Blog hosting options

[Sweetbriar]

I've gotten approval to start a blog for our local Navy League chapter and am looking for recommendations or warnings. I've got my own personal blog at blogspot and it was a breeze to set up, but of course I haven't done much with it yet. (It's private, google won't help you find it.)

I just got back into town tonight, so I wanted to throw the question out ASAP. It has to be set up by the middle (Tuesday?) of next week to make the newsletter printing. Short notice, I know, but I thought I'd ask anyway.

Thanks
d

[Kyobanim]

Are you wanting your own domain or just a place to blog?

[Sweetbriar]

Just our own place to blog. I was a bit surprised that they approved it but I have a lively and gracioius advocate on the board who road it thru for me, I'm sure. I just took over the newsletter last quarter and I realised that there was so much more that we could publish and that timeliness was a real issue. Also, I'm quite keen that we could give more support to the Sea Cadets and Navy JROTC on the net because kids just naturally think that way now. If they could find their accomplishments being published on the web backed by the League, strangely enough that's probably more tangible props than an old fashioned newsletter.

I've got to have a blog that's easy to use, for my sake and a membership of retirees. The only concern they had other than editorial content was nothing to conflict with their 501(c)(3) status so there will be no outside advertising on it. I've never gone blog site shopping before, so I have no idea really what assets or pitfalls might be out there.

Oh, and I'm a Mac user, everyone else is PC. I don't know if that plays into anything or not. I've got a dual core Macbook and I have Vista set up with Parallels. They wanted me to do the newsletter with Publisher, and I gave it a week of my life.... watching that little blue circle spin, then watching it crash. Microsoft is hell. I had iWork overnighted to me, whipped thru the whole thing again in a day, and I don't want to do anything on the PC side of the house ever again if I can possibly avoid it.

And all that is more information than you asked for, isn't it?

[Kyobanim]

Yeah, way to much info, but that's ok. If you're not looking for your own domain, why not set up a blog on BlogSpot? You already know how to use that. Setting up the site to show in the search engines isn't that big a deal.

If you want to have your blog appear on your own domain, say like, navyleague.org I can point to you a few web host companies that have several blogs available to use.

I still think that blogspot is your best answer to getting started. If you decide later on that you want your blog on your own domain it's simple to set up.

I just set a blog up there and it seems to be pretty simple.

[Ambush Master]

PM Dan. He's the Webmaster here and hosts several other websites!!

Take care.
Martin