Create a Blog or a Website? from Schmeg.com

   

One of the cons of blogging sites -- greater risk of the site being closed down if someone claims you are a spammer, or if the site's monitoring software flags you as a spammer. This is an increasing problem at Google's Blogger.

The assumption that blogging sites are harder to customize is not entirely correct. The degree of control you have over the look and feel of your site varies from one hosting environment to another. Some are highly flexible, some not at all.

While blogs can be more, they are essentially linear sites. Posts are listed one after the other in the main page. Old posts are normally accessed through archive links. This reflects their origin as a form of online diary written by a single person. To be certain, some people have morphed them into greater things, but managing more complex blog sites is not always an easy task.

If you are looking at a site where you want to gather articles in topic areas, but still have the newest additions listed on the entrance page, then you will probably be looking at developed a system at a location where you have full control over the look and feel of the site. The navigational system may be more complex from the site maintainer's perspective, but it may be easier for the user because like material is gathered in like locations.

I would start with an idea for a site and then look for a system that makes that easier to deliver. I have tried going the other way -- for specific reasons -- and I have discovered that if you try to do something more than the system is really designed for -- even if it tries to offer that capability -- you will become frustrated with the site and faced with a greater challenge migrating to something you should have implemented from the beginning.

In summary
- develop a site concept and budget
- white board a site layout that supports the concept
- find software which supports the site structure
- find hosting environment which supports the software within the budget

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