Blog-Software

The blogging software that is enjoying the limelight for quite some times for now is the B2Evolution. Written in PHP, and supported by MySQL database, it is among those few web applications that every web host will recommend you for your website.

The beauty of this software lies in its comprehensive feature list that includes

• Multiple blogs

• Multiuser with different access levels

• Antispam tools

• Trackbacks and pingbacks

• Timezone handling

• RSS and ATOM feeds

• Image file organizer.

• It is also multilingual; a feature that can be attributed to its originator, Francois Planque—who was a Frenchman.

In addition to that, the latest version of B2 evolution has been enriched with many more interesting features:

One of the most talked about point in the new release is its parting with the feature of configuration file editing. From now on, all configuration tasks are going to be handled through the installer or administrative back-end.

In addition to that, this software allows an admin user to lock himself out permanently. What he needs to do is to redirecting the admin.php page to a nonexistent URL on the root domain.

Another important feature relates to the spam protection for which B2Evolution receives adieus. It is provided with community-wide spam filters. This helps the B2Eevolution sites aggregate and “tag” spammer IPs into a central blacklist. The other B2Eevolution blogs get benefited from this spam filtering.

Then, B2Evolution is famously packed with a fully skinnable interface. Traditional blog, knowledge base, bug tracker—-any type of skins can be easily downloaded and installed to render a new look and feel to your blog site.

It also offers localization into a number of language packs which can be easily downloaded. Already available languages are: Chinese, Czech, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Spanish and Swedish. Even if you can’t find your language, just use the localization toolkit to easily localize B2Evolution to your language. With B2evolution it’s really easy to translate to your own language too.

The software helps to integrate a truly efficient workflow.

How does it work? When a user posts an article, it can be assigned to an editor. Editor may then assign them to reviewers for final approval and then only the article is published on the site. Thus, the actual permissions and statuses remain with the site owner.

In its course of development, the B2Evolution also introduced 3rd party plugin features that allow further expansion in its feature list. Some of the most popular plugins from the users perspective are Textile, Auto-P, Greymatter, BB code, Texturize (text formatting plug-ins), and graphic smilies.

B2Evolution has built-in support for RSS 0.92, RSS 1.0, RSS 2.0, and Atom feeds for both posts and comments.

No matter whether you are going to step into the world of professional web publishing or just want to start a fun filled family blog, the comprehensive b2evolution platform can give you an easily installable, free, feature rich, extensible blogging solution. Unless with B2 Evolution, your transition from a novice to seasoned blogger could never have been so quick and smooth.

People who wish to set up an income generating site repeatedly ask whether one should opt for a conventional website or a blog setup. I strongly suggest that they should opt for a blog. There are several reasons for this suggestion, and the reason will become clear as you read this full write-up.

What Is A Traditional Website: A traditional website is made mostly of a scripting language known as HTML. It might contain graphics, audio, video, flash and many other things. It is usually developed from scratch by a person with a good knowledge of coding.

Traditional websites are generally rugged, with very few bugs, and stable. However, once programmed and set up, there is no way to keep on adding articles and information unless the owner has some knowledge of HTML. Worse, even if the has such a knowledge, changing a given article or adding a new one is neither easy nor automatic. He will have to download the page he intends to change, for which he will need FTP (file transfer protocol) software. Once he modifies the program, he will have upload it back in the correct folder and with the correct name. While FTP programs have become increasingly user-friendly, doing it all is cumbersome and the chances of making an error and messing up the whole website is high.

If a new page is developed and uploaded, it has to be connected properly to the menu. A mistake here can result in the page not being found. What is more, it is a difficult task to connect it to the menu if every page displays the menu, because this will mean connecting this page to every page (hundreds, sometimes) that displays the menu.

Thus a traditional website is good only where no substantial modification or addition is needed after the website is set up. Such a setup is not good for advertisement income on the internet because static sites find it impossible to compete with dynamic sites that keep adding to their content.

What Is A Blog: Blogs were originally developed as dynamic sites where the owner could add material, and revise it, without technical hurdles. These blogs also provided a facility for readers to interact with the blog owner through comments. No FTP was required for anything after the blog was set up.

Once blogs came into existence, numerous people discovered the advantages of such software. No FTP was required and all the housekeeping such as creating links to new articles, updating the menu, formatting the article, etc. was automatically done by the blog software. This saved the owner much time, while at the same time it increased the reliability and integrity of the entire site. This realization made them to develop newer blog software that were more rugged, reliable, flexible and easy to us. One of them is WordPerfect which I strongly recommend in all my course material.

How Does A Blog Function: Most blog software is free. They are coded in PHP which is a highly reliable language. The PHP-based software keeps all its data in a database known as SQL (mostly MySQL) which is again a rugged program. What is more, the PHP program that forms the blog is able to access the data only if it has a username and password. Thus a blog software offers several levels of protection. One has to log into the program to use administrative functions. The program itself has to login to the database to use it. This double layer of protection makes it difficult to hack your blog (though it is not impossible. There are no impossibles in the world of hacking).

Once the blog is set up, one can post information the way one writes an email simply by logging into the website. Material already posted can also be revised in this way. One does not have to worry about the menu and the links. Users can easily post comments.

You can change the appearance by changing the “theme”. Thousands of free themes are available for WordPress.  If you choose a good theme, it will give you plenty of strategic positions to display your advertisements.

Thus a blog is a dynamic website that helps you establish a site that you can change arbitrarily, which increases your competitiveness and ultimately brings in better advertisement revenue.

If you are looking for a suitable tool to host a blog site then believe me, nothing can give you a better option than a B2Evolution software package. Going beyond traditional blogging tools, this software can offer you a range of other unusual features that add to the uniqueness to your blog site.

Multiple user/multiple author/ multilingual support

First of all, it supports a multi user, multiple authors set up.

By installing the software for once the software helps organize your blog in a way that each blog has its own set of member users. Thus, you can take the decision as to who gets to write on a particular blog.

On a more advanced level, certain readers can be denied access to particular posts.

To top it all, full user management is included in the software.

RSS feed enabled

Content syndication is one of the most prominent features of today’s blogging behavior. This is a process of article sharing among several related sites. But it is not essential that the full article should be circulated. Through the RSS feed, you can get to see the title and the source of the article. The source link can take you the original article.

The B2evolution has built-in RSS feed support. It also has Atom feeds for both posts and comments.

Thus the readers can get to see your RSS feeds and subscribe to your site.

With B2Evolution, it is possible to assign separate feeds for each individual blog on your site. Alternatively it is also possible to get a feed containing all the blogs on your site by subscribing to the ‘Blog All RSS feed’.

Digging

Another recent blog-culture involves ‘digging’ of the articles. With the help of a plugin called, AstonishMe Digg Plugin, it is possible to add Digg buttons to your posts by simply checking a box in the Write tab. This allows you and your readers to dig the stories.

Advanced categorization

Another feature helping in advanced blogging relates to complex categorization of contents. This system allows for categorizing and sub-categorizing of the posts/news items by subject or theme.

However, with this software it is also possible to assign multiple categories to each post.

The additional features include: an integrated XHTML validator, supports recursive subcategories, cross posting and has an integrated skinning system.

The end result is: you get blog software that runs easily on almost any web hosting service, generates web pages dynamically from the MySQL database, without any hassle of ‘rebuilding’. Also without running into any hassle, you can add to your site different ’templates’ or ’skins’ from time to time. It also comes with faster search/display capabilities and makes for the most comprehensive blog engine you could ever find.

In the part of the decade, the online world was fused to a new form of authors. These were the first crusaders of blogging. It was not long before WordPress blogs started showing up all over the world. With its powerful website CMS that enabled better blogging systems and a more intuitive interface, WordPress soon become the blogging software of choice.WordPress was often just seen as blogging software. Few seen it as anymore than just a way to post a few personal notes. It was basically the first twitter. But an increasing number of marketers are finding that you can also use to create a tremendous amount of money in a very short amount of time. The most powerful function of WordPress lies in its ability to manage large amounts of text, audio and video content. After a dozen pages it becomes difficult to manage a static HTML site. Although you can use template-driven software as well like SBI or DreamWeaver, nothing beats the ease of WordPress.When it comes to ease of use, you will find no other software that can beat it. In its native form, it does come with some useful tools and you can find a lot of useful free plugins that can increase it usefulness. Yet there is nothing that can come close to using premium blogging tools which easily transform the creation of a static website, an article directory, a Wordpress based membership site system, a complete e-commerce site, an auction sites, a portfolio site and so much more. As a matter of fact you can also just about use it for anything. SEO, no worries, there are even premium themes created that can box with the best of them. Google is pleased. Search Engine Optimization is another important element. By default, WordPress is pretty good at optimizing and creating SEO friendly content. However you can also get more serious and utilize simple WordPress plugins to further increase your SEO rankings and get better Yahoo or Google rankings.Flexibility is one of its main strengths. Within minutes you can switch between hundreds of themes, plugins and widgets. You can do this all for free. Is there any software on the market that can boast free plugins, themes and widgets?If you aren’t using WordPress, then I have one questions for you. Why not? The learning curve has reduced substantially in the past 3 years. A newbie can easily setup a blog within minutes. I am not kidding when I say in minutes, because when I first started blogging, I knew nothing about WordPress. It took me about 30 minutes to get my WordPress installed and publish my first post.

2009 and 2010 will be a new era for WordPress. The future of blogging will be WordPress. If you do a search on the internet you will find so many programs and systems that are geared to the success of someone using WordPress. Developers are creating some amazing software that can literally do anything you want with it. No matter your needs or ideas, there is a plugin that can make it happen. Some are paid and others are free, but none the less it can be done and it can be done well.

Whether one should go for a conventional website or the modern blog setup for one’s income generation site is a recurring question. My unwavering answer is: opt for the blog software unless you have a compelling reason to opt for the conventional website setup. Here is the reason:Why Prefer Blog Software: Blogs were invented for writing personal journals, but the format has become so popular that thousands of people around the world have developed new and highly refined blog softwares that are totally free. These programs offer numerous advanced facilities, user-support from the developer and user-community and also numerous add ons.What Are Add-ons: Most blog softwares are very versatile. However, the programmers realize that given an opportunity, others can add to the functionality. Thus most blog software offer a facility for “plugins” which are software developed by others and which can be “plugged in” to the original software.  These add-ons or plugins are easy to add, and offer numerous facilities.Which Blog Software: Several free software are available, but I would strongly recommend WordPress because if the ease of installation, ease of use, and the unbelievable range of plugins available totally free. What is more,  thousands of free themes are available which means that you can almost always find a theme that suits your purpose.Which Version of WorPerfect: Each new version of WordPerfect comes with added facilities but the installation remains easy. What is more, even the webmasters control-panel is easy, and has been becoming easier and more user friendly with newer versions. So go for the latest version and download it from www.WordPress.orgWhich Add-ons (Plugins) To Use: There are thousands of plugins, and it is better for you to choose them after you have some experience with the blog first. Needs vary and so do the plugins. The WordPress site maintains a good list of plugins.Which Theme: There are thousands of themes and  you can locate them either by going to the WordPress site or through a net-search. However, I wish to sound two notes of caution. First, do not go for the more flashy type of themes because they are slow to load and divert the attention to themselves from the product itself. Second, prefer a normal three-column theme because ads when displayed on both sides give maximum exposure and maximum click-through.Persist: Please remember that persisting with two to three selected blogs is the key. While you might see click-through from the start, it takes a little time to grow. It takes 12 to 26 months on a well-executed blog for ad-income to cross the satisfactory barrier. Count this time as essential investment. Give another 12 months for it to attain a level that can be called exciting. Persist and you will surely win!