MetaChat - AskMeCha: advice for a n00blogger, please

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12 January 2006

AskMeCha: advice for a n00blogger, please →[More:]I use OS X and would like to start a blog, initially for personal use and perhaps later as a somewhat commercial offering (promoting my tunes and gigs, enabling people to donate for downloads). In the process I would love to learn about CSS (I know nothing, really, about HTML or CSS), podcasting, streaming audio, etc. I will have my own domain and I am willing to put a lot of time into learning.

Any advice about what would be the best software or service for someone like me?

post by: Cryptical Envelopment at: 10:22 | 9 comments

I use, and like, WordPress. It's easy enough for a n00b to install and use, but offers more complexity to those willing to dig in.

posted by brainwidth 12 January | 10:28

Thanks brainwidth. I have been reading about WordPress and Moveable Type. They both look pretty impressive and full-featured.

posted by Cryptical Envelopment 12 January | 10:30

Oh, and as you've probably seen, WordPress has an active and helpful support forum, and a tremendously comprehensive documentation wiki.

posted by brainwidth 12 January | 10:37

CSS Properties and the Mandarin Design blog are two resources I learned most of my CSS from. The Mandarin stuff can be hokey but it demonstrates just how much you can do with CSS and the documentation is good.

I personally use Movable Type, but it might be a little more than you need to get started; I've heard good things about WordPress.

posted by kyleg 12 January | 10:41

Have you peeked at drupal yet?

posted by dabitch 12 January | 11:18

I have seen those, brainwidth, and they look great. Support is going to be awfully important given how little I know!

Thanks for the tutorial resources, kyleg. The only web work I have done is with a WYSIWYG "editor" so I know next to nothing about HTML/XHTML/CSS. Looks like I should start with some basic HTML/XHTML first.

I have been doing some reading about Drupal, dabitch, thanks. It looks appealing in that it is as much directed towards general content management as blogging. I've also been reading that it has a steeper learning curve but maybe it is worth it: I would like to eventually create a larger site with a blog being only a part of it. No matter what I end up using I have a hell of a lot to learn. :-)

posted by Cryptical Envelopment 12 January | 11:56

See it was your growing-it-to-be-bigger thing that made me think of drupal at once. It has a pretty active community, and modules for paypal payments etc that you might use.

Otherwise, wordpress is shit-easy to set up and start playing with, really.

Now on the other hand, isn't this stuff on b2b-something or other..? Might that work?

posted by dabitch 12 January | 13:27

I always liked the stripped-down nature of blosxom.

posted by Eideteker 12 January | 15:35

That's looks very inviting, Eideteker. Thanks. A quick GS provided this. More reading!

I downloaded WordPress and Drupal and I am going to start tinkering. I'll be busy for a while.

Now on the other hand, isn't this stuff on b2b-something or other..? Might that work?

Wha?...

CSS, XHTML, CMS, PHP, MySQL, Apache, BtoB... *head explodes, heads for HTML tutorials*

Thanks for the perspective, folks!

posted by Cryptical Envelopment 12 January | 20:10

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