Blogs are a great way to reach many people, just review the data listed below as per BlogWorld Expo. The hardest part of blogging is getting started, but once you get the hang of it, you’ll become a professional. One of the most important attributes your website should possess is an instrument to keep it progressive and inviting. When a customer or a client visits your website they should become drawn in and in turn, they’ll want to come back and visit more often. Having an inventive blog can bring people back to your site time and time again.

Blogging software is an essential tool that will make your blogging endeavors easier. There are many to choose from, so in this article I’ll go over the main attributes of the most popular blogging software titles.

Important Blogging Statistics according to BlogWorld

• Over 12 million American adults currently maintain a blog.
  
• More than 147 million Americans use the Internet.
  
• Over 57 million Americans read blogs.
  
• 1.7 million American adults list making money as one of the reasons they blog.
  
• 89% of companies surveyed say they think blogs will be more important in the next five years.
  
• 9% of internet users say they have created blogs.
  
• 6% of the entire US adult population has created a blog.
  
• Technorati is currently tracking over 70 million blogs.
  
• over 120 thousand blogs are created every day.
  
• there are over 1.4 million new blog posts every day.
  
• 22 of the 100 most popular websites in the world are blogs.
  
• 120,000 new blogs are created every day.
  
• 37% of blog readers began reading blogs in 2005 or 2006.
  
• 51% of blog readers shop online.
  
• Blog readers average 23 hours online each week.

A comparison chart is an easy way to see what each software product has to offer, depending on your needs. Some of the popular software titles are compared here.

I've researched a few different software titles and I've provided links to their features and themes. Wikipedia has an extensive list of weblog software outlined in the following categories:

• Free/Libre/Open-Source software
  
• Proprietary software
  
• Unknown License and
  
• Developer-hosted software

Below are summaries of features for several popular blogging software products.

Wordpress features:

• Lessons
  
• Getting Started with Wordpress:

A new feature added in Wordpress: Blog by Email. ”WordPress can be configured to use an email account to post to your blog. In order to enable this functionality, you need to set up a dedicated email account, configure WordPress, and configure your web server such that WordPress can check the email account periodically.

Customize wordpress to your individual needs with Wordpress Plugins:

TypePad is software that you purchase.

• See their key features.
  
• TypePad Pricing.

So why should you pay for blog software when you can get it for free elsewhere? According to TypePad they promise better customer service 24 hours a day/365 days a year. They also state, “It’s easy to get started, and grows with you. Want a great looking blog? Start with one of our professional designs and customize it over time. You have complete control of your design. Want an active community of readers and commenters? TypePad has the tools you need to manage the conversation. Want to spread your message far and wide? With TypePad your blog can live on your domain name, and we automatically support feeds, podcasting, and video casting.”

Blogware

“Blogware is the better way to blog.

• Communicating is easy: Our superior interfaces make blog simple. Posts are created in a Rich Text Editor, also known as a WSYWYG (What You See is What You Get) environment. And you can preview and edit your entries, photos before you publish them.
  
• You Control Who Sees Your Content: Blogware’s security model allows you to control who sees what content by restricting permissions to various content folders. Your private information remains private.
  
• Post Anything, From Anywhere: You do not have to login to a website to update your blog. Add content from your cell phone, email application and more.
  
• Create your own blog personality: You are not limited to pre-defined templates like other applications. You can create custom components. And, it is advertisement free – unlike other blogging services.
  
• You Can Grow with Blogware: You have the ability to enable and disable functionality depending on your blogging needs.”
  

  Where to get Blogware: They list retailers who carry blogware.

  
  

  Blogware provides quick and easy online tutorials that teach you how to post, customize your blog, track your statistics by the hour, such as most viewed blog and the blog with the most comments. You can also learn how to import your blog from another blog site to Blogware in just six clicks of your mouse.

  
  

  b2evolution is a “multilingual multiuser multiblog engine.”

  
  

  “b2evolution includes all the features of traditional blog tools, and extends them with evolved features such as file & photo management, advanced skinning, multiple blogs support as well as detailed user permissions.”

  
  

  This free blog tool that is installed on your own website. Their site includes an online demo so that you can try it out before you download it on your computer. It’s simple to use and it comes with one of the largest selections of themes/skins, so that you can customize your blog to your taste. If you don’t find one that fits your needs you can also edit the CSS files, and they give the instructions on their website.

  Click here for a complete list of themes/skins.
  
  
  

  Blogger

  
  

  Blogger is a free blog hosting site where you can create your own blog with its own domain. It only takes three easy steps to have your own blog up and running. (Create an account, name your blog and choose a template) It took me under 15 minutes to create my own blog. The hardest task was coming up with a catchy name and then selecting one of the ten templates. They also make it easy to change your template whenever you decide to change the look of your blog. You do have to register on their site to view the available templates.

  
  

  Blogger’s key feature is its simplicity. If you want to start blogging today, then I’d start with Blogger because you can focus on your blog’s content, because the content is what will be the deciding factor in a successful blog. If you find that you want or need more attributes in your blog, then I’d choose any of the other software titles that fit your needs.

  
  

  Integrating your Blog into your Website

  
  

  If your organization’s website is built on a content management system (CMS) such as Drupal, Joomla, Plone, or Community Server, then blogging software is built into your CMS. You may need to flip a couple of switches to get it to appear, but that is usually pretty easy to do. The nice thing about using your CMS’s blogging feature is that your blog will be seamlessly integrated into your website.

  
  

  If you are not using a CMS, you can always use one of the above blogging tools and link to your blog from your website, use iframes to pull the blog in, or use the blog’s RSS feeds to list the recent titles of your blogs on your website.

  
  

  Summary

  
  

  Blogs are popular and are good for keeping your site content fresh. I’ve discussed a few of the blogging tools. They are generally quick to set up. And, it is important to integrate them into your organization’s website.