this : how many articles have you written that have roots nowhere else but in your thoughts ? You will find that the number is very shy .

There is one major rule in the evolution of every species : there is a standstill at a certain moment in time . This is why we , humans , have entered the age of technology . Because our thoughts have evolved to a standstill . There are very little thoughts , feelings that we don't know . Pretty much everything that we can think of has already been thought by someone else .

And this is basically what blogging is about . What we humans think and do .

The only bloggers that have the chance of coming up with something truly original are the ones that write about technology and it's branches . Because , as I said earlier , we are in the age of technology . We have evolved to a standstill and now we need to improve the things around us because we can no longer add value to our thoughts and feelings .

And this is where cloud blogging comes into play . You rarely create something original . Most of your articles are just ideas found somewhere else that have been put through a different perspective or , best case scenario , have received a slight improvement from your side .

You need to come to terms with this . You need to stop lying to yourself and accept the environment around you and it's limitations . Depending on your topic of choice chances are you may never truly come up with something original .

For example how many NEW things do you think we can come up about dogs ? I dare say that almost everything that we can find out about them has already been found . Every method of training them has already been put to play . And so on . You get my point , right ?

Most of us work within a cloud of blogs . You hear something , somewhere . Then you add a little on your own . The someone else adds a little something . And so on and so forth .

The conclusion is this : stop chasing original content . Depending on your topic chances are you will never write something truly original . Your best option is to try and add just a little something to someone else's ideas . 

Stop drooling when someone tells you : 'you need to create original content' . Not even they managed this . After all you hear about 'creating original content' all over the place .

You should accept this as this will prevent future frustrations .

the stats !

Site Sketch 101 featured an excellent article today ( in fact I think it just got out ) regarding the all time bloggers brain rambler .

What is a rambler you might ask . A rambler is , among other things , a person who takes long walks , recreational or otherwise .

And , wether we admit it or not , we all took these long walks in the days of start when we would imagine thousands of visitors rushing up to read our opinion and we would almost see the checks and the cash flowing and curling about the place .

And then ... it was online . You had your kick ass theme . You had your great content in check . You had your cool domain name . And ... nothing .

No flood of visitors . No comments . No one congratulating you on your cool blog . And you kept on watching the stats .

'5 visitors today . Cool . I bet you I will get 10 tomorrow .'

And then tomorrow came . And you got 4 visitors . Bummer , right ?!

To me , the stats are like the ultimate test of faith . Because , as I stated , there is absolutely no way to get a satisfying number of visitors in less than at least 2-3 months . I honestly don't believe in that .

Unless you get something killer that is of popular interest and no one else has it ( ex : president Obama dancing in a pink dress - I know , I keep giving this example but you have to know I am no racist and I have nothing personal against him but it just seems like a fun thing to watch ) you have no chance of getting that flood .

There are 2 more ways to get lots of visitors when your blog is still in dippers . The first would be to already have an established blog and redirect some of those visitors . But if you already have that then you probably know all there is to know about blogging .

And the other way would be to have some friends that have established blogs and ask them to yell out your name .

But if you don't have any of the above assets ... then you will be forced to stare at some skinny stats for at least 1-2 months .

These are the stats . Time consuming and energy extinguishers .

And this starring ... is what you need to focus on . I will be posting in the near future the ultimate tip on blogging and this article is somehow related to that . How ?

Ask yourself this : Can I watch the stats with 5 visitors per day without tearing my eyes out in frustration ?

the rule !

I don’t know about other people but I do know about me . And what I know about me is that I’m no genius . I wish I was but I am not . And I know that I have limits . I know I can’t jump 6 feet from the ground so that cuts my chances to be the next Air Jordan by a lot . But I can write . And , from time to time , I can come up with a good enough idea .

I do no believe in modesty . But I do believe in knowing exactly what you can and what you cannot do .

And when you reach a limit you have 2 choices : try to overcome it . Who knows ? Maybe it just seems like one when actually it’s just another bump in the road . In case you can’t overcome it you have your basic number 2 choice : accept it . Get used to the fact that you simply can’t do that particular thing . Try to go alongside it . Know when and from who to ask for help . Go around it if possible .

I do not believe in ‘the sky is your limit’ . Sometimes the limit is just the next branch of your tree .
But that’s not a bad thing . We can’t all be good at everything . If that was true then we would all be just … common folk and nothing more . That’s what makes us special .


Having a limit means allowing someone else to have a power . And this works both ways . But enough with the small talk about life . 


How does this matter to a blogger ? Your first guess might be that it does not . You are either good at it or not .

Not exactly . Being a good blogger means being able to send a message and more importantly : having a message to send .


But I have seen bloggers with good ideas , good writing skills and no visitors . Why ? Because they we’re stretching their blog too much . Just like too much butter stretched over too much bread . It no longer tastes good .


One thing that I see a lot of people attempting is getting rivers of ideas on their blog and trying to make every post an amazing one . You can’t do that . You can’t come up with an original idea every single day . It’s a great thing to want … but it’s close to impossible to achieve .

Instead of sweating your way through every post from the fear of not writing something incredible do this : get your one great idea and improve it .

Create a whole new perspective on your topic and then write about that . Give examples , describe it , analyze it , improve it .

You can’t be the best at everything in your domain . But you can be the best at a certain something . Don’t spread your energy over everything . Focus it on one thing . Make that one thing fantastic . The internet is a big place and people can find common stuff everywhere . But great things are not that easy to find .

If you spread yourself over too many ideas you might get one great one and deliver it poorly because you no longer have the energy to give it your best . And your visitors will miss it . And they will keep walking because : ‘I can find this anywhere else’ .

what not to do as a blogger

There are a lot of guides out there for people that want to get into blogging , very good ones .

Let's try something slightly different . Let's see wich are the top 5 things a blogger should avoid doing by all means .

1 : Taking a break before the job is done .

Growing a blog takes a lot of work and requires an equal amount of patience . There are very few blogs that managed to grow from nothing to a consistent number of readers . You will get spikes in traffic . You will also get low's . It will all be a down and up game in the first few months of your blog .

Just because you didn't get 100,000 visitors a month in your first 2 months doesn't mean you have to give up . Give it time . Write good articles and be steady in your work . Blogging is a passion but it is also a job . You need to treat it like that .

I'm guessing that if you managed to get about 40-50 consistent readers in your first month you're good . Keep it up and the numbers will continue to grow .

2 : Plastic surgery on your blog .

Don't . Don't do it . I know there are a lot of great themes out there and there are a lot of cool and fun plugins but don't overdo it . Get yourself a local install of your platform of choice and play with all the themes and plugins you can get your hands on for about a week .

After that stick to some of them , not all of them of course . Make sure you get a clean theme and a few usefull plugins and nothing more .

We're living in an age of minimalism .

3 : Getting paid before you get paid .

I know the prospect of making hundreds of bucks from your blog are very attractive but I guarantee you one thing : you won't make that money . Not at first . So don't go subscribing to 5-6 ad networks and then start to crowd ads on your blog .

As I was saying in my previous post : nobody likes a billboard instead of a blog .

It's a good idea to have some ads from the very start but 1-2 should be enough until you get your blog up and going .

4 : Blogging everyone else except yourself .

No . I'm not saying you should not write and submit articles to directories .

I'm saying that you should be carefull not to spend more time commenting on 40-50 blogs or , even worse , surfing digg , stumbleupon and delicious . They will not help grow your blog at first .

Comment on blogs . But don't overdo it . As for digg ... well ... I guarantee you that unless you get video footage of president Obama dancing in a pink dress you won't get too much traffic from it .

First you need to write some good articles . Focus on that .

5 : Mood posting . 

I know , I know ... we all have our high's and low's but when your blog is just starting up you need to make sure you post on a regular basis in order to keep your few readers coming again .

Make sure you always write when you're on a roll and don't post more than your average . I know that today you had a lucky streak and had ideas for 5 great articles . But don't post them all at once . Post your average number ( let's say 1 article if you're posting 1 article per day ) and the other 4 save for that rainy day when you have no ideas .

Make sure you are prepared in case you will leave on vacation for 3-4-5 days . Write extra posts and prepare a sistem to autopost them or , if that's too difficult , create a temp account and ask a friend to post them for you .

Blogger or Wordpress ?

This is one for the history books . The classic debate between 2 giants . Because you have to admit it : they are 2 giants in the industry . And I'm not talking about Google and his search engine and what not . I'm just talking about Blogger and Wordpress . Just the cms's .

Even though there are a couple , if not more , cms's out there way better than Blogger and even Wordpress ( yes , you heard me right - I dare say that ) the fact remains that these two are , most likely , the best blogging platforms based on their user number .

And every infant bloggers question is this : 'Should I go with Blogger or Wordpress ?'

I've used Blogger , I've used Wordpress and I've also used Wordpress.com . I've used Joomla and I've also played around in Drupal .

Most new bloggers will start with Wordpress.com . Why ? Because everywhere they go they hear that Wordpress is the best cms out there . And it very well may be . But what they fail to see is that those people that know shit are actually talking about Wordpress alone , not Wordpress.com .

Because in terms of hosted service Blogger truly beats them all . At least in my books . Why ?

Common ... you get to play around with your own domain with no extra cost . You can upload any template you desire or you can create your own . You have freedom in using scripts and various html hacks  .

So I'm here to clarify a very old myth ( in terms of internet age of course ) which is : Wordpress is the best blogging platform .

The correct phrasing should be : Wordpress Self-Hosted is the best platform out there . 


Without a question Wordpress beats them all when you're just a regular Joe with little or no knowledge of html , php , etc .


But when it comes to hosted platforms ... Blogger is the best there is . No questions asked . And I stand by this and anyone can challenge my truth . 


It is the best because it allows you to use your own domain , it gives you close to full freedom over your blog and , most importantly , it allows you to learn a thing or two about html and css .

Giving you this freedom in this situation means allowing you to grow on a personal level while at the same time giving you incentive to do that .

With all the guides and tutorials available ... don't you think it's a little easier to get basic css knowledge , for example , in real time on your own blog then to do it by reading a book ?

This is the thing that I appreciate the most in every aspect of life . Give me the means to do something ... but at the same time allow me to learn how it is done .

My suggestion is you start a blog on Wordpress.com . Get the basic know-how on blogging . Then move on to Blogger and get a little indepth knowledge on functions , design , forwarding , dns , etc . And after that you should move on to self hosting a blog .

original blog design : brad frost

We've all travelled across the web and we've all seen excellent designs . Not all of us manage to appreciate them at their fullest but when we see an original design we gotta give it at least that . So here is my finding of the day : Brad Frost's Blog . Excellent design .